petroglyphen im valle del encanto - StoneWatch

PETROGLYPHS
AS ELEMENTS OF THE
CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
OF
MUSTANG (NEPAL)
Their contribution to research in cultural
history and geography
by Perdita Pohle
Fig. 1: The location of petroglyph sites in Mustang (Nepal)
In the last few decades, interest in rock art research and documentation
has increased on a global scale. This has been
due, in part, to recent technological developments and advances
in the scientific methods of dating such as accelerator
mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating, thermoluminescence
(TL) dating, and cation-ratio dating (see e.g. WAG-
NER, 1995). The growing
interest in rock
art research has also
been the result of the
realization that petroglyphs
and pictographs
are not, as had long
been presumed, simply
graffiti which were created
in early historic or
prehistoric times by tribal
peoples just to pass
the time of day. Rather,
they are cultural and
historical documents
which are a potential
source of significant
scientific information.
Up until now, only a few rock art sites are known to exist in
the Himalayas. They are located in northern India, in Ladakh
and Zanskar (see FRANCFORT et al., 1990). Considering
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the few locations of rock art known to exist in the Himalayas,
the discovery of the rock engravings of Kak Nyingba in
Mustang (Nepal) is an important one, especially in view of
the fact that no rock art has been documented in Nepal up
until now (Fig. 1). The petroglyphs were found by Phuntsok
Naktsang, a Tibetan, and myself during fieldwork on the
history and geography of settlements in the southern
Mustang District in 1993. Two further sites of rock engravings
(Samar, Tetang) were found during field trips in 1995
to northern Mustang (Fig. 1). In addition to the documentation,
analysis and interpretation of the petroglyphs, the objectives
of the investigations were to integrate the rock art discoveries
into the local history of the cultural landscape and
the supra-regional cultural and geographical context.
The petroglyphs of Kak Nyingba are located
north of the main range of the Himalayas in the
middle course of the Kali Gandaki River at a
height of 2770 m (Fig. 1). The surrounding landscape
is that of an arid high mountain area with
oasis-like settlements and cultivation, an area
which is populated by Tibetan people and characterized
by Tibetan culture and tradition. The
petroglyphs were carved into flat sandstone banks
which are directly situated along the Kali Gandaki
River. The deserted settlement of Kak Nyingba,
after which the rock art site was named, lies in the
vicinity. A further characteristic of the rock art
locality is its situation along one of the most wellknown
transit routes through the Himalayas, a
caravan route which connects the Ganges Plain
with the Tibetan Plateau and which, in former times, was
used as a major route of international trade and commerce.
The petroglyphs of Kak Nyingba were first hammered or
chiselled into the rock with simple stone tools and then partly
ground out and polished. In all, 1160 petroglyphs have
been identified up until now. For the most part, they are dis-
Fig. 2: Repertoire and typology of rock art motifs in Kak Nyingba
(Nepal) (Draft: P. Pohle)