38°0′N 73°0′E

Gorno-Badakhshan,^{[n 1]} officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region,^{[n 2]} is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan, in the Pamir Mountains. It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area but only two percent of its population.^[3]

The official English name of the autonomous region is the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region.^[4][5] The name "Badakhshan" (Russian: Бадахшан, romanized: Badakhshan; Tajik: Бадахшон, romanized: Badaxşon) is derived from the Sasanian title bēdaxš or badaxš.^[6] "Gorno-Badakhshan" literally means "mountainous Badakhshan" and is derived from the Russian name of the autonomous region, Gorno-Badakhshanskaya avtonomnaya oblast. The Russian abbreviation "GBAO" is also commonly used in English-language publications by national and international bodies such as the government of Tajikistan and the United Nations.^[7]

Borders and political authority in the Western Pamir had always been contested by imperial powers. Between the 17th and 19th century, several semi-self governing statelets, including Darwaz, Shughnun-Rushan and Wakhan, ruled over the territories that are today a part of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan and Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan. In the late 19th century, the emirates of Kokand and then Bukhara held political authority over the region until the Western Pamir was colonized by Russia, completed in 1896.^[8] Although Russia and the British empire in 1896 denominated their shared border through the Pamir, which resulted in the creation of the Wakhan corridor, other regional powers like China and Afghanistan, but also the ruling elites of Badakhshan, Bukhara, Kashgaria and Kashmir equally worked for expending their influence in the Pamir.^[9] So, the Sarykol range has been demarked de facto as Eastern border in 1894 between the Qing empire and the Russian empire.^[10] This imperial history still has relevance nowadays as it determined contemporary southeastern borders of the present-day autonomous region.

This section does not cite any sources. (October 2023)

Darvoz District is the western "beak" of the province. West-central Gorno-Badakhshan is mostly a series of east–west mountain ranges separated by valleys of rivers that flow into the Panj. The districts correspond to the river valleys. Murghob District occupies the eastern half of the province and is mostly a desolate plateau with high mountains on the west.

The districts of Gorno-Badakhshan are:

• Darvoz District (westernmost, north)
• Vanj District (west, north)
• Rushon District (west, center)
• Shughnon District (west, center)
• Roshtqal'a District (west, south)
• Ishkoshim District (west, southernmost)
• Murghob District (eastern two-thirds)

Gorno-Badakhshan covers the entire eastern part of Tajikistan and borders China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to the east, Afghanistan's Badakhshan Province to the south, and Kyrgyzstan's Osh Region to the north. Within Tajikistan, Gorno-Badakhshan's western border is with the Districts of Republican Subordination (DRP) and the tip of its southwestern finger (Darvoz District) borders Khatlon Region. The highest elevations in the region are in the Pamir Mountains (notably Mount Imeon), nicknamed "the roof of the world" by locals. Three of the five 7,000 meter summits in Central Asia are located here, including Ismoil Somoni Peak (formerly Communism Peak, and, before that, Stalin Peak; 7,495 m), Ibn Sina Peak (formerly Lenin Peak, and still known by that name on its Kyrgyz flank; 7,134 m), and Peak Ozodi (formerly Korzhenevskoi Peak, 7,105 m).

More information Year, Pop. ...

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1979	126,783	—
1989	160,860	+2.41%
1999	206,004	+2.50%
2010	205,949	−0.00%
2020	228,900	+1.06%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Source: Citypopulation[44]

Close

The population living in Gorno-Badakhshan as of 2019 is estimated at 226,900. The largest city in Gorno-Badakhshan is Khorog, with a population of 30,300 (2019 est.);^[3] Murghob is the second largest, with about 4,000 residents.

According to the State Statistical Committee of Tajikistan, most inhabitants of Gorno-Badakhshan identify as Pamiris. The remainder of the population perceive themselves as either Kyrgyz or of other nationalities.

Most people living in the Pamir are multilingual, as different languages are used in different situations.^[45] Gorno-Badakhshan is home to a number of distinct languages and dialects of the Pamir languages group. The Pamiri language speakers represented in Gorno-Badakshan are speakers of Shughni, Rushani, Wakhi, Ishkashimi, Sarikoli, Bartangi, Khufi, Yazgulyam, and Oroshani. Vanji, formerly spoken in the Vanj River valley, became extinct in the 19th century. There is a sizable population of Kyrgyz speakers in the Murghab district. Russian and Tajik are also widely spoken throughout Gorno-Badakhshan. Many Eastern-Iranian languages spoken in Gorno-Badakhshan are on the endangered list of the UNESCO.^[11]

The majority religion in Gorno-Badakhshan is Ismaili Shi'ite and adherence to the Aga Khan is widespread. Still, there are also Sunnis Muslims in Gorno-Badakhshan. The Tablighi Jama’at, a fundamentalist Sunni missionary movement conducted da'wa in the 2000s. The government banned and persecuted this movement among others as part of their wider campaign against non-state Islam.^{[46][47][48][49]}

The Pamiris are increasingly being marginalilzed in linguistic and religious terms, as they deviate from the vision for nationhood of the Tajik state.^[50] In 2009 the year of I'mam Hanafi Islam was celebrated, but a majority of Pamiris are followers of Ismaili Shia Islam. Subsequently, religious institutions had to be reregistered leaving all institution ousted not fitting the state's religious beliefs.^[51] The 2010 law on language requires all documents to be made in Tajik.^[52] This creates difficulties for the many inhabitants of Gorno Badakhshan who do not speak Tajik to access state services.^[45] Facing this marginalization Pamiris express their distinctive identity against western Tajiks along secterian lines, even though there is considerable difference in ethnicity, religion and language amongst themselves.^[53]

During the 20th century, the Soviet modernity project to establish roads connections in the Pamir led to the communities becoming part of a transit district between Osh, Khorog and Dushanbe.^[54] Nowadays, the routes Khorog–Osh and Khorog–Dushanbe are both segments of the Pamir Highway. A third road was constructed through the Kulma Pass in 2004 by China in order to connect Khorog to Tashkurgan.^[55] Gorno-Badakhshan is separated from the Pakistani territories of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan by the narrow, but nearly impassable, Wakhan Corridor. Another road leads from Khorog to Wakhan and across the Afghan border.

Even though connectivity is promoted in Gorno-Badakhshan, as the "Golden gate of Tajikistan" local traders largely do not profit from the rise of trade. Instead logistic companies and elites from Dushanbe dominate the long-distance trade, as the Pamiris are increasingly excluded from central posts and have to obtain visas from Dushanbe to travel to China, which is very costly.^[46] In June 2022, after local protesters blocking the road were imprisoned, some even killed, a Chinese company started the modernization of a Pamir highway section at the cost of US$200 million.^[56]

In 2019, the European Union and Germany, in coordination with Tajikistan, committed 37 million euros to finance the construction of an 11 MW run-of-the-river hydro power plant along the Shokhdara river. The project is intended to also supply energy to Badakhshan, Afghanistan.^[57]

Khorog is the highest location where bandy has been played.^[58]

• Extreme points of Tajikistan
• Tajik National Park