KHYUNG LUNG (Troglodyte settlement of)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

An abandoned troglodyte settlement above the bank of Sutlej river, situated to the west of Kailash / Manasarovar, without road access, and at a walking distance of about two days (30 km) west-south-west of Tirthapuri. Several hundred abandoned caves are cut from fluvial and/or hydrothermal accumulations. Khyunglung (in Tibetan: khyung lung) was formerly a famous Bön monastery, founded in the 13th century AD. NOT SEEN: MOORCROFT (1815, 1816 edited 1817-1818, 1937, 1987); SHERRING (1906: 336-337). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1909: Kyung-lung monastery is poised like a swallow's nest on the top of a singularly modelled pebble terrace. The rain water has washed out cones and shafts, walls and towers in its steep front… A building on a lower shelf is said to contain monk's cells and storerooms. Dark holes and embrasures in the vertical wall of the terrace indicate cave-dwellings. A splendid position … (HEDIN 1909-1912a, 1909-1912b, 1991, III: 187). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1949: Situated at a walking disance of 15.3 km … down Guru-gem and on the left bank of Sutlej, is the village of Khyunglung … volcanic area … There are a few houses situated in caves, dug out from a huge mound of thousands of tons of calcium [more likely: calcareous tufa] deposits. … Crossing the bridge to the right bank, there is a vast area … formed into huge columns like the ruins of a fort. Several caves were dug into these spires, most of which are now desolate (PRANAVANANDA 1949 edited 1983: 105-106, illustration 71). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1957: HUMMEL (1957: 626) quotes from PRANAVANANDA (1949: 105-106). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1990: … one of the most important centres of the early Bön cults was Zhang Zhang, an ancient frontier kingdom … It's capital was latterly at the Silver Castle of Khyunglung just to the west of Kailash. … the desiccated mountainside is honeycombed with literally thousands of dug-out caves … A fascinating place, begging for proper archaeological investigations (SNELLING 1990: 29, 373-375, 411; phtograph on page 28).