800-year-old caves and unapproachable mountains of the kingdom of Mustang

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the lost caves of Nepal, climbers help archaeologists uncover the secrets of an unknown civilization.

A human skull lay on top of a crumbling boulder in the remote northern Mustang region of Nepal. Pete Athans, leader of a mixed team of climbers and archaeologists, donned safety equipment, buckled on a rope and climbed a six-meter boulder. Another climber, Ted Hesser, backed him up. Reaching the skull, Athans, fearing contaminating the find with his own DNA, pulled on gloves and carefully pulled the skull out of the rubble.

Pete is almost certainly the first person in the past 1,500 years to touch this skull. Dust fell from the eye sockets. Athans put the skull in a soft red bag and lowered it down to where three scientists were waiting: Mark Aldenderfer of the University of California at Merced, Jacqueline Eng of Western Michigan University, and Mohan Singh Lama of the Nepalese Department of Archeology.

Aldenderfer was especially pleased with the presence of two molars, because by the teeth you can find out what a person ate, what his state of health was, and even roughly establish where he was born. Bioarchaeologist Eng determined that the skull most likely belonged to a young man. She also noted four fissures, three on the cranial vault and one on the right side of the jaw.

“Traces of violence,” Ang said. - Well, or he was simply kicked by a horse. How did this skull end up here? The boulder he was lying on - a reddish-brown stone with pink and white veins - was under a tall cliff. Closer to the top of the cliff, several small caves were visible, long ago carved into the pliable stone by hand. Part of the cliff, eventually collapsing, carried away the skull. And then what was left there, above, where did he fall from?

Mustang, a formerly independent kingdom in northern central Nepal, has given humanity one of the world's greatest archaeological mysteries. In this dusty land, lost in the Himalayas, blown by strong winds and cut into deep canyons by the Kali-Gandaki River, there are a lot of man-made caves - 10 thousand, according to the most conservative estimates.

Some are located far from others, like lonely mouths open on the wrinkled faces of weathered stone. Others are crowded together in groups - whole clusters, sometimes eight or even nine stories high, real vertical villages. Some are carved into the cliff walls, others are pierced from above. And many of them are more than one thousand years old. Who dug these caves? What for? No one has answers to these questions. It is not even clear how people got into mountain caves, because it is very dangerous to climb here even with modern climbing equipment. What have you used before? Ropes? Forests? Hollowed out steps? Unknown.

But it is known that seven centuries ago, life was in full swing in Mustang: it was the center of Buddhist science and art, and, probably, the most convenient way from the salt deposits of Tibet to Indian cities passed here. Salt was one of the most valuable commodities, and during the heyday of the Mustang, caravans of carts loaded with salt lasted along the local mountain paths. Later, in the 17th century, when neighboring kingdoms rose, Mustang began to decline. The situation was aggravated by the fact that India began to develop its own salt deposits. The majestic statues and temples of Mustang began to decay and decay, and soon the kingdom itself was practically forgotten.

Then, for more than two centuries, inaccessible mountains and strict governments guarded the secrets of the salt land. And only in the mid-1990s, having gained access to this territory, archaeologists from the University of Cologne, together with their Nepalese colleagues, were able to look into the most easily accessible caves. And immediately they came across numerous remains at least two thousand years old, lying on wooden beds. They all wore copper jewelry and glass beads not made in Mustang.

Pete Athans first saw the caves here in 1981. Many of them, it seemed, were absolutely impossible to reach, and Athans, the most experienced climber, who had stood on the summit of Everest seven times, could not miss such a challenge. However, permission from the authorities was obtained only in 2007 - and then the Mustang became the main expedition of Athans.

Travel in spring 2011 was the eighth for Athans. Over the past seven, his team has already made some sensational finds. In one of the caves, they found an 8-meter mural - 42 portraits of the great yogis of the history of Buddhism. The other contained a treasure trove of 8,000 calligraphic manuscripts, most of them created 600 years ago, which included everything from philosophical treatises to aids on mediating disputes. But Athans and his team members dreamed of finding a cave with objects from the preliterate era that could help answer the main questions. Who was the first to live here? Where did these people come from? What did they believe in?

Most of the caves where Athans looked were empty, although there were signs that they had once been inhabited by people: hearths, bins for grain, places to sleep. “You can spend your whole life getting into the wrong caves from time to time,” continues the thought of Athans Aldenderfer, who has already experienced many disappointments.

