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Kathmandu: In 2004,
two years after he climbed Mt Everest for the seventh time,
American mountaineering legend Peter Athans took part in a
charitable cataract operation project in northern Nepal that
changed the lives of nearly 300 beneficiaries.
Today, the event has led to a stupendous discovery that, once
fully understood, could throw light on one of the oldest religions
in the world, its link with India and the connection between
Tibetan and Zoroastrian death rites.
"I made a lot of friends during the eye camp," says Athans, better
known worldwide as 'Mr Everest' for his ascents as well as efforts
to rescue endangered climbers during the black year of 1996, when
15 people died while attempting the world's highest peak.
"Some of them took me to a cluster of (man-made) caves that remain
hidden from the human eye due to the height and the difficulty to
get inside... There was no knowledge of who created the caves and
I thought this was an intriguing mystery, worthy of further
research and discussion," Athans said.
In 2008, the government of Nepal and the Department of Archaeology
signed an agreement with Sky Door Foundation, an NGO started in
Nepal by Athans, to explore the caves and make an inventory. Two
years later, the exploring team came across major finds in the
network of caves in Mustang, a remote mountainous district in
northernmost Nepal that was once part of an ancient Tibetan
kingdom.
The expedition has found caves designed at different levels, much
like an apartment block, with the lower levels usually used as
granaries and the uppermost being burial sites.
In between, the space contains murals that though now fading and
crumbling down are still exquisite, two immense libraries
containing almost 10,000 ancient manuscripts in old Tibetan
script, some of which are beautifully illuminated, and the remains
of 27 people, the oldest of whom dates back to 100 years before
the birth of Christ.
The manuscripts, which are being translated, are mostly about the
Bon religion, one of the oldest religions in the world that grew
in Tibet pre-dating Buddhism and yet showed many similarities with
it, especially about the life of its founder Tonpa Shenrab.
Like the Buddha, Shenrab too came from a royal family but
renounced the royal life and worldly pleasures when he was 31 to
seek enlightenment. The folios also carry illustrations of many
Bon leaders whom researchers are struggling to identify due to the
paucity of information about the religion.
The cave artefacts show a fusion of Tibetan and Indian religious
art. Some of it shows the influence of the art that prevailed in
India during the Gupta empire of Hindu kings who ruled from
320-480 AD.
"Some of the murals have images of men and women who were Indian
mahasiddhas (yogis with supernatural power)," says Leisl, Athans'
wife, who records the expeditions through documentaries. "Each
image has a quatrain as caption, the first line giving the name of
the mahasiddha, followed by biographical details."
The human remains, many of which DNA analysis indicated belonged
to people from northwest India, could prove a link between
Zoroastrianism, born in Iran before the 6th century BC, and the
ancient Tibetan practice of sky burials that still exists in Nepal
and China.
"While the earlier skeletal remains are unmarked, the 5th century
remains show cut marks," says archaeologist Mark Aldenderfer.
"Nearly 67 percent of the bodies were de-fleshed, after which the
bones were deposited inside the cave tombs. This mortuary practice
could be a link between the Zoroastrian way of disposing of a dead
body by offering it to the vultures in the Towers of Silence and
the more stark way in the Tibetan plateau, where the bodies are
chopped up and then left for the vultures and other animals," he
said.
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