SASPOL (Caves of)

Histoire

EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1860.08.10-11: Captain William Henry KNIGHT (1863 Diary: 1860) and his acronymous, if not anonymous mate »F« (note 9) spent a night near »Suspul« (Saspol) without noticing any »caves« or wall paintings: 1860.08.10: »From Nurila we travelled along the Indus bank to Suspul, a distance of seven kos or thereabouts, stopping for breakfast at a village whose entire population consisted of one woman! The river being shut in by high and rocky mountains, our path took several most abrupt turns and startling ascents and descents in its meanderings, and proved altogether the worst for coolies to travel that we had as yet encountered. The greater part of our march, too, was under a burning sun, whose rays the rocks on either side of us reflected in anything but an agreeable way, giving thereby a considerable addition of colour to our already well-bronzed countenances. Near Suspul we had to take to the water, as a mass of overhanging rock jutted into the river and completely obstructed the path … Suspul we found situated in a half-moon shaped break of fertility among the barren mountains. The snow was within half an hour's climb, while at the same time the sun shone with such power as to blister our faces, and even to affect the black part of the expedition, rendered somewhat tender, no doubt, by the unusual mixture of heat and cold to which they had already been exposed. We encamped here under a grove of apricot and apple-trees, which resulted in the production of an apple-dumpling for dinner« (KNIGHT, W H 1863 Diary: 1860 August 10)1860.08.11: »Leaving Suspul, we ascended considerably to the village of Buzgo, another of the cloud-built little settlements so dear to the Lamas. The tenements were most picturesquely pitched upon the extreme tips of almost perpendicular rocks, and to many of them access seemed apparently impossible. Leaving this, we entered upon a desert of shifting sand and stones, in the midst of which there was an unusually long wall of the inscribed stones, one of which, although containing the same inscription, was of a different pattern from any I had hitherto discovered« (KNIGHT, W H 1863 Diary: 1860 August 11). 2014.09.07: »Von Leh aus machen wir einen Ausflug ins 62 km westlich entfernte Saspol. Hier oberhalb eines kleinen Dorfes, mit vielen Apfel- und Aprikosenbäumen befinden sich die Saspol Caves. Oben auf dem Hügel trohnt eine altes Fort mit Lehmwänden und einem super Blick hinunter ins Indus Tal. Das Fort stammt aus der Zeit des Königs Namgyal. An staunenden Dorfbewohnern und bellenden Hunden vorbei brauchen wir einige Zeit bis wir den richtigen Fußpfad zu den Höhlen finden« (Straub, R 2015.06.05 Mss). Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 18/05/2016