Aldenderfer imagines an ideal cave for exploring this way: it was used as a cemetery, not a house, fragments of pottery from the pre-Buddhist era are scattered on its floor, the cave is high, that is, thieves could not reach it, and in such an area of Mustang where the locals residents do not prevent foreigners from disturbing the remains.

The most promising site found was a cave complex near the tiny village of Samdzong, located south of the border with China. Athans and Aldenderfer first visited Samdzong in 2010 and found a system of burial caves. And on the very first working day in the spring of 2011, during a reconnaissance at the foot of the cliff, photographer Corey Richards noticed the same skull. The next morning, climbers prepared to explore the caves above the find.

The cliffs of Mustang are magnificent - these are huge walls that seem to float like wax under the rays of the high-mountainous sun. Erosion has given them bizarre outlines: here you can see bony fingers supporting huge stone balls, and billowing columns that resemble the pipes of a giant organ. Their color, changing during the day, has absorbed all possible shades of gray, red, brown and ocher. But climbing these cliffs is a challenge. “It's hard, ugly - like digging through a dumpster,” says Athans. And it is extremely dangerous. A stone, as fragile as biscuits, breaks with every touch. A few months ago, videographer Lincoln Els, inadvertently removing his helmet, suffered a head injury - a piece of rock fell on him. Els had a fractured skull and had to urgently undergo brain surgery in Kathmandu.

In 2010, Corey Richards, not only a photographer, but also a climber, fell and suffered a severe fracture. Like Elsa, he was evacuated by helicopter. Athans and Hesser, the main climbers of the group, climbed the cliff and reached a flat area above the caves. Here, with the permission of the authorities, they drove several metal rods into the rock and tied a rope to them, clinging to which Athans calmly slid off the cliff. Stones drummed on his helmet. Below, on level ground, sat Aldenderfer, a man with an imposing mane of gray hair tied in a red bandana. In his hands was a small monitor, which was wirelessly receiving a signal from Athans's video camera, allowing the anthropologist to direct the search. Nearby, cross-legged, is a local lama, 72-year-old Tsewang Tashi, in a dark crimson robe. He lit a small fire made of juniper branches and, pouring holy water from a Pepsi-Cola bottle into a ritual vessel, began humming softly, tinkling with a bronze bell and dipping his fingers into the water - this was a Buddhist rite of expelling evil spirits that could interfere with work group of researchers.

Meanwhile, Athans descended into the smallest - no more than four square meters - cave. He had to bend down: it was less than two meters to the arch. Initially, the cave was a hidden underground tomb, shaped like a decanter. When it was dug, only the upper part of the shaft was visible from the outside. The bodies were lowered inside through a narrow shaft, like a sewer pipe, after which the entrance was blocked with stones. But later part of the cliff collapsed, one of the walls of the cave disappeared - and a new entrance was formed. A large boulder, once part of the ceiling, fell to the floor: if there was something in the cave, then it was something left behind the boulder. Athans began to rock the stone, gradually moving it towards the exit. Finally he shouted: "Roll!" - and the boulder rumbled down the cliff, kicking up a cloud of amber dust. After 15 centuries (as indicated by the results of carbon analysis) after the cave was sealed, it was reopened.

Aldenderfer divides the history of the Mustang caves into three periods. In the beginning, maybe three thousand years ago, these were tombs. Then, about a thousand years ago, the caves began to be used mainly as housing. For centuries, the valley of the Kali-Gandaki River - the bottleneck that connects the highlands and lowlands of Asia - appears to have been a frequent battlefield. “People lived in constant fear,” says Aldenderfer. Striving for safety, they moved to caves.

After examining the remains, Ang, a bone expert, made a startling discovery: the bones of 76 percent of the deceased had distinct marks of cutting flesh with a knife. And these marks appeared after their death.

And only by the beginning of the 15th century, most of the local residents returned to ordinary villages. The caves became meditation rooms, military observation posts, and warehouses. However, even today several families live in them. “It's warmer in winter,” says Yandu Bista, who was born in one of Mustang's caves in 1959 and lived in this uncomfortable apartment until 2011. "But it is difficult to raise water there."

The first things Athans found in a closet-sized cave (later called Tomb 5) were a variety of planks, planks, and pegs carved from magnificent hardwood. Aldenderfer and Singh Lama eventually managed to put these pieces together and assemble a box about a meter high - a coffin ingeniously designed to be lowered disassembled into a narrow passage and then easily assembled in the main chamber. "Kind of ancient IKEA," Ang grins.

