Baltistan Baltistan Baltistan (, also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet (), is a mountainous region on the border of Pakistan Controlled Kashmir and Indian Controlled Kashmir in the Karakoram mountains just south of K2 (the world's second-highest mountain). Baltistan borders Gilgit to the west, Xinjiang (China) in the north, Ladakh on the southeast and the Kashmir Valley on the southwest. Its average altitude is over . Prior to 1947, Baltistan was part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, having been conquered by Raja Gulab Singh's armies in 1840. Baltistan and Ladakh were administered jointly under one "wazarat" (district)
Balti language "Byaltae" from , which, in Tibetan, means "water gorge." The historian Ptolemy, also a general in the army of Alexander the Great, named the region "Byaltae" in his book. In fact, Baltistan is the Persian translation of "Baltiyul", "homeland of Balti." Balti people are settled on both banks of the Indus River from Kargil district in the east to Haramosh Peak in the west and from the Karakoram in the north to Deosai National Park in the south. The Balti ethnicity is primarily Tibetan in origin, with some Dardic admixture. Balti is a Tibetic language. In some rural areas, the