LITTLE TIBET, the modern Balti, is a good deal to the north-east of Kashmir. and north west of Ladakh. Gilgit is a country, conquered by Gulab Singh, to the west - north - west of Iskardo. The Chorbat district is a dependency of the Government of Iskardo, which, like that of Leh, is subject to Kashmir. The desert country by which Nubrn and Chorbat are separated, has acted as a barrier to the further extension east ward of the Muhammadan religion, which is now universally that of the people of the whole of Iskardo (or Balti) district, as well as of Dras. On the Indus, and in the valley south of it, there is no uninhabited tract between the two, so that the Muhammadan and Buddhist population are in direct contact. The result is, that .Muhammad anism is in that part gradually, though very slowly, extending to the eastward. The name Iskardo, capital of Balti, is a Muhammadan corruption of the Tibetan name Skardo, or Kardo, as it is very commonly pronounced. The moun tains which surround the Iskardo plain rise at once with great abruptness, and are very steep and bare. The houses of Iskardo are very much scattered over a large extent of surface, so that there is ,no appearance of a town.
Ilhot comprises the Little Tibetans, the natives of Ladakh, the Tibetans of Tibet proper, and the closely-allied Bhoteali tribes of Bhutan. Bald or
Baltiy ill is called Palate or Balor by the Dard, and Nang-Kod by the Tibetans. It is preserved in Ptolemy in 13yitte.
Little Tibet contains about 12,000 square miles, is about 170 miles long, and lies between long. 7•1° and 76° 35' E. Little Tibet or Baldwin is called by the Kashmir' Sri Bhutan. Tibetan districts are Khapolor, Chorbad, and Keris, on the Shayok river; Khartakshe, Totte, and Parguta on the Sing-ge chu ; Shigar on the Shigar river, and Balti and Rongdo on the Indus.
13alti proper is a small table-land, and, with that of Deotsu, is about GO miles long and 86 broad ; the mean height of its villages above the sea is about 7000 feet. Cultivation in Little Tibet is carried on entirely by irrigation. The 13alti people of Little Tibet, though Tibetan in language and appearance, are all Muhammadans, and differ from the more eastern Tibetans of Leh (who call themselves Bhoteah or inhabitants of Ilhot) by being taller and less stoutly made. Their lan guage differs considerably from that of Leh, but only as one dialect differs from another. Little Tibet has several times tendered its allegiance to British India.—Dr. Thomson's Trarel ; Cunning. ham's Ladakh; Latham; Mason; Campbell.