Editing Gilgit (section)

=== Buddhist era ===
{{Main|Patola Shahis}}
Gilgit was an important city on the Silk Road, along which Buddhism spread from South Asia to the rest of [[Asia]]. It is considered a Buddhism corridor, along which many Chinese monks came to Kashmir, to learn and to preach Buddhism.<ref name=Drew /> Two famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, [[Faxian]] and [[Xuanzang]], traversed Gilgit, according to their accounts.

[[File:Enthroned Buddha with inscription, Gilgit Kingdom, circa 600 CE.jpg|thumb|left|Enthroned Buddha of the [[Patola Shahis]], Gilgit Kingdom, circa 600 CE.<ref>{{cite web |title=Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/76445 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>]]
[[File:Kargah Buddha Gilgit Baltistan.jpg|thumb|The [[Kargah Buddha]] outside of Gilgit dates from around 700 [[Common era|C.E.]]]]
[[File:Henzal Stupa Gilgit.jpg|thumb|The ''Hanzal'' [[stupa]] dates from the Buddhist era.]]
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'' ({{zh|c=小勃律}}).<ref>{{Cite book
| title = Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of India–China Relations, 600–1400
| last = Sen
| first = Tansen
| publisher = Rowman & Littlefield
| date = 2015
| access-date = 2017-02-19
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gUt7CgAAQBAJ&q=gilgit&pg=PA24
| isbn = 978-1-4422-5473-2
}}</ref> They are believed to have been the [[Patola Shahis]] dynasty mentioned in a Brahmi inscription,<ref>{{Cite book
| title = A Grammar of the Shina Language of Indus Kohistan
| first1 = Ruth Laila
| last1 = Schmidt
| first2 = Razwal
| last2 = Kohistani
| date = 2008
| publisher = Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
| access-date = 2018-01-23
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mZzD86umtbAC&pg=PA1
| isbn = 978-3-447-05676-2
}}</ref> and are devout adherents of [[Vajrayana Buddhism]].<ref>{{Cite book
| title = Patronage, Devotion and Politics: A Buddhological Study of the Patola Sahi Dynasty's Visual Record
| last = Twist
| first = Rebecca L.
| publisher = Ohio State University
| date = 2007
| isbn = 978-3-639-15171-8
| access-date = 2017-02-19
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BdyyDAEACAAJ
}}</ref>

In mid-600s, Gilgit came under Chinese suzerainty after the fall of the [[Western Turkic Khaganate]] to the [[Tang campaigns against the Western Turks|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 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 their respective vassal states, until the mid-700s. Chinese records of the region continue until late the 700s, at which time the Tangs' western military campaign was weakened due to the [[An Lushan Rebellion]].<ref>{{Cite book
| last = Stein
| first = Mark Aurel
| author-link = Aurel Stein
| title = Ancient Khotan: Detailed Report of Archaeological Explorations in Chinese Turkestan
| publisher = [[Clarendon Press]]
| year = 1907
| location = Oxford, UK
| volume = 1
| pages = 4–18
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FaMMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA4
}}</ref>

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 people|Burusho]]" used today. Tibetan control of the region lasted until the late 800s CE.<ref>{{Cite journal
| title = A Tibetan Toponym from Afghanistan
| last = Mock
| first = John
| journal = Revue d'Études Tibétaines
| publisher = Centre national de la recherche scientifique
| issue = 27
| pages = 5–9
| date = October 2013
| access-date = 2018-01-22
| url = http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ret/pdf/ret_27_01.pdf
| issn = 1768-2959
}}</ref>

==== Gilgit manuscripts ====
This corpus of manuscripts was discovered in 1931 in Gilgit, containing many Buddhist texts such as four [[sutra]]s from the Buddhist canon, including the famous [[Lotus Sutra]]. The manuscripts were written on [[birch bark]] in the Buddhist form of [[Sanskrit]] in the [[Sharada script]]. They cover a wide range of themes such as [[icon]]ometry, [[Folklore|folk tales]], [[philosophy]], [[medicine]] and several related areas of life and general knowledge.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17935041 |title=BBC News – India: Rare Buddhist manuscript Lotus Sutra released |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=3 May 2012 |access-date=22 November 2013}}</ref>

The Gilgit manuscripts<ref name="Marwah">{{cite web
|author=Gyan Marwah
|work=The South Asian Magazine
|title=Gilgit Manuscript&nbsp;— Piecing Together Fragments of History
|url=http://www.the-south-asian.com/Aug2004/Gilgit_manuscript.htm
|location=Haryana, India|date=August 2004
|access-date=6 February 2014
}}</ref>
are included in the [[UNESCO]] [[Memory of the World]] register.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-3/gilgit-manuscript/|title=Gilgit Manuscript {{!}} United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization|website=unesco.org|language=en|access-date=2018-07-31}}</ref> They are among the oldest [[manuscript]]s in the world, and the oldest manuscript collection surviving in Pakistan,<ref name="Marwah" /> having major significance in [[Buddhist Studies|Buddhist studies]] and the evolution of [[Asian literature|Asian]] and [[Sanskrit literature]]. The manuscripts are believed to have been written in the 5th to 6th centuries AD, though more manuscripts were discovered from the succeeding centuries, which were also classified as Gilgit manuscripts.

Many of the original manuscripts from Gilgit can be found in the [[National Archives of India]] and the [[SPS Museum|Pratap Singh Museum]] in [[Srinagar]]. Two manuscripts collected by the orientalist [[Sir Aurel Stein]] are in the [[British Library]] in London.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://idpuk.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-gilgit-manuscript-at-british-library.html?m=1|title=IDP Blog – International Dunhuang Programme|website=idp.bl.uk/}}</ref> They include a rare paper version of the [[Lotus Sutra]].

As of 6 October 2014, one source claims that the part of the collection deposited at the Sri Pratap Singh Museum in [[Srinagar]] was irrecoverably destroyed during the [[2014 India–Pakistan floods]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-dna-exclusive-kashmir-floods-damage-2000-year-old-buddhist-treasures-2023160 |title=Kashmir floods damage 2000-year-old Buddhist treasures |website=www.dnaindia.com |date=3 October 2014 |access-date=6 October 2014}}</ref>

{{multiple image|perrow=3|total_width=900|caption_align=center
| align    = center
| direction =horizontal
| header=Gilgit manuscripts
| image1   = Buddhas, Gilgit, 627-628 CE.jpg
| image2   = Samghatasutra book cover, Gilgit, 627-628 CE.jpg
| image3   = Samghatasutra page, Gilgit, 627-628 CE.jpg
| footer=Buddhas, devotees with Buddhist deities on the painted cover from Manuscript 3, Saṃghāṭa Sūtra, with a sample page, commissioned by Devaśirikā and Atthocasiṃgha, 627-628 CE. Gilgit.<ref name="H2018">{{cite journal | doi=10.3390/h7040092 | doi-access=free | title=Images of the Crowned Buddha along the Silk Road: Iconography and Ideology | year=2018 | last1=Twist | first1=Rebecca L. | journal=Humanities | volume=7 | issue=4 | page=92 }}</ref><ref name="VH">{{cite web |last1=von Hinüber |first1=Oskar, Professor Emeritus, University of Freiburg |title=Bronzes of the Ancient Buddhist Kingdom of Gilgit |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/collections/asian/bronzes-of-ancient-gilgit |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>
}}