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55-792: Much of the Pamir Mountains lie in the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan . Spanning the border parts of four countries, to the south, they border the Hindu Kush mountains along Afghanistan 's Wakhan Corridor in Badakhshan Province , Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan regions of Pakistan . To the north, they join the Tian Shan mountains along the Alay Valley of Kyrgyzstan . To the east, they extend to

110-465: A flat plateau or U-shaped valley surrounded by mountains. It forms when a glacier or ice field melts leaving a rocky plain. A pamir lasts until erosion forms soil and cuts down normal valleys. This type of terrain is found in the east and north of the Wakhan , and the east and south of Gorno-Badakhshan, as opposed to the valleys and gorges of the west. Pamirs are used for summer pasture. The Great Pamir

165-550: A key marker of mobilization. La'al-e Badakhsan joined the United Tajik Opposition in 1997. Because of that, they were subsequently targeted by the popular front , which constituted the later government and then excluded from the political sphere of independent Tajikistan. The Gorno-Badakhshan government later backed down from its calls for independence. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union,

220-642: A number of non-Russians including Ney Elias , George Littledale , the Earl of Dunmore , Wilhelm Filchner and Lord Curzon who was probably the first to reach the Wakhan source of the Oxus River . In 1891 the Russians informed Francis Younghusband that he was on their territory and later escorted a Lieutenant Davidson out of the area ('Pamir Incident'). In 1892 a battalion of Russians under Mikhail Ionov entered

275-706: Is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan , in the Pamir Mountains . It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area but only two percent of its population. The official English name of the autonomous region is the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region. The name Badakhshan (from Russian : Бадахшан ; Tajik : Бадахшон ) is derived from the Sasanian title bēdaxš or badaxš . "Gorno-Badakhshan" literally means "mountainous Badakhshan" and

330-529: Is around Lake Zorkul . The Little Pamir is east of this in the far east of Wakhan. The Taghdumbash Pamir is between Tashkurgan and the Wakhan west of the Karakoram Highway . The Alichur Pamir is around Yashil Kul on the Gunt River . The Sarez Pamir is around the town of Murghab, Tajikistan . The Khargush Pamir is south of Lake Karakul . There are several others. The Pamir River is in

385-700: Is derived from the Russian name of the autonomous region, Gorno-Badakhshanskaya avtonomnaya oblast (literally Gorno-Badakshan autonomous oblast ). The Russian abbreviation "GBAO" is also commonly used in English-language publications by national and international bodies such as the government of Tajikistan and the United Nations . Borders and political authority in the Western Pamir had always been contested by imperial powers. Between

440-573: Is estimated at 226,900. The largest city in Gorno-Badakhshan is Khorog , with a population of 30,300 (2019 est. ); Murghob is the second largest, with about 4,000 residents. According to the State Statistical Committee of Tajikistan, most inhabitants of Gorno-Badakhshan identify as Pamiris . The remainder of the population perceive themselves as either Kyrgyz or of other nationalities. Most people living in

495-622: Is named after the wild onions growing in the region; In the Dungan dialect of Mandarin , it is written Памир / Цунлин in the Cyrillic alphabet , and in Xiao'erjing it is written پَامِعَر / ڞوْلٍْ . The name "Pamir" is used more commonly in Modern Chinese and loaned as 帕米尔 / 帕米爾 Pàmǐ'ěr . According to Middleton and Thomas, "pamir" is also a geological term. A pamir is

550-523: Is the longest glacier in the world outside of the polar regions . The maximum thickness of the glacier is 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), and the volume of the glacier and its dozens of tributaries is estimated at 144 cubic kilometres (35 cu mi)—about a third of the volume of Lake Erie . The glacier follows a generally northward path to the east of the 6,595-metre (21,637-foot) Garmo Peak . The glacier begins at an elevation of 6,200 metres (20,300 ft) and eventually melts and empties into

605-504: Is the highest location where bandy has been played. Fedchenko Glacier The Vanch-Yakh Glacier ( Russian : Ледник Федченко ; Tajik : Пиряхи Ванҷях ) is a large glacier in the Yazgulem Range , Pamir Mountains , of north-central Gorno-Badakhshan province, Tajikistan . The glacier is long and narrow, currently extending for 77 kilometres (48 mi) and covering over 700 square kilometres (270 sq mi). It

