Deosai, the land of the giant

A plain at 4,114 m where the Himalayan brown bear came back

A high alpine plain between Skardu and Astore in Gilgit-Baltistan, east of Nanga Parbat and close to the central Karakoram, at an average height of 4,114 m. Its name comes from two Shina words, deo, giant, and sai, shadow, so the shadow or land of the giant; the travel writer and historian Salman Rashid coined the English Land of the Giant in the early 1990s, and he kept it singular, as the old Shina tradition does, though brochures often make it plural. The Balti call it Ghbiarsa, the summer place, because it can be reached only in summer. It is the second highest plateau in the world after the Changtang of Tibet, and the park protects 843 square kilometres of alpine steppe that is covered in spring by sweeps of wildflowers and butterflies. The national park was set up in 1993 to save the critically endangered Himalayan brown bear, long a prize for poachers and hunters, and the bears here have since grown in number from only 19 in 1993. The park is on Pakistan’s tentative list for World Heritage. Go in summer, carry warm layers, and give the bears plenty of room.