Prof. Charles Ramble: “Recent Textual Discoveries in the Caves of Mustang, Nepal”
16 November 2011
Photo: Orna Almogi
The Himalayan kingdom of Mustang, now a district of Nepal, was founded in the fourteenth century by a nobleman from an adjacent Tibetan principality, and the royal lineage has continued into the 21st century. However, the labyrinthine cave complexes in the area bear witness to an older civilisation about which very little is known.
Archaeological explorations in the region have begun to unravel the secrets of the caves, with discoveries that reveal close similarities to practices of the Tibetan imperial period (7th-9th centuries). Long after they had been abandoned as places of habitation the caves continued to be used as meditation retreats, burial sites, and repositories for texts. In 2008 an international team of climbers and assorted scientists discovered a large cache of textual material comprising around 35 works, some relatively complete and others only fragmentary. The majority of the works belong to the Bon religion, while the oldest in the collection have no particular religious affinity. An examination of the dedications attached to certain works reveal some striking facts about religious developments in the kingdom shortly after its foundation, while others shed a fascinating light on processes of legal mediation and their relationship to archaic Tibetan ritual.
Prof. Dr. Charles Ramble, Directeur d’études - Sciences historiques et philologiques, École pratique des hautes études, Paris.
November 16th, 2011 - 18.00h
Universität Hamburg, Westflügel (ESA W),
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Raum 221
Free Entrance.