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660-516: Is the isolated region's main supply route. The Great Silk Road crossed a number of Pamir Mountain ranges. In December 2009, the New York Times featured articles on the possibilities for tourism in the Pamir area of Tajikistan. 2013 proved to be the most successful year ever for tourism in the region and tourism development continues to be the fastest growing economic sector. Historically,

715-403: Is widespread. Still, there are also Sunnis Muslims in Gorno-Badakhshan. The Tablighi Jama’at , a fundamentalist Sunni missionary movement conducted da'wa in the 2000s. The government banned and persecuted this movement among others as part of their wider campaign against non-state Islam. The Pamiris are increasingly being marginalilzed in linguistic and religious terms, as they deviate from

770-827: Is with the Districts of Republican Subordination (DRP) and the tip of its southwestern finger ( Darvoz District ) borders Khatlon Region . The highest elevations in the region are in the Pamir Mountains (notably Mount Imeon ), nicknamed "the roof of the world" by locals. Three of the five 7,000 meter summits in Central Asia are located here, including Ismoil Somoni Peak (formerly Communism Peak, and, before that, Stalin Peak; 7,495 m), Ibn Sina Peak (formerly Lenin Peak, and still known by that name on its Kyrgyz flank; 7,134 m), and Peak Ozodi (formerly Korzhenevskoi Peak, 7,105 m). The population living in Gorno-Badakhshan as of 2019

825-711: The Balandkiik River near the border with Kyrgyzstan at an elevation of 2,909 metres (9,544 ft). Its waters eventually feed down the Muksu , Surkhob , Vakhsh , and Amu Darya rivers into the Aral Sea . To the west is the Academy of Sciences Range , Mount Garmo , Ismoil Somoni Peak , Peak Korzhenevskaya , the headwaters of the Vanj River , and Yazgulyam River . To the south is Independence Peak and to

880-520: The British empire in 1896 denominated their shared border through the Pamir, which resulted in the creation of the Wakhan corridor , other regional powers like China and Afghanistan , but also the ruling elites of Badakhshan, Bukhara, Kashgaria and Kashmir equally worked for expending their influence in the Pamir. So, the Sarykol range has been demarked de facto as Eastern border in 1894 between

935-514: The Qing empire and the Russian empire . This imperial history still has relevance nowadays as it determined contemporary southeastern borders of the present-day autonomous region. The Tajikistani Badakhshan as distinctive polity with its contemporary Western borders and the Russian designation GBAO was created as autonomous republic in 1925. Later in 1929, this was changed to autonomous oblast , of

990-615: The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik SSR). The Soviet Orientalists' obsession with categorization of peoples led to the fixation of among others the identity category of Pamiris, or 'Mountain Tajiks' in the Soviet ethnogenesis. During the Soviet Union years, a lot of resources had been allocated to Gorno Badakhshan as borderland of the Soviet Union, for instance through privileged access to higher education and

1045-610: The Tajikistani Civil War broke out in 1992, the local government in Gorno-Badakhshan declared independence from Tajikistan. Many politically active Pamiris later joined the democratic political movement La’al-e Badakhshan during the Tajik Civil war, which demanded autonomy and democratic rule for the region. Regionalism was an important structuring factor in the Tajik Civil war, so that the Ismaili identity became

1100-573: The Vanj River valley, became extinct in the 19th century. There is a sizable population of Kyrgyz speakers in the Murghab district . Russian and Tajik are also widely spoken throughout Gorno-Badakhshan. Many Eastern-Iranian languages spoken in Gorno-Badakhshan are on the endangered list of the UNESCO. The majority religion in Gorno-Badakhshan is Ismaili Shi'ite and adherence to the Aga Khan

1155-582: The 17th and 19th century, several semi-self governing statelets, including Darwaz , Shughnun-Rushan and Wakhan , ruled over the territories that are today a part of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan and Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan . In the late 19th century, the emirates of Kokand and then Bukhara held political authority over the region until the Western Pamir was colonized by Russia , completed in 1896. Although Russia and

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1210-520: The 20th century, these mountains have been the setting for the Tajikistan Civil War , border disputes between China and the Soviet Union , establishment of military bases by the US, Russia, and India, and renewed interest in trade development and resource exploration. The Chinese government says it has resolved most of the disputes it had with Central Asian countries. Some researchers identify