The box showed a primitive orange-and-white drawing of a man on horseback. “Perhaps it was the beloved horse of the deceased,” Aldenderfer suggested. Later, a horse skull was found in Tomb-5. Back in 2010 in Samdzong, the group discovered the remains of 27 people - men, women and one child - in the two largest caves on the cliff. In those caves, too, there were coffins, similar to beds, but made of much lower quality wood, with a simpler construction and no drawings. But Tomb-5, according to Aldenderfer, was intended for a high-ranking person, perhaps even for a ruler. The remains of two people were found in the tomb - an adult man and a child about ten years old. The latter has caused a lot of speculation.

“I don’t want to say that the child was sacrificed or that he was a slave, because there is no evidence to indicate this,” says Aldenderfer. "But we are probably dealing with a complex ritual."After examining the remains, Ang, a bone expert, made a startling discovery: the bones of 76 percent of the deceased had distinct marks of cutting flesh with a knife. And these marks appeared after their death. At the same time, the bones are relatively intact, they are unlikely to have been deliberately broken or burned. "Everything shows," notes Eng, "that there was no cannibalism."

The separation of flesh from bones could be associated with the Buddhist tradition of open-air burial - and today the body of the deceased in the Mustang, along with the bones, can be cut into pieces, which are then quickly pulled apart by vultures. The catch is that the bones found in the cave date back to the period from the 3rd to the 8th century AD - at that time there was no Buddhism in Mustang yet. In the era of the cave burials of Samdzong, Aldenderfer suggests, the flesh was cut from the bones, but the bones themselves were left articulated. The skeleton was lowered into the tomb, folded up to be placed in a box, then the funeral team climbed out and blocked the entrance.

But before the remains were decorated. Athans discovered this when he was sitting in Tomb 5 and, bent over in three deaths, sifting through the dust for hours. So he found over a thousand glass beads (some no more than a poppy seed) in six colors. Studies have shown that the beads were of different origins: from present-day Pakistan, India, Iran. Three iron daggers with gracefully curved handles and heavy blades were also found in the cave. A bamboo teacup with a slender round handle. Copper bracelet. Small bronze mirror. Copper pot, ladle and iron tripod to it. Pieces of fabric. A pair of yak or bull horns. A huge copper cauldron in which an inflatable beach ball could be welded.

"I bet it's a cheng cauldron!" Aldenderfer said, referring to the local barley beer. And in the end, Athans sent down a funeral mask, made of gold and silver, with embossed features. The eyes were outlined in red, the corners of the mouth were slightly lowered, the nose was marked with a straight line, and a hint of a beard was visible. There were small holes along the edge. Probably, the mask was sewn to the fabric and lay on the face of the deceased. The beads were part of the mask. Taking the mask in hand, Aldenderfer, a man usually calm and restrained, could not contain his feelings. “Awesome! - he admired. - What skill, what wealth, colors, grace! This find seriously changes our understanding of the ancient history of the region."

Almost all of the items found in the cave were brought from afar. Even the tree from which the coffin was made grew in the tropics. How, then, can a person from these places, now so poor in resources that it even takes several hours to collect firewood for a fire, was able to accumulate this untold wealth? Most likely it's the salt. Controlling a section of the salt trade route in those days must have meant much the same as owning an oil pipe today.

All items found by the group were left in Samdzong, in the care of the village elders. In addition, Athans, as he did everywhere in Mustang, made a personal donation to create a small museum. “The Mustang people should be proud of their rich history,” says Pete. Scientists took with them only tiny samples of materials and pieces of bone that will be examined in different laboratories: teeth will go to the University of Oklahoma, metals - to University College London. The paints will be decomposed into chemical constituents: scientists will try to figure out from which plants they were made. Slivers, threads, tooth enamel powder - everything will undergo a thorough analysis.

The process can take a decade - this is if you examine only what has already been discovered. But no one knows how many hidden tombs are left! It must be assumed that many treasures are still hidden from people. “A new find may await us in the next cave,” says Aldenderfer. "Although, perhaps, we will have to climb into a hundred caves."When the group had already finished work in Samdzong, another discovery was made. Ted Hesser climbed to the top of the cliff to pull out the metal rods to which the climbers attached their ropes, and was already returning back when he noticed an unnaturally round depression in the stone crumb under their feet. He probably stumbled upon the entrance to another tomb - this time sealed, with completely intact contents. But the period of permission to travel to Nepal was coming to an end, and the scientists had to leave the find. At least for now.