History of Chilas

larger than the hunters. These carvings were pecked into the rocks with stone tools and are covered with a thick patina that proves their age. Later - mostly Buddhist - carvings were sometimes executed with a sharp chisel.

The ethnologist Karl Jettmar has tried to piece together the history of the area from various inscriptions and recorded his findings in "Rockcarvings and Inscriptions in the Northern Areas of Pakistan" and the later released "Between Gandhara and the Silk Roads -- Rock carvings along the Karakoram Highway".

It is interesting to note that the Kharoshthi term "Kaboa" ( or Kamboa) appears in a short commemorative Kharosthi inscription found from Chilas as reported by the Archaeological Department of Pakistan. The inscription has been transcribed, translated and interpreted by Ahmad Hasan Dani, a Pakistani archaeologist, historian, and linguist, who was among the foremost authorities on South Asian archaeology and history. According to Dani, Kaboa or Kamboa of the inscription is a Kharoshthised form of Sanskrit Kamboja . Thus, it seems likely that Chilas also formed part of ancient Kamboja kingdom.

Chilas comes under Gilgit-Baltistan