![]() ![]() A winding footpath climbs all the way from the bottom of the valley to a single entrance door that leads into two interconnecting chambers. The monastery is set on a ledge, at least a hundred meter high from the ground, in one of the many natural pillar like sandstone structures. Luri Gompa is one of the most famous in Mustang. Some of these caves were turned into monasteries such as the Luri Gompa, the Chungsi Cave monastery and the Nyiphuk Cave Monastery, all of which were built around and inside the caves. Finally, by the 1400s, most people had moved into traditional villages and the caves became places of meditation. Then around 1,000 years ago, they became primarily living quarters, perhaps to escape battles and intruders into the valley. They were first used some 3,000 years ago as burial chambers. Sky burial is still practiced in many remote regions in the Himalaya.Īrcheologists believe that the caves in Mustang were used in three general periods. In other caves, skeletons dating from the 3rd to the 8th centuries, before Buddhism came to Mustang, had cut marks on the bones that may have been inflicted during the practice of sky burial, where the body’s flesh is sliced into small pieces and left to be eaten by vultures. They lay on wooden beds and decorated with copper jewelry and glass beads. The several dozen bodies that were found in these caves were all more than 2,000 years old. Some caves were apparently used as burial chambers. Most of the caves are now empty, but others show signs of domestic habitation -hearths, grain-storage bins, and sleeping spaces. Some of the caves appear almost impossible to reach even to experienced climbers. No one knows who dug them, or how people even scaled the near vertical rock face to access them. The cliffs’ face are pitted with an estimated 10,000 ancient cave dwellings, some of which are perched more than 150 feet above the valley floor. The landscape is also unlike anything that is to be found anywhere else in Nepal -deep gorges carved by the Kali Gandaki River, and strangely sculptured rock formations. The relative isolation of the region from the outside world has helped Mustang preserve its ancient culture which is more closely tied to Tibet than to Nepal. ![]() Because of its sensitive border location, Mustang was off-limits to foreigners until 1992. Once an independent Buddhist kingdom, Mustang was annexed by Nepal at the end of the 18th century, but retained its status as a separate principality until the 1950's when the area was more closely consolidated into Nepal. The Kingdom of Mustang, bordering the Tibetan plateau, is one of the most remote and isolated region of Nepalese Himalaya. ![]()
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