Gilgit (; Shina: ; ) is the capital and most-populous city in Pakistani-administered territory of Gilgit-Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region. It is located in the broad Gilgit Valley near the confluence of the Gilgit and the Hunza rivers. Gilgit is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a hub for trekking and mountaineering expeditions in the Karakoram mountain range of northern Pakistan.
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. The economic activity is mainly focused on agriculture, with wheat, maize, and barley as the main crops.
Etymology
The ancient name of the city was Sargin, later to be known as Gilit, and it is still referred to as Gilit or Sargin-Gilit, literally meaning the happy land of Gilgit in Shina. The name Gilit was corrupted to Gilgit during the Dogra regime. The local people refer to the city as Gilt, and in Burushaski, it is called Geelt.
History
Early history
thumb|The [[Kargah Buddha outside of Gilgit dates from around 700 C.E.]]
Brokpas trace their settlement in the fertile villages of Ladakh from Gilgit. They have a rich corpus of hymns, songs, and folklore that have been passed down through generations. The Dards and Shins 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.
Gilgit was an important city on the Silk Road, along which Buddhism spread from South Asia to the rest of Asia. Buddhism was practiced in Gilgit in the past. Two famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, Faxian and Xuanzang, traversed Gilgit, according to their accounts.
Medieval history
left|thumb|Enthroned Buddha of the [[Patola Shahis, Gilgit Kingdom, circa 600 CE.]]
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 (). They are believed to have been the Patola Shahi dynasty mentioned in a Brahmi inscription, and were devout adherents of Vajrayana Buddhism.
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.
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.
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 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,
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.
Trakhan dynasty
According to John Biddulph:
Until the early 19th century Gilgit was ruled by Trakhan dynasty. A tradition traces their descent from a legendary prince of Persia, Azur Jamshid, who is said to have fled from his homeland and married Nur Bakht Khatun, the daughter of king Shri Badat of legendary Shareis dynasty. Sri Badat's faith is theorised as Hindu by some and Buddhist by others. Shri Badat was known as 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.