Gilgit: History
=== Early history ===
Brokpas trace their settlement in the fertile villages of Ladakh back to 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 area, 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.
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 (Chinese: 小勃律). They are believed to have been the Patola Shahi dynasty mentioned in a Brahmi inscription, and were devout adherents of Vajrayana Buddhism.
In the 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 the 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 along with their respective vassal states, until the mid-700s. Chinese records of the region continue until late the 700s, at which time the Tang 's 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. Tibetan control of the region lasted until the late 800s CE. The region under the Patola Shahis had a vibrant Buddhist culture, as evidenced by the corpus of Gilgit manuscripts.
According to John Biddulph:The period of greatest prosperity was probably under the Shin Ras, whose rule seems to have been peaceable and settled. The whole population, from the rich to the poorest subjects lived by agriculture. According to tradition, Shri Buddutt's rule extended over Chitral, Yassin, Tangir, Darel, Chilas, Gor, Astor, Hunza, Nagar, and Haramosh all of which were held by tributary princes of the same family.
Until the early 19th century, Gilgit was ruled by the 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 the legendary Shareis dynasty. Sri Badat's faith is theorized to be 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. At beginning of the new year, a Juniper procession walks along the river, in memory of chasing the cannibal king Sri Badat away. …