Unique livelihood of last village Askole: a village of mountaineers

Askole is said to be the last village of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, it is settled on the banks of the river Braldu.

The people of this village depend on mountaineers and adventurers for their livelihood.

Every year, hundreds of adventurers come here armed with valuable equipment.

It is customary here that, whether these adventurers and mountaineers return successfully or fail, they leave their belongings there.

The local people use this expensive equipment themselves or sell it in the markets of Skardu. Askole people are more familiar with the English language than Urdu.

This is because the climbers going to Concordia and Baltoro speak English, so the local people, as guides and porters, learn their language.

Askole was founded, so the story goes, in the sixteenth century by three brothers from Yarkand: Sangar, Goud, and Chow. The names of family groups that remain in the last village in Askole, Pakistan, today bear witness to the fact that the town’s residents are descended from these three.

However, the toponym and the findings of Italian geographer Giotto Dainelli, who visited the site in 1913, both point to the village’s early population being part of the Mon group, a marginalized and excommunicated class of musicians.