Showing posts with label ancient caves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ancient caves. Show all posts

Saturday, November 19, 2022

THE MYSTERIOUS SKY CAVES OF NEPAL

 



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

धर्म, संस्कृति र जीवनको बहस

  धर्म , संस्कृति र जीवनको बहस अरूणा उप्रेति अनलायन खबर,   २०७७ साउन १८ गते १०:३४ ‘ नो वर्त प्लिज’ गीतको बोललाई लिएर मैले हिन्दु ‘जागर...