GARTOK

Chinese (Wade-Giles) Ka-erh-tu, Ka-ta-k'o, or (Pinyin) Garyarsa, town in the Tibetan autonomous ch' (region), western China. It is located at an elevation of 14,630 feet (4,460 m) at the foot of the Kailas Range on the Gar (Ka-erh) River, which is one of the headwaters of the Yin-tu (Indus) River. Gartok is an important route centre on the main road through the southern Tibetan region from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, to Jammu and Kashmir. Historically Gartok was an important trade centre for traveling merchants from India and Nepal, who attended the great fairs held there. In the 18th century Gartok, on the frontier of the then-independent kingdom of Ladakh, was a major military garrison. Gartok was formally opened to foreign trade following the Lhasa Treaty (between the United Kingdom and Tibet) of 1904. The ruins of ancient fortifications still survive, but in the 1930s there was no town there, merely the residence of the Tibetan governor and a small temple. Since the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959, the area has been the scene of considerable road building to provision the Ladakh border area to the south and west. Pop. (mid-1980s est.) fewer than 10,000.