1265-665: The 77 km (48 mi) long Fedchenko Glacier , the longest in the former USSR and the longest glacier outside the polar regions . Approximately 12,500 km (ca. 10%) of the Pamirs are glaciated. Glaciers in the Southern Pamirs are retreating rapidly. Ten percent of annual runoff is supposed to originate from retreating glaciers in the Southern Pamirs. In the North-Western Pamirs, glaciers have almost stable mass balances . Covered in snow during most of

1320-555: The Afghan border. Even though connectivity is promoted in Gorno-Badakhshan, as the "Golden gate of Tajikistan" local traders largely do not profit from the rise of trade. Instead logistic companies and elites from Dushanbe dominate the long-distance trade, as the Pamiris are increasingly excluded from central posts and have to obtain visas from Dushanbe to travel to China, which is very costly. In June 2022, after local protesters blocking

1375-582: The British and Russians agreed to an Afghan frontier along the Panj River. From 1871 to around 1893 several Russian military-scientific expeditions mapped out most of the Pamirs ( Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko , Nikolai Severtzov , Captain Dmitry Putyata and others. Later came Nikolai Korzhenevskiy ). Several local groups asked for Russian protection from Afghan raiders. The Russians were followed by

1430-572: The Eastern Pamirs, China's Kongur Tagh is the highest at 7,649 m (25,095 ft). Among the significant peaks of the Pamir Mountains are the following: Remark : The summits of the Kongur and Muztagata Group are in some sources counted as part of the Kunlun , which would make Pik Ismoil Somoni the highest summit of the Pamir. There are many glaciers in the Pamir Mountains, including

1485-522: The Ismaili development organization AKDN delivered supplies to Gorno-Badakhshan from Kyrgyzstan, which prevented the starvation of the population during the civil war. While the AKDN itself frames this engagement as temporary measure, many of the inhabitants demand a permanent presence of humanitarian aid. Many see it as continuation from the provisioning of goods during the Soviet times. This shared experience of Soviet and Ismaili development aid together with

1540-494: The Pamir Mountains were considered a strategic trade route between Kashgar and Kokand on the Northern Silk Road , a prehistoric trackway, and have been subject to numerous territorial conquests. The Northern Silk Road (about 2,600 km (1,616 mi) in length) connected the ancient Chinese capital Chang'an with Kashgar over the Pamir Mountains towards the west, and from there continued to ancient Parthia . In

1595-516: The Pamir are multilingual, as different languages are used in different situations. Gorno-Badakhshan is home to a number of distinct languages and dialects of the Pamir languages group. The Pamiri language speakers represented in Gorno-Badakshan are speakers of Shughni , Rushani , Wakhi , Ishkashimi , Sarikoli , Bartangi , Khufi , Yazgulyam , and Oroshani . Vanji , formerly spoken in

1650-582: The Pamirs with the Mount Meru or Sumeru. The Mount Meru is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Buddhist and Jain , and is considered to be the center of all the physical , metaphysical and spiritual universes. Gorno-Badakhshan 38°0′N 73°0′E  /  38.000°N 73.000°E  / 38.000; 73.000 Gorno-Badakhshan , officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region ,

1705-581: The Tajik military and militants loyal to the former warlord Tolib Ayombekov , after Ayombekov was accused of murdering a Tajik general. On 18 May 2022, around 200 anti-government demonstrators, led by Mamadboqir Mamadboqirov , blocked a road in Rushon which led to the regional capital Khorog . The violent clashes between Tajiikistani military and the GBAO population in 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021 and in 2022 are peaks in

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1760-631: The Wakhan River. There are various Arab and Chinese reports. Marco Polo may have travelled along the Panj River . In 1602 Bento de Goes travelled from Kabul to Yarkand and left a meager report on the Pamirs. In 1838 Lieutenant John Wood reached the headwaters of the Pamir River . From about 1868 to 1880, a number of Indians in the British service secretly explored the Panj area. In 1873

1815-534: The area and camped near the present Murghab . In 1893 they built a proper fort there ( Pamirskiy Post ). In 1895 their base was moved to Khorog facing the Afghans. In 1928 the last blank areas around the Fedchenko Glacier were mapped by a German-Soviet expedition under Willi Rickmer Rickmers. In the early 1980s, a deposit of gemstone -quality clinohumite was discovered in the Pamir Mountains. It

