Gilgit

Etymology

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

Main article: History of Gilgit-Baltistan

Early history

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.

Buddhist era

Main article: 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 ().{{Cite book | access-date = 2017-02-19 | access-date = 2018-01-23 | access-date = 2017-02-19

In mid-600s, Gilgit came under Chinese suzerainty after the fall of the Western Turkic Khaganate to the Tang military campaigns in the region. In the late 600s CE, the rising Tibetan Empire wrested control of the region from the Chinese. However, faced with growing influence of the Umayyad Caliphate and then the Abbasid Caliphate to the west, the Tibetans were forced to ally themselves with the Islamic caliphates. The region was then contested by the Chinese and Tibetan forces, and their respective vassal states, until the mid-700s. Chinese records of the region continue until late the 700s, at which time the Tangs' western military campaign was weakened due to the An Lushan Rebellion.{{Cite book | author-link = Aurel Stein

Control of the region was left to the Tibetan Empire. They referred to the region as Bruzha, a toponym that is consistent with the ethnonym "Burusho" used today. Tibetan control of the region lasted until the late 800s CE.{{Cite journal | access-date = 2018-01-22

Gilgit manuscripts

This corpus of manuscripts was discovered in 1931 in Gilgit and contains numerous Buddhist texts, including four sutras from the Buddhist canon, most notably the Lotus Sutra. The manuscripts were written on birch bark in the Buddhist form of Sanskrit in the Sharada script. They cover a wide range of themes such as iconometry, folk tales, philosophy, medicine, and several related areas of life and general knowledge.

The Gilgit manuscripts{{cite web |access-date=6 February 2014 are included in the UNESCO Memory of the World register. They are among the oldest manuscripts in the world, and the oldest manuscript collection surviving in Pakistan, having major significance in Buddhist studies and the evolution of Asian and Sanskrit literature. The manuscripts are believed to have been written in the 5th to 6th centuries AD, though more manuscripts were discovered from the succeeding centuries, which were also classified as Gilgit manuscripts.

Many of the original manuscripts from Gilgit can be found in the National Archives of India and the Pratap Singh Museum in Srinagar. Two manuscripts collected by the orientalist Sir Aurel Stein are in the British Library in London. They include a rare paper version of the Lotus Sutra.

As of 6 October 2014, one source claims that the part of the collection deposited at the Sri Pratap Singh Museum in Srinagar was irrecoverably destroyed during the 2014 India–Pakistan floods.

Pre-Trakhàn

Trakhàn Dynasty

Main article: Trakhan dynasty

Gilgit was ruled for centuries by the local Trakhàn Dynasty, which ended about 1810 with the death of Raja Abas, the last Trakhàn Raja. The rulers of Hunza and Nager also claim origin with the Trakhàn dynasty. They claim descent from a heroic Kayani Prince of Persia, Azur Jamshid (also known as Shamsher), who secretly married the daughter of the king Shri Badat.

She conspired with him to overthrow her cannibal father. Sri Badat's faith is theorised as Hindu by some and Buddhist by others.

Prince Azur Jamshid succeeded in overthrowing King Badat who was known as the Adam Khor (literally "man-eater"), often demanding a child a day from his subjects, his demise is still celebrated to this very day by locals in traditional annual celebrations. In the beginning of the new year, where a Juniper procession walks along the river, in memory of chasing the cannibal king Sri Badat away.

Azur Jamshid abdicated after 16 years of rule in favour of his wife Nur Bakht Khatùn until their son and heir Garg, grew of age and assumed the title of Raja and ruled, for 55 years. The dynasty flourished under the name of the Kayani dynasty until 1421 when Raja Torra Khan assumed rulership. He ruled as a memorable king until 1475. He distinguished his family line from his stepbrother Shah Rais Khan (who fled to the king of Badakshan, and with whose help he gained Chitral from Raja Torra Khan), as the now-known dynastic name of Trakhàn. The descendants of Shah Rais Khan were known as the Ra'issiya Dynasty.

1800s

The area had been a flourishing tract but prosperity was destroyed by warfare over the next fifty years, and by the great flood of 1841 in which the river Indus was blocked by a landslip below the Hatu Pir and the valley was turned into a lake. After the death of Abas, Sulaiman Shah, Raja of Yasin, conquered Gilgit. Then, Azad Khan, Raja of Punial, killed Sulaiman Shah, taking Gilgit; then Tahir Shah, Raja of Buroshall (Nagar), took Gilgit and killed Azad Khan.

Tair Shah's son Shah Sakandar inherited, only to be killed by Gohar Aman, ethnic Kho Raja of Yasin of the Khushwakhte Dynasty when he took Gilgit. Then in 1842, Shah Sakandar's brother, Karim Khan, expelled Yasin rulers with the support of a Sikh army from Kashmir. The Sikh general, Nathu Shah, left garrison troops and Karim Khan ruled until Gilgit was ceded to Gulab Singh of Jammu and Kashmir in 1846 by the Treaty of Amritsar, and Dogra troops replaced the Sikh in Gilgit.

