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Concept
Gilgit
Summary
Gilgit (ˈɡɪlɡɪt; Shina: ; ˈɡɪlɡɪt) is a city in Pakistani-administered Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region. It is the capital of Gilgit-Baltistan, which is a Pakistani-administered administrative territory. The city is located in a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit River and the Hunza River. It is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a hub for trekking and mountaineering expeditions in the Karakoram mountain range.
Gilgit was once a major centre for Buddhism; it was an important stop on the ancient Silk Road, and today serves as a major junction along the Karakoram Highway with road connections to China as well as the Pakistani cities of Skardu, Chitral, Peshawar, and Islamabad. Currently, it serves as a frontier station for the local tribal areas. The city's economic activity is mainly focused on agriculture, with wheat, maize, and barley as the main produced crops.
The city's ancient name was Sargin, later to be known as Gilit, and it is still referred to as Gilit or Sargin-Gilit by the local people. The native Khowar and Wakhi-speaking people refer to the city as Gilt, and in Burushaski, it is called Geelt.
History of Gilgit-Baltistan
Brokpas trace their settlement from Gilgit into the fertile villages of Ladakh through a rich corpus of hymns, songs, and folklore that have been passed down through generations. The Dards and Shinas appear in many of the old Pauranic lists of people who lived in the region, with the former also mentioned in Ptolemy's accounts of the region.
Patola Shahis
Gilgit was an important city on the Silk Road, along which Buddhism spread from South Asia to the rest of Asia. It is considered a Buddhism corridor, along which many Chinese monks came to Kashmir, to learn and to preach Buddhism. Two famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, Faxian and Xuanzang, traversed Gilgit, according to their accounts.
According to Chinese records, in the 600s and 700s, the city was governed by a Buddhist dynasty referred to as Little Balur or Lesser Bolü ().
Official source
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