1870-499: The ceding of land belonging to Kuhistani Badakhshan in 2011 to China by some, especially in Gorno-Badakhshan was perceived as territorial loss and sparked anxieties about further encroachments of the Chinese state. A number of violent clashes and demonstrations have occurred in the region since the end of the civil war, with major incidences of civil unrest in 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021, and 2022. Clashes erupted on 24 July 2012 between

1925-481: The construction of infrastructure like the Pamir highway in 1935, which is still remembered nowadays as a time of modernity. Therefore, people from the Pamirs used to have facilitated upwards mobility and access to political offices in the Tajik SSR . In scholarly discourse, this is regarded as a measure to safeguard loyalty to state socialism of the subjects at the strategically important Soviet 'frontier'. When

1980-439: The east Gorbunov Peak (6,025 meters). To the north is Altyn Mazar . The glacier was discovered in 1878 and was named after Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko , a Russian explorer (but not the discoverer of the glacier). It was not fully explored until 1928 by a German-Soviet expedition under Willi Rickmer Rickmers . Between 1910 and 1913 the glacier expanded and moved forward by 800 to 1,000 metres (870 to 1,090 yd), blocking up

2035-419: The eastern half of the province and is mostly a desolate plateau with high mountains on the west. The districts of Gorno-Badakhshan are: Gorno-Badakhshan covers the entire eastern part of Tajikistan and borders China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to the east, Afghanistan's Badakhshan Province to the south, and Kyrgyzstan's Osh Region to the north. Within Tajikistan, Gorno-Badakhshan's western border

2090-603: The entire Pamir Mountains . However, the government of the Republic of China (ROC) based in Taipei does not recognize this treaty and continues to claim the territory, as reflected in its official maps. Whereas the government of Tajikistan celebrates the ceding of land as diplomatic victory, many Tajikistani scholars, opposition and parts of the population contest the existence of a 'dispute' altogether, seeing Badakhshan's territory in its entirety belonging to Tajikistan. Instead,

2145-414: The glacier snowline (ELA) as altitude limit between glacier nourishing area and ablation zone, was about 820 to 1250 metres lower than it is today. Under the condition of comparable proportions of precipitation there results from this a glacial depression of temperature of at least 5 to 7.5 °C. Coal is mined in the west, though sheep herding in upper meadowlands is the primary source of income for

2200-554: The many inhabitants of Gorno Badakhshan who do not speak Tajik to access state services. Facing this marginalization Pamiris express their distinctive identity against western Tajiks along secterian lines, even though there is considerable difference in ethnicity, religion and language amongst themselves. The First Secretary of the Gorno–Badakhshan Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Tajikistan

2255-544: The neglect and crackdown by the Tajik state led to people perceiving themselves as Pamiri rather than Tajik. In 2011, Tajikistan ratified a 1999 treaty to cede 1,000 km (390 sq mi) of land in the Pamir Mountains to the People's Republic of China (PRC), from the Chinese state perspective ending a 130-year-old border dispute and China's claims to over 28,000 km (11,000 sq mi) of Tajik territory. At other instances Chinese scholars claimed control over

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2310-640: The north-east through the Gez valley up to c.1850 m asl (meters above sea level) and thus as far as to the margin of the Tarim basin. This outlet glacier received inflow from the Kaiayayilak glacier from the Kongur north flank. From the north-adjacent Kara Bak Tor (Chakragil, c. 6800 or 6694 m) massif, the Oytag valley glacier in the same exposition flowed also down up to c. 1850 m asl. At glacial times

2365-925: The range that includes China 's Kongur Tagh , in the "Eastern Pamirs", separated by the Yarkand valley from the Kunlun Mountains . Since the Victorian era , they have been known as the " Roof of the World ", presumably a translation from Persian . The Pamir region is home to several different cultures, peoples and languages. In some of these languages, the Pamir Mountains are referred by different names. In Indo-European languages , they are called: In Turkic languages , they are called: In Chinese , they are referred as "Onion Range" ( simplified Chinese : 葱岭 ; traditional Chinese : 蔥嶺 ; pinyin : Cōnglǐng ; Wade–Giles : Ts'ung-ling ), which

2420-581: The region. The lapis lazuli found in Egyptian tombs is thought to come from the Pamir area in Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. About 138 BCE Zhang Qian reached the Fergana Valley northwest of the Pamirs. Ptolemy vaguely describes a trade route through the area. From about 600 CE, Buddhist pilgrims travelled on both sides of the Pamirs to reach India from China. In 747 a Tang army was on

