Editing Skardu (section)

=== Early history ===
[[File:The Manthal Buddha History Board.jpg|thumb|right|The Manthal Buddha History Board]]
[[File:Manthal Rock (Buddhist inscriptions), Skardu, Mix view.JPG|thumb|The [[Manthal Buddha Rock]] dates from the era when the region's population was Buddhist.]]
[[File:The Land of Giants, Deosai.jpg|thumb|At an average elevation of 4,114 metres (13,497 ft),<ref name="ÖztürkHakeem2015">{{citation |last=Ahmed |first=M. |chapter=Interdependence of Biodiversity, Applied Ethnobotony and Conservation |editor1=Münir Öztürk |editor2=Khalid Rehman Hakeem |editor3=I. Faridah-Hanum |editor4=Recep Efe |title=Climate Change Impacts on High-Altitude Ecosystems |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v1X1CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA456 |year=2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-12859-7 |page=456}}</ref> the nearby [[Deosai National Park|Deosai Plains]] form the world's second highest alpine plain.]]
The Skardu region was part of the cultural sphere of Buddhist [[Tibet]] as early as the founding of the [[Tibetan Empire]] under [[Songtsen Gampo]] in the mid 7th-century CE.<ref name="Dani">{{harvnb|Dani, The Western Himalayan States|1998|p=220}}</ref> Tibetan [[tantra|tantric]] scriptures were found all over [[Baltistan]] until about the 9th century.<ref name="Dani" /> Given the region's close proximity, Skardu remained in contact with tribes near [[Kashgar]], in what is now [[China]]'s westernmost province of [[Xinjiang]].<ref name="Dani-2">{{harvnb|Dani, The Western Himalayan States|1998|p=219}}</ref>

Following the dissolution of Tibetan suzerainty over Baltistan around the 9th–10th century CE,  Baltistan came under the control of the local [[Maqpon Dynasty]], a dynasty of [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] extraction,<ref name="Dani" /> which according to local tradition, is said to have been founded after a migrant from [[Kashmir]] named Ibrahim Shah married a local princess.<ref name="Dani" />