Nathu Shah and Karim Khan both transferred their allegiance to Gulab Singh, continuing local administration. When Hunza attacked in 1848, both of them were killed. Gilgit fell to the Hunza and their Yasin and Punial allies but was soon reconquered by Gulab Singh's Dogra troops. With the support of Raja Gohar Aman, Gilgit's inhabitants drove their new rulers out in an uprising in 1852. Raja Gohar Aman then ruled Gilgit until his death in 1860, just before new Dogra forces from Ranbir Singh, son of Gulab Singh, captured the fort and town.

In the 1870s Chitral was threatened by Afghans, Maharaja Ranbir Singh was firm in protecting Chitral from Afghans, the Mehtar of Chitral asked for help. In 1876 Chitral accepted the authority of Jammu Clan and in reverse get the protection from the Dogras who have in the past took part in many victories over Afghans during the time of Gulab Singh Dogra.

British Raj

Main article: Gilgit Agency

In 1877, in order to guard against the advance of Russia, the British India Government, acting as the suzerain power of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, established the Gilgit Agency. The Agency was re-established under control of the British Resident in Jammu and Kashmir. It comprised the Gilgit Wazarat; the State of Hunza and Nagar; the Punial Jagir; the Governorships of Yasin, Kuh-Ghizr and Ishkoman, and Chilas.

The Tajiks of Xinjiang sometimes enslaved the Gilgiti and Kunjuti Hunza.

In 1935, the British India government demanded from the Jammu and Kashmir state to lease them Gilgit town plus most of the Gilgit Agency and the hill-states Hunza, Nagar, Yasin and Ishkoman for 60 years.

Abdullah Sahib was an Arain and belonged to Chimkor Sahib village of Ambala district Punjab, British India. Abdullah Sahib was the first Muslim governor of the Gilgit in British time period and was close associate of Maharaja Partap Singh.

Khan Bahadur Kalay Khan, a Mohammed Zai Pathan, was the Governor of Gilgit Hunza and Kashmir before partition.

1947 Kashmir war

Main article: Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948, 1947 Gilgit rebellion

On 26 October 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, signed the Instrument of Accession, joining India. The tribal invasion by Pakistan was not simply a tribal invasion. Pakistani Major General Akbar Khan has given account of the invasion in his book Raiders in Kashmir. General Akbar Khan, then serving as a colonel in the Pakistan army, has described at least four meetings with Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to discuss the planning and conduct of the operations. Justice Muhammad Yusuf Saraf, at the time a Muslim Conference activist, has pointed out that such a major operation could not have been launched without Jinnah's knowledge and approval. The 'Azad Forces' that were part of the so-called tribal invasion were led by Pakistan army officers, and the UNCIP report records Pakistan's admission that they were under Pakistan's 'tactical command'.

Gilgit's military leaders did not favour the State's accession to India. However, there was also written evidence of Gilgit troop leaders wanting to set up an independent Islamic state. Major William Brown in his book Gilgit Rebellion describes the Gilgit troop leaders stating, "We know of course that you are loyal to Pakistan-all Britishers are-but it is not our intention to join Pakistan. We intend to set up an independent Islamic State called the United States of Gilgit, and although we shall keep the friendliest relation with Pakistan we shall in no way owe allegiance to that dominion." The military leaders of the Frontier Districts Province (modern day Gilgit-Baltistan) wanted to join Pakistan. Sensing their discontent, Major William Brown, the Maharaja's commander of the Gilgit Scouts, mutinied on 1 November 1947, overthrowing the Governor Ghansara Singh. The bloodless coup d'etat was planned by Brown to the last detail under the code name "Datta Khel", which was also joined by a rebellious section of the Jammu and Kashmir 6th Infantry under Mirza Hassan Khan. Brown ensured that the treasury was secured and minorities were protected. A provisional government (Aburi Hakoomat) was established by the Gilgit locals with Raja Shah Rais Khan as the president and Mirza Hassan Khan as the commander-in-chief. However, Major Brown had already telegraphed Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan asking Pakistan to take over. The Pakistani political agent, Khan Mohammad Alam Khan, arrived on 16 November and took over the administration of Gilgit. Brown outmaneuvered the pro-Independence group and secured the approval of the mirs and rajas for accession to Pakistan. Browns's actions surprised the British Government.

The provisional government lasted 16 days. The provisional government lacked sway over the population. The Gilgit rebellion did not have civilian involvement and was solely the work of military leaders, not all of whom had been in favor of joining Pakistan, at least in the short term. Historian Ahmed Hasan Dani mentions that although there was lack of public participation in the rebellion, sentiments were intense in the civilian population and their anti-Kashmiri sentiments were also clear. According to various scholars, the people of Gilgit as well as those of Chilas, Koh Ghizr, Ishkoman, Yasin, Punial, Hunza and Nagar joined Pakistan by choice.

