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Hispar Valley
ActiveCannabis last recorded here in 2023
A glacial stream on the Hispar Glacier
⛶
Hierarchy
Growing Region Karakoram
Geography
Country Pakistan
Province/State Gilgit-Baltistan
District Nagar District
Coordinates 36.17, 74.99
Landscape
Area 120 km²
Terrain Valley of the Hispar Glacier and the upper Hispar River, in the Karakoram; approximately the Hispar River basin above the Gharesa stream, below 3,800 m
Growing history
Dated accessions 2023
Documentation
Appellations 0
Accessions 1
Conservation
Populations none documented yet



Hispar Valley is a landrace cannabis growing area in Nagar District, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, in the Karakoram growing region. Seed from the 2023 harvest there is listed by The Real Seed Company under the name Hispar Valley, for charas (sieved resin), culinary seed and bhang.[1]

Geography

The Hispar Glacier fills the head of the valley. Its main trunk is nearly 50 km long and covers about 500 km², flowing west-north-west from the Hispar pass at 5,150 m down to 3,100 m. The Hispar Muztagh rises to 7,800 m on the north side of the valley. At the Hispar pass the glacier meets the Biafo Glacier, 65 km long, which flows east. Other surge-type glaciers, the Trivor and the Bualtar, drain into the main valley further west.[2] The villages of Hopar stand beside the Bualtar Glacier, lower down the same valley.[2][3]

The Hispar Glacier surged in 2015 and 2016. The surge began in the autumn of 2014, and flow peaked at up to 5 km a year, about 14 m a day, in May and June 2015.[2]

Traditional cultivation

The Real Seed Company puts the harvest in late September and October and advises growers to expect plants like those of its Hopar Valley line.[1] In Gilgit-Baltistan cannabis is called thoonch, and in Nagar and Hunza its seed is used as a medicine.[4]

Accessions

Accession IDNameCollected
RSC-PAK-GIL-0120230001Hispar Valley General Population 2023

The seed of 2023 is also held by the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System under the number G 33869, received in July 2024.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Hispar Valley". The Real Seed Company. Retrieved 16 September 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Paul, Frank; Strozzi, Tazio; Schellenberger, Thomas; Kääb, Andreas (26 August 2017). "The 2015 Surge of Hispar Glacier in the Karakoram". Remote Sensing. 9 (9) 888. doi:10.3390/rs9090888.
  3. ↑ Gardner, James S.; Hewitt, Kenneth (1990). "A Surge of Bualtar Glacier, Karakoram Range, Pakistan: A Possible Landslide Trigger". Journal of Glaciology. 36 (123): 159–162. doi:10.3189/S0022143000009394.
  4. ↑ Salim, Muhammad Asad; Ranjitkar, Sailesh; Hart, Robbie; Khan, Tika; Ali, Sajid; Kiran, Chandni; Parveen, Asma; Batool, Zahra; Bano, Shanila; Xu, Jianchu (28 January 2019). "Regional trade of medicinal plants has facilitated the retention of traditional knowledge: case study in Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan". Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. 15 6. doi:10.1186/s13002-018-0281-0.
  5. ↑ "G 33869, Cannabis sativa L., Hispar Valley". GRIN-Global. USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Plant Germplasm System. Retrieved 18 October 2026.