THE MYSTERIOUS SKY CAVES OF NEPAL
THE SKY
CAVES OF NEPAL, ALSO KNOWN AS THE MUSTANG CAVES, REFERS TO 10,000 ARTIFICIAL
CAVES CONSTRUCTED IN THE MUSTANG DISTRICT OF NEPAL.
The
region was formerly the Kingdom of Lo, with the capital located at Lo Manthang until the kingdom was annexed by Nepal during the 18th century AD.
The
caves were carved into a steep cliff face 155 feet above the valley basin,
overlooking the present-day village of Samdzong near the Kali Gandaki River in
Upper Mustang.
The
caves have been divided into three distinct periods of occupation, with the
earliest period dating from around 1000 BC when they were used for human
burials.
Some
later burials, dating from the 3rd to the 8th centuries AD shows evidence that may
be related to the Buddhist practice of sky burials (a funeral practice in which
a human corpse is placed on a mountaintop to decompose while exposed to the
elements or to be eaten by scavenging animals).
During
the 10th century AD, the region saw a period of instability due to localized
conflicts. Numerous dwellings were carved into the cliff face for protection, with some burial caves repurposed for habitation.
By the 12-15th century AD, the caves were used as meditation chambers,
with archaeologists discovering several Buddhist paintings, sculptures,
artifacts, and manuscripts containing writings from both the Bon religion and
Buddhism.
Recent DNA studies have shed some light on the mystery of the
first cave builders, suggesting that early inhabitants came from the East-Asian
populations of the Tibetan plateau and closely resemble the genetic profile of
the modern-day Sherpa and Tibetan populations that inhabit the region of
Mustang today.
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/09/the-mysterious-sky-caves-of-nepal/134980
