Turtuk

Turtuk, today one of India’s most picturesque border villages in Ladakh’s Nubra valley, historically belonged to Baltistan, with strong cultural ties to Skardu rather than Leh. For centuries it lay on an important route along the Shyok River, used by traders, herders and pilgrims moving between Central Asia, Baltistan and Ladakh. The people of Turtuk are predominantly Balti Muslims, speaking a Tibeto-Burman Balti language, living in compact stone houses with wooden balconies, and cultivating apricots, walnuts and buckwheat on terraced fields.

Politically, Turtuk was part of the Baltistan region under various local rulers and later under the Dogra-ruled princely state of Jammu & Kashmir, but after Partition in 1947 it came under Pakistan’s control along with most of Baltistan. Its modern history changed dramatically during the 1971 Indo–Pak war, when Indian forces captured Turtuk and a few nearby villages, bringing them into Indian-administered territory. For decades afterwards the village remained a sensitive, heavily controlled border zone, largely closed to outside visitors.

Only in the early 21st century was Turtuk gradually opened to tourism. Homestays, small cafés and heritage walks developed, but the village has retained its Balti architecture, traditional irrigation channels, grain-storage towers and old mosques. Today, Turtuk’s identity combines border history, Balti culture and scenic village tourism along the Shyok valley.