In numerous
places during my trip through Mustang I noticed man-made caves, usually
situated in what seemed to be almost completely inaccessible places. On the far
side of the spectacular gorge at the edge of Tsarang for example there are 20
or so caves in the cliff hundreds of feet above the ground. It is hard to
imagine how these and most of the other caves I saw could have been excavated,
let accessed. On the sheer cliff above the bridge at Chele is a line of 16 caves,
or more likely square windows for the caves or perhaps a passageway inside. I
was so impresses by these caves that I observed them for a while trying to
imagine how they could have been reached or why anyone would want to excavate
them in such an inaccessible place. The only thing I could imagine is that the
walkway that originally led to them has fallen away or eroded away, although I
could seen no sign of this. When Giuseppe Tucci was in Mustang in 1952 he too
was intrigued by these caves. Locals told him they were cut during the
Tibet-Nepal war of 1855-6 as a hiding place for people fleeing from danger, an explanation
he considered unlikely (G. Tucci Journey to Mustang, 1977, p.141).
He manages to get into one of these caves and found “no objects and no trace of
decoration”. Given that all the caves I saw were within walking distance of
villages and that Buddhist monks have long favored living in caves, I assume
that they were excavated by or for monks. Several accessible caves north of Lo
Manthang have functioning monasteries attached to them.
On returning
to Singapore
I tried to find something on the internet about these mysterious caves and the
first thing that came up was a fascinating National Geographic
documentary on this very subject. It can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f5iWG0bRFU
2 comments:
Theres no place like home as they say
Beautiful Pictures..
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