Baltistan

The Katpana Cold desert, world's highest desert, located in Baltistan, Pakistan.

Baltistan or Baltiyul (Balti: སྦལཏི་ཡུལ།), also known as Nang-Kod (ནང་ཀོང) by the Tibetans and Tibet-i-Khurd (Little Tibet) by the Mughals, is a historical region in northeastern Pakistan. It borders Xinjiang Autonomous Region and Tibet of China. It lies in the Karakoram mountains just to the south of K2, the world's second highest mountain. It is an extremely mountainous region, with an average altitude of over 3,350 m (11,000 ft). It is inhabited principally by Balti Tibetan people following Islam.

Shigar fort, the seat of power of the Shigar Kingdom of Baltistan.

Baltistan has always been divided into many sovereign kingdoms and states ruled by different dynasties, like the Khaplu Kingdom ruled by the Yabgo dynasty and the Shigar Kingdom ruled by the Amacha dynasty. It was united under a single empire "Makpon Empire" by Gyalpo Ali Senge Anchan. In 1840 after the decline of Makpon Kingdom, Baltistan came under the Dogra rule, but the principalities of Shigar and Khaplu continued their nominal rule.

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  Karakorum Highway and Indus.
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  Map of the disputed region.
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  Dark blue Skardu, Ghanche, Shigar and Kharmang; Light blue Kargil.

Related pages

• Ladakh

Other websites

• The Changing Northern Areas Archived 2004-10-09 at the Wayback Machine
• Pakistan's Northern Areas dilemma
• Tourism Northeran Areas
• Pakistan's Northern Areas Archived 2004-01-07 at the Wayback Machine