CHANGRU CAVE, Almora District: Garbyang

History

EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1905, circa: Charles Atmore Sherring (then District Commissioner of Almora) seems to have been the first European to visit the cave near »Chhangru« and to notice that some of the bodies are remarkably well preserved (SHERRING, C A 1906 edited 1993: 138-139). 1936, late May: August [Augusto] Gansser, Lugano, from the Swizz Expedition to the Himalaya 1936, assisted by one Paladin from Darjeeling, a Sherpa porter, and a certain »No. 1« (a »Dotial porter« from Doti in south-western Nepal), recorded at the village of »Chagru« oral tradition (cave legend) narrated by Himeti Padani (literally: snow-like made), an old Boro women. Later, he climbed up to the cave entrance with the help of unidentified "aborigines" (no names mentioned) and cared to see the cave properly surveyed (GANSSER, A 1937: 201-208 with cave plan; forwarded by Oliver Knab, Zürich 2013.05.09). 1943: Captain Richard Keith M. Saker [1909*-1979†] and Dr. Gordon Terry »discovered« the locally well-known »series of caves high up in a limestone cliff« and were apparently the first who narrated the military worker's tale according to which the human remains represent »some of Zorawar Singh's invading Dogra soldiers« who simply »had apparently billeted themselves in 1841« (SNELLING, J 1983 edited 1990: 210-211 after unpublished »Saker, R K M 1943« Mss). 1949: Swami PRANAVANANDA (1949: 119 notes 1, 3) published a cursory cave descripton, apparently collected from hearsay information -- the wealth of details, which he usually provides with personally investigated caves, is lacking. 1955: An anonymous newspaper clipping reprinted in the Bulletin of the British Speleological Association reported the "discovery" of this cave for about the third time and moved the location to the Indian side of the Mahakali River but brought the cave to the attention of the caving club's world. compared the skeletons with those found at Rupkund: »A large number of human skulls, bones and skelitons [sic!], similar to those found in Rulkund [sic! qua: Rupkund] , have been discovered in a cave in the village of Changru near Garbyang on the Indo-Tibetan border of the Almora District« (LARGE NUMBER … 1955). 1969: CRAVEN, S A (1969: 28), quoting from LARGE NUMBER … (1955), dedicated two lines on a »cave near Chhangru« in Amora district (India). 1971: CRAVEN, S A (1971: 281), referring to the newspaper cutting RUPKUND TRAGEDY (1955), dedicated two lines to the »cave near Changru (80°51': 30°08') 2 miles ENE of Garbyang« and mislead to the 9th October 1955 issue of the 'The Hindu' (Madras) instead of the The Hindu Weekly Magazine of the same date (page 10, column 5) as it is only the latter which mentions not only Rupkund and human skeletons, but also advertises the parliamentarian Jagmohan Singh Negi Mad, Uttar Pradesh's former Deputy Minister for Forests, who is said to have said on 5th October 1955 in Lucknow, that a further study by nobody less than he himself of »historical records and the photographs taken by Mr. H. K. Madhwal, a U.P. forest officer, of the Rupkund region, pointed to the incontrovertible fact [sic!] that the bodies found were of the men of Zorawar Singh, Commander-in-Chief of the Raja of Jammu, who invaded Western Tibet in 1841-42.« 1993: DUCLUZAUX, B (1993d: 54) had undersood that it was CRAVEN, S A (1969: 28) who indicated a cave at »Chhangre« (sic!) near Garbyang and above the left bank of the Mahakali river but, who knows, perhaps already in Nepal: »Craven (1969) signale une grotte à Chhangre, près de Garbyang. Chhangre semble en rive gauche de la Mahakali, donc au Népal?« Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 25/03/2016