The valley states
Baltistan was not a single kingdom but a set of valley principalities — Skardu under the Maqpons was the largest, with Khaplu on the Shyok, Shigar on the road to the Baltoro glacier, Astor on the route to Kashmir, and the republic-like communities of Chilas on the Indus. Each was independent when it could be and tributary when it could not.
Their architecture is distinctive: timber-and-stone palaces and mosques in a Tibetan-derived idiom with Kashmiri carved woodwork, of which the Khaplu palace of the 1840s and the Shigar fort are the best preserved. Both were restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and are now in use.
Chilas was a country of village republics rather than a chiefship, and was known for resisting outside authority; the British campaigned there in the 1890s.
All were absorbed into Jammu and Kashmir after the Dogra conquest of 1840 and are now districts of Gilgit-Baltistan under Pakistani administration.
Further reading
- Asher, Catherine B. India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2006
- Jackson, Peter. The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History. Cambridge University Press, 1999
- Richards, John F. The Mughal Empire. Cambridge University Press, 1993
- Keay, John. India: A History. HarperCollins, 2000
- Kulke, Hermann. A History of India. Routledge, 2004
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.