Ganokh, () locally called Ganishah, is a village in the

Kharmang District Kharmang District (Urdu:) is a district of Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan in the Kashmir#Dispute, disputed Kashmir region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute i ...

Baltistan Baltistan (); also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet, is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilgit-Baltistan and constitutes a northern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute bet ...

, Pakistan, close to the

Line of Control The Line of Control (LoC) is a military control line between the Indian and Pakistanicontrolled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary, but ser ...

with Indian-administered

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

. It is populated by

Brokpa The Brokpa (), sometimes referred to as Minaro, are a small ethnic group mostly found in the union territory of Ladakh, India around the villages of Dha and Hanu. Some of the community are also located across the Line of Control in Baltistan ...

s professing

Shia Islam Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...

Geography

The village of Ganokh consists of two census settlements, Gamba Ganokh and Goma Ganokh. Both lie in the valley of the Ganokh Nala, a tributary of the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

. The

(LOC) with

Indian-administered Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. The term has since ...

(

) run south of the valley, about along the Indus, on a ridge line that forms the watershed between the Ganokh Nala and the Ghargurdo and Yaldor Nalas on the other. It continues on to the

Chorbat La Chorbat Valley (, ) is a section of the Shyok river valley divided between Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and Indian-administered Ladakh. The Pakistan-administered portion is in the Khaplu tehsil of Ghanche District in Gilgit–Baltista ...

pass.

Demographics

Ganokh is populated by

s professing

. According to a 2022 news report, it is the only village in Pakistan where the

Brokskat __NOTOC__ Brokskat () or Minaro is an endangered Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Brokpa people in the lower Indus Valley of Ladakh and its surrounding areas. It is the oldest surviving member of the ancient Dardic language. It is cons ...

language is spoken.

History

Historically, Ganokh and the adjacent regions were populated by

people. Folklore maintains that they arrived there from the

Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina language, Shina: ; ) is a city in Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kas ...

region through the Gavis valley (to the north of the Ganokh valley) and colonised Ganokh, Yaldor, and Hanu before spreading to Dha. Their chieftains wielded significant autonomy in the region, pledging nominal allegiance to the Maqpon rulers of Skardu. However, things changed in the seventeenth century when

Jamyang Namgyal Jamyang Namgyal ( Ladakhi: , Wylie: ''ʻjam dbyangs rnam rgyal'', died 1616) was a 17th-century Namgyal dynasty king (''gyalpo'') of Ladakh, India from 1595 till his death in 1616 AD. He was succeeded by his son Sengge Namgyal in the year 1616 ...

of Ladakh faced a conflict with

Ali Sher Khan Anchan Ali Sher Khan ( Balti: ཨལི་ཤེར་ཁན་ཨནཆན་།; 1580–1633), better known by his title Anchan ("the Great"), was the Maqpon king of Baltistan from 1595 to 1633. Considered greatest of the Balti rulers, Anchan unifi ...

of Skardu and had to accept Gurgurdho as a boundary between their territories. Consequently, Ganokh was integrated into Baltistan and became influenced by Shia Islam. Nevertheless, the local Brokpas continued to maintain marital relations with their ethnic kin in the

Dah Hanu region Aryan Valley, historically known as Dah Hanu region, is an area comprising four village clusters — Dah and Hanu in Leh district, and Garkon and Darchik in Kargil district — in Central Ladakh in India. It is inhabited by Brokpa people of Da ...

of Ladakh; cross-border trade also occurred, with the village serving as a tax collection post. Family connections ceased when the latter accepted Buddhism in c. late nineteenth century. In the aftermath of the

First Kashmir War First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

(1947–1948), Ganokh fell in Pakistan and became permanently inaccessible for Dah-Hanu Brokpas. During the 1999

Kargil War The Kargil War, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Ladakh, then part of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir (state), Jammu and Kashmir and along the Line of Control (LoC). In In ...

, the Ganokh valley provided a key infiltration route for Pakistani forces, through which they accessed the Dah-Hanu region. The ensuing shelling and fighting caused much loss of life and property in Ganokh; many had to be evacuated and remain

internally displaced An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee. I ...

even two decades after the war.

Notes

References

Bibliography