Balti Culture: Traditions of Baltistan

Balti culture is the culture of the Balti people, a Tibetic ethnic group who are the main population of Baltistan in northern Pakistan. It is one of the country's few living links to Tibet: a language closer to Classical Tibetan than anything spoken in Lhasa today, timber mosques and forts on rock outcrops, a midwinter fire festival older than Islam in the region, and polo, a game whose English name comes from the Balti word for ball.

Visitors to Skardu, Shigar and Khaplu meet all of this without always being told what they are looking at. This guide gives the background and says where each part of it can be seen.

Tibetan roots

Baltistan's own name for itself is Balti-yul, "land of the Baltis", and "Baltistan" is the Persian form of it. The older outside name was Little Tibet. The region came under the Tibetan kings in the late 7th century, and its people, who had followed the Bön religion, took up Tibetan Buddhism, building monasteries and stupas. The carved Buddha at Manthal above Skardu, thought to date from about the 8th century, is the best-known survival of that period.

For centuries afterwards Baltistan was a set of small valley kingdoms, each under its own raja, linked by marriage and trade. The Maqpon rulers of Skardu were the strongest. The greatest of them, Ali Sher Khan Anchan, who ruled from 1595 to 1633, pushed his borders into Ladakh in the east and as far as Chitral in the west. The Dogra armies of Jammu conquered the region in 1840, and it passed to Pakistan in the war of 1947 to 1948. Our history of Baltistan tells the story in full.

Language

Balti is a Tibetic language, a sister of Ladakhi, and linguists describe it as highly archaic: it keeps sounds of Old Tibetan that standard Tibetan has lost. It is spoken across Skardu, Shigar, Ghanche, Roundu and Kharmang, and across the Line of Control in Kargil and Turtuk.

It was written in Tibetan script between the 8th and 16th centuries. Today almost everything is written in Perso-Arabic script, to which the scholar Yusuf Hussain Abadi added seven letters in 1985 to fit Balti sounds, and the Quran has been translated into it. Urdu is understood everywhere and English is common in tourism. Our Balti language guide has useful words.

Religion

Islam reached Baltistan around the 14th century, mainly through Sufi missionaries; local tradition credits Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani of Kashmir. The Noorbakhshi Sufi order carried the faith further, and most Baltis had converted by the end of the 17th century.

Today roughly 60 per cent of Baltis are Shia, about 30 per cent follow the Noorbakhshi order, which survives almost nowhere else, and about 10 per cent are Sunni. Traces of older belief remain in customs and festivals. For visitors, the practical points are that Muharram is observed widely and solemnly, and that dress and behaviour are conservative, especially in villages.

Architecture

Balti building mixes Tibetan, Kashmiri and Persian ideas. The old mosques are cubes of stacked timber frames filled with clay, a method suited to hard winters, with carved woodwork and a turret on top where a mosque elsewhere would have a dome. Four places show the style well.

• Kharpocho Fort, Skardu. "King of forts", on the rock above the meeting of the Indus and Shigar rivers. Ali Sher Khan Anchan built the first fort at the end of the 16th century. The Dogra general Zorawar Singh stormed and razed it in 1840, and a garrison held out here in 1948 until 14 August.
• Shigar Fort. Fong Khar, the "palace on the rock", built in the 17th century by the Amacha rajas of Shigar. It was restored between 1999 and 2004 and now runs as a museum and heritage hotel; the work won a UNESCO Asia-Pacific heritage award in 2006.
• Khaplu Palace. Yabgo Khar, built in 1840 for the raja of Khaplu and restored between 2005 and 2011. It also houses a hotel and a museum of Balti history.
• The old mosques. Chaqchan Mosque in Khaplu dates from 1370 and is one of the oldest in the region. Amburiq Mosque in Shigar, by tradition the first in that valley, was restored in 1998 to 2000 and won a UNESCO award in 2005. Both are in use, so dress modestly and ask before entering.

Polo

The English word "polo" comes from the Balti word for ball. The game has been played in Baltistan, Gilgit, Hunza and Chitral since at least the 15th or 16th century, and here it is a village sport, not a club one: fast, with few stoppages, and played to drums and the surna, a double-reed pipe.

Summer is the season. In Roundu people from across the district gather on the high pastures of Tormik, called Broq, to play. Fixtures are local and rarely announced far ahead, so ask your hotel what is on. Our polo in Gilgit-Baltistan guide has more.

Festivals

The clearest piece of pre-Islamic tradition on the calendar is Mayfung, held on 21 December to mark the end of the longest night and the Balti new year. The name joins the Balti words for fire and for throwing: people light bonfires on rooftops and hillsides, and children dance waving bundles of burning sticks, in the belief that fire keeps misfortune away. Its roots are traced to the Bön religion, and it is related to Losar, the Tibetan new year. Our guide to Mayfung covers it in full.

It falls in deep winter, so it takes planning to see: read our Skardu in winter guide first.

Food, crafts and everyday life

Food is at the centre of Balti hospitality. Dishes such as balay and kisir, and apricot in every form, are covered in our Balti food guide. Tea is offered to any guest, and refusing it outright is awkward; accept a cup.

Crafts include hand-woven woollen cloth and carved wooden spoons and bowls. Our guide to shopping in Skardu covers where to buy them. For the farming side of daily life, a walk to the village of Nangsoq below Kharpocho shows fields, orchards and water channels at close range.

How to experience Balti culture as a visitor

With one day, walk up to Kharpocho in the morning and see the Manthal Buddha in the afternoon. With two, add Shigar, about 30 km from Skardu, for the fort and Amburiq Mosque. With three or more, drive to Khaplu, about 92 km and two to two and a half hours each way, for the palace and Chaqchan Mosque. In summer, ask about polo wherever you are.

A few manners go a long way: greet people before asking for anything, ask before photographing anyone, especially women, dress modestly, and take off your shoes where your host does.

Our Skardu guide covers the town's main heritage sites, and our Skardu and Deosai itinerary builds in time at several of them.

Frequently asked questions