The towering Karakoram Pass was part of the old silk route that connected Ladakh and Kashmir with Xinjiang – now, like Tibet, an “autonomous region” of China. As two observers recently described it, Daulat Beg Oldie was a kind of transfer point for goods to be loaded on to pack ponies “for the cruel journey over the Saser La into the more hospitable Shyok river valley” leading to “Leh, Turtok, or Srinagar [in Kashmir].”