A very mountainous region just to the south of K2, located between China, India and Pakistan; most of the region is de-facto governed by Pakistan as Gilgit–Baltistan.
It is not a uniform speech, but comprises several dialects which have been classed by Jaeschke into three groups, namely (i) the central or the dialects of Lhasa and the central provinces of U and Tsang (including Spiti) which is the lingua franca of the whole country, (2) the western dialects of Ladak, Lahul, Baltistan and Purig, and (3) the eastern dialects of the province of Khams. In addition to these, however, are many sub-dialects of Tibetan spoken in the frontier Himalayan districts and states outside Tibet, namely, in Kunawar and Bashahr, Garhwal, Kumaon, Nepal including especially the Serpa and Murmi of eastern Nepal, Sikkim (where the dialect is called Danjong-ka), Bhutan (Lho-ka or Duk-ka.), all of which are affiliated to a central group of dialects.
From the Pir-Panjal range of Kashmir the markhor extends westwards into Baltistan, Astor, Hunza, Afghanistan and the trans-Indus ranges of the Punjab.
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