Talk:Karakoram

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Discussion for: Karakoram • View • Links • Related changes

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Page scope

Karakoram is a Growing Region: a named cultivation region above Growing Areas. It covers the Karakoram in Gilgit-Baltistan and in Nubra, Ladakh, drawn on the districts the range crosses and cut along the rivers that bound it. Hunza, Hispar Valley and Hopar Valley are its growing areas.

Data verification

Check the main page for the sources behind each statement. Discuss the boundary, the places the region takes in, and the accessions and news items that belong to it here.

Discussion

Why the region is on the map

• The Real Seed Company lists seed from the Hispar Valley (2023 harvest) and from the villages of Hopar (collected in the winter of 2022), for charas, culinary seed and bhang.
• The donor's note with the Hopar seed in the United States genebank (G 33713) calls it a landrace cultivated in the upper Hopar Valley.
• Salim and colleagues (2019) recorded cannabis, thoonch, in Nagar and Hunza, with its seed used in medicine.
• A lot of hemp seed from about 16 km south-west of Karimabad in Hunza, used there as a source of oil, was received by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1974 (Plant Inventory No. 182, P.I. 390147).
• The Vibes Collective strain guide catalogued a landrace called Hunza.
• The Karakoram Conference report (Himalayan Journal 10, 1938) gives the extent of the range. Britannica's article "Karakoram Range" describes its mountains and climate. Neither mentions cannabis.

Growing status

The status is Active: the Hispar and Hopar seed collections date from 2022 and 2023. No source read says that growing in the range has ended.

How the border is drawn

• The border follows the limits of the Karakoram Conference:
  • on the south, the Shyok from its bend at about 78° 15′ E to the Indus, the Indus to the Gilgit river, and the Gilgit river to the Ishkoman;
  • on the west, the Ishkoman and Karambar rivers to the Chillinji pass;
  • on the north, the Chapursan–Kilik–Khunjerab–Oprang–Shaksgam line;
  • on the east, the upper Shyok.
• Units (OpenStreetMap, fetched 19 October 2026):
  • Hunza, Nagar and Shigar districts whole.
  • Gilgit and Ghizer districts north and east of the Gilgit, Ishkoman and Karambar rivers.
  • Ghanche north of the Shyok, and Skardu north of the Indus.
  • Nubra (Leh, Ladakh) north and west of the Shyok.
• The cut lines are the OpenStreetMap centrelines of those rivers. Where a mapped river line stops short of the district edge (the head of the Karambar, the upper Shyok towards the Rimo), it is carried on along the river's course to the edge.
• Two places differ from the Conference's line:
  • On the north the border follows the district edge, which runs along the international border. The strip north of the Chapursan and Kilik (round Misgar), which the Conference leaves out, is inside.
  • The short northern slope of the range down to the Shaksgam lies inside the border of Southern Xinjiang, and the Karakoram border stops at that line.
• The union is about 44,600 km², the figure in the infobox.
• The border is not drawn from accession or news points.

Edges with the neighbouring regions

• Hindu Kush ends on the east at the Yarkhun, Mastuj and Chitral valleys (Grötzbach, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2003). The Karakoram begins at the Ishkoman and Karambar. Between them lies the Hindu Raj (Gupis-Yasin, Punial, and the part of Ghizer west of the Ishkoman), which belongs to neither range and is in neither growing region. The two borders touch only at the head of the Karambar.
• Western Himalayas does not meet this region. The Ladakh range and the upper Indus round Leh and Kargil lie between them, and the Conference keeps the Ladakh range out of the Karakoram.
• Southern Xinjiang meets this region along the international border.

Accessions inside the border

• RSC-PAK-GIL-0120230001 (Hispar Valley) and RSC-PAK-GIL-0120220001 (Hopar Valley) are filed under their areas and the region.
• VIB-PAK-GIL-0100000001 (Hunza) is filed under the Hunza area. The seller's name places it in Hunza, which lies wholly in the Karakoram. The stored point (36.58, 75.11) and the strain guide's own map position (35.54, 74.20, at zoom level 4) do not agree, so neither is used to place it.
• No news item recorded on the wiki falls inside the border.

Sources

• Karakoram Conference report, Himalayan Journal 10 (1938): read in full on the Himalayan Club's site. The site gives no page numbers.
• Britannica, "Karakoram Range" (version of 4 September 2026): read in full.
• The seed listings, the genebank record and Salim and colleagues (2019): as cited on Hispar Valley and Hopar Valley.