Murdar Westie Bou (Brooks 1994)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

An unspecified cave entrance (unidentified shape, unidentified dimensions, unidentified orientation) is believed to give access to an unspecified cave, which presumably is called something along the lines of Murdar Westie Boy (BROOKS 1993c: 3) or Murdar Westie Bou (BROOKS 1994c: 13), was seen with the help of binoculars from the garden of a road-side inn at Passu (note 1). An unidentified local informant (no name mentioned) was understood to have said guano (note 2) had been collected from the cave. ETYMOLOGY: The term -murdar- is suspected to represent a version of the woodar / woolar / udhyar / udiyar / odar / otar familiar with north-west Himalayan languages. This family of terms arrives from the Indo-European 'dwar' meaning 'door' (same root again), gate, entrance and therefore house, cave, den, shelter and the like. The classical Sanskrit epics Mahabharata and Ramayana have a term -nirdara- reminiscent of the -murdara- here and use it to denote a cave temple. The expressin -Westie- is difficult to reconstruct (the ending -…ie- indicates genetive case like west's for western). SITUATION: Below one Abdegar Ridge (note 3), which dominates the skyline at an unspecified distance in the approximate east of Pasu (Passu). The cave can be reached from Pasu (N36°28': E074°54') with the help of a guide by taking a footpath south of Pasu across a bridge over Hunza River. The cave lies next to a rocky outcrop halfway up the moutain flanks towards the ridge crest and at a point where the mountainside flattens out (note 4) into a narrow plateau (note 5). Check DESIO et al. (1985) for aspects of the geology of the area.An unspecified cave entrance (unidentified shape, unidentified dimensions, unidentified orientation) is believed to give access to an unspecified cave, which presumably is called something along the lines of Murdar Westie Boy (BROOKS 1993c: 3) or Murdar Westie Bou (BROOKS 1994c: 13), was seen with the help of binoculars from the garden of a road-side inn at Passu (note 1). An unidentified local informant (no name mentioned) was understood to have said guano (note 2) had been collected from the cave. ETYMOLOGY: The term -murdar- is suspected to represent a version of the woodar / woolar / udhyar / udiyar / odar / otar familiar with north-west Himalayan languages. This family of terms arrives from the Indo-European 'dwar' meaning 'door' (same root again), gate, entrance and therefore house, cave, den, shelter and the like. The classical Sanskrit epics Mahabharata and Ramayana have a term -nirdara- reminiscent of the -murdara- here and use it to denote a cave temple. The expressiAn unspecified cave entrance (unidentified shape, unidentified dimensions, unidentified orientation) is believed to give access to an unspecified cave, which presumably is called something along the lines of Murdar Westie Boy (BROOKS 1993c: 3) or Murdar Westie Bou (BROOKS 1994c: 13), was seen with the help of binoculars from the garden of a road-side inn at Passu (note 1). An unidentified local informant (no name mentioned) was understood to have said guano (note 2) had been collected from the cave. ETYMOLOGY: The term -murdar- is suspected to represent a version of the woodar / woolar / udhyar / udiyar / odar / otar familiar with north-west Himalayan languages. This family of terms arrives from the Indo-European 'dwar' meaning 'door' (same root again), gate, entrance and therefore house, cave, den, shelter and the like. The classical Sanskrit epics Mahabharata and Ramayana have a term -nirdara- reminiscent of the -murdara- here and use it to denote a cave temple. The expressin -Westie- is difficult to reconstruct (the ending -…ie- indicates genetive case like west's for western). SITUATION: Below one Abdegar Ridge (note 3), which dominates the skyline at an unspecified distance in the approximate east of Pasu (Passu). The cave can be reached from Pasu (N36°28': E074°54') with the help of a guide by taking a footpath south of Pasu across a bridge over Hunza River. The cave lies next to a rocky outcrop halfway up the moutain flanks towards the ridge crest and at a point where the mountainside flattens out (note 4) into a narrow plateau (note 5). Check DESIO et al. (1985) for aspects of the geology of the area.