2475-441: The road were imprisoned, some even killed, a Chinese company started the modernization of a Pamir highway section at the cost of US$ 200 million. In 2019, the European Union and Germany , in coordination with Tajikistan, committed 37 million euros to finance the construction of an 11 MW run-of-the-river hydro power plant along the Shokhdara river. The project is intended to also supply energy to Badakhshan, Afghanistan. Khorog

2530-420: The routes Khorog–Osh and Khorog–Dushanbe are both segments of the Pamir Highway . A third road was constructed through the Kulma Pass in 2004 by China in order to connect Khorog to Tashkurgan . Gorno-Badakhshan is separated from the Pakistani territories of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan by the narrow, but nearly impassable, Wakhan Corridor . Another road leads from Khorog to Wakhan and across

2585-405: The situation as 'ethnic cleansing'. Genocide watch is stressing the polarization and the persecution of Pamiris through the government. Darvoz District is the western "beak" of the province. West-central Gorno-Badakhshan is mostly a series of east–west mountain ranges separated by valleys of rivers that flow into the Panj . The districts correspond to the river valleys. Murghob District occupies

2640-421: The south-west of the Pamirs. The three highest mountains in the Pamirs core are Ismoil Somoni Peak (known from 1932 to 1962 as Stalin Peak, and from 1962 to 1998 as Communism Peak), 7,495 m (24,590 ft); Ibn Sina Peak (still unofficially known as Lenin Peak), 7,134 m (23,406 ft); and Peak Korzhenevskaya ( Russian : Пик Корженевской , Pik Korzhenevskoi ), 7,105 m (23,310 ft). In

2695-412: The steady militarization of the region. Spectators assess these actions by the government as strategy to gain full political control over the formerly autonomous Gorno-Badakhshan, as well as over the informal opium trade, culminating in the assassination of several influential local leaders. This violates the Tajik peace accord. In May 2022, Tajik government forces killed 40 civilians protesting against

2750-458: The torture and murdering of the youth representative Gulbiddin Ziyobekov. The Tajik interior ministry stated that the protestors attempted to "destabilise the social and political situation" in the region. Many of the protestors, but also journalists and human rights activists were detained in the subsequent cover-up. Additionally, the government seized properties and kidnapped even oppositional Pamiris abroad. Some human rights activists describe

2805-401: The vision for nationhood of the Tajik state. In 2009 the year of I'mam Hanafi Islam was celebrated, but a majority of Pamiris are followers of Ismaili Shia Islam . Subsequently, religious institutions had to be reregistered leaving all institution ousted not fitting the state's religious beliefs. The 2010 law on language requires all documents to be made in Tajik. This creates difficulties for

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2860-515: The western margin of the Tarim Basin an east–west extension of c. 200 km. Its north–south extension from King Ata Tagh up to the northwest Kunlun foothills amounts to c.170 km. Whilst the up to 21 km long current valley glaciers are restricted to mountain massifs exceeding 5600 m in height, during the last glacial period the glacier ice covered the high plateau with its set-up highland relief, continuing west of Mustagh Ata and Kongur. From this glacier area an outlet glacier has flowed down to

2915-455: The year, the Pamirs have long and bitterly cold winters , and short, cool summers , which equals an ET (tundra climate) according to Köppen climate classification ( EF above the snow line). Annual precipitation is about 130 mm (5 in), which supports grasslands but few trees . The East-Pamir, in the centre of which the massifs of Mustagh Ata (7620 m) and Kongur Tagh (Qungur Shan, 7578, 7628 or 7830 m) are situated, shows from

2970-421: Was the highest position in the region during the Soviet era. The chairman of the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region is the head of the regional government. They are appointed by the president of Tajikistan . During the 20th century, the Soviet modernity project to establish roads connections in the Pamir led to the communities becoming part of a transit district between Osh, Khorog and Dushanbe. Nowadays,

3025-409: Was the only such deposit known until the discovery of gem-quality material in the Taymyr region of Siberia , in 2000. The earliest known evidence of human cannabis use was found in tombs at the Jirzankal Cemetery. The Pamir Highway , the world's second highest international road, runs from Dushanbe in Tajikistan to Osh in Kyrgyzstan through the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province , and

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