Geography

Gilgit is situated in a valley formed by the confluence of the Indus River, Hunza River, Astore River and Gilgit River.

Climate

Gilgit experiences a cold desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWk). Weather conditions for Gilgit are dominated by its geographical location, a valley in a mountainous area, southwest of Karakoram range.

Gilgit lacks significant rainfall, averaging in 120 to annually, as monsoon breaks against the southern range of Himalayas. Irrigation for land cultivation is obtained from the rivers, abundant with melting snow water from higher altitudes.

The summer season is brief and hot, with daily high temperatures occasionally peaking at over 40 C. As a result of this extremity in the weather, landslides and avalanches are frequent in the area.{{cite web |access-date=11 June 2009 |Jan record high C = 17.5 |Feb record high C = 22.0 |Mar record high C = 29.4 |Apr record high C = 37.2 |May record high C = 41.5 |Jun record high C = 43.5 |Jul record high C = 46.3 |Aug record high C = 43.8 |Sep record high C = 41.6 |Oct record high C = 36.0 |Nov record high C = 28.0 |Dec record high C = 24.5 |year record high C = 46.3 |Jan record low C = -10.0 |Feb record low C = -8.9 |Mar record low C = -3.0 |Apr record low C = 1.1 |May record low C = 3.9 |Jun record low C = 5.1 |Jul record low C = 10.0 |Aug record low C = 9.8 |Sep record low C = 3.0 |Oct record low C = -2.5 |Nov record low C = -8.5 |Dec record low C = -11.1 |year record low C = −11.1

Climate Change Effects

Main article: 2022 Gilgit-Baltistan floods

Climate change has adversely affected this region with more rains every year. On 26 August 2022, most villages in Ghizer district and Hunza were severely affected by the ongoing flooding displacing many people.

Administration

The city of Gilgit constitutes a tehsil within Gilgit District. Gilgit District itself is the part of the larger Gilgit Division which is headed by a Commissioner of BPS-20 belonging to Pakistan Administrative service. The Current Commissioner Gilgit Division is Mr Najeem Alam (PAS).

Transportation

Air

Gilgit is served by the nearby Gilgit Airport, with direct flights to Islamabad. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is the only airline operating in Gilgit. The Government of Pakistan is planning to build a new international standard airport in Gilgit to meet the requirements of international tourists and demand from domestic investors.{{Cite news |access-date =27 May 2021

Road

Gilgit is located approximately 10 km from the Karakoram Highway (KKH). The roadway is being upgraded as part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor. The KKH connects Gilgit to Chilas, Dasu, Besham, Mansehra, Abbottabad and Islamabad in the south. Gilgit is connected to Karimabad (Hunza) and Sust in the north, with further connections to the Chinese cities of Tashkurgan, Upal and Kashgar in Xinjiang. Gilgit is also linked to Chitral in the west, and Skardu to the east. The road to Skardu will be upgraded to a 4-lane road at a cost of $475 million.

Transport companies such as the Silk Route Transport Pvt, Masherbrum Transport Pvt and Northern Areas Transport Corporation (NATCO ), offer passenger road transport between Islamabad, Gilgit, Sust, and Kashgar and Tashkurgan in China.

The Astore-Burzil Pass Road, linking Gilgit to Srinagar was closed in 1978.

Rail

Gilgit is not served by any rail connections. Long-term plans for the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor call for construction of the 682 km long Khunjerab Railway, which is expected to be completed in 2030, that would also serve Gilgit.

File:KKH.png|Route of the Karakoram Highway File:Hunza Tunnel.jpg|Tunnels are common in Gilgit

Education

• Karakoram International University Gilgit

Basic facilities

Gilgit has not received a gas pipeline infrastructure since Pakistan's independence, unlike other cities. Through the importation of gas cylinders from other provinces, many private gas contractors offer gas cylinders. The LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) Air Mix Plant project by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited was unveiled in 2020, with the goal of bringing the gas facility to Gilgit. This will significantly reduce deforestation, as the public now uses wood from trees for heating and lighting purpose. The first head office has been built in Gilgit.

Severe flash floods in Gilgit-Baltistan have exposed critical infrastructure failures, with residents in Diamer, Danyor, and Ghanche districts facing acute shortages of drinking water, electricity, road access, and communication. Despite repeated appeals, local authorities have failed to restore basic services, prompting threats of public protests. The crisis underscores ongoing administrative neglect and inadequate disaster response in the area.

Sister cities

• Skardu, Baltistan
• Kashgar, China (since May 2009) File:Polo Statue Located near APSACS Gilgit.jpg|This statue is made to show the spirit of the Polo Sport located at Jutial; however, it has since been removed. Polo is played every year in the Shandoor Valley. File:I Love Gilgit Sign.jpg|I Love Gilgit sign made to show patriotism towards the region File:Dumplings of Gilgit.jpg|Dumplings a.k.a. manto, are a widely eaten dish in the region

References

Citations

General sources

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