Posted by
Rick on Monday, May 21, 2007 2:50:58 PM
From Yahoo.com,
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Explorers have discovered a series of caves decorated with ancient Buddhist paintings, set in sheer cliffs in Nepal's remote Himalayan north, leaving archaeologists excited and puzzled.
An international team of scholars, archaeologists, climbers and explorers examined at least 12 cave complexes at 14,000 feet near Lo Manthang, a mediaeval walled city in Nepal's Mustang district, about 125 km (80 miles) northwest of Kathmandu.
The caves contain paintings that could date back as far as the 13th century, as well as Tibetan scripts executed in ink, silver and gold and pre-Christian era pottery shards.
"Who lived in those caves? When were they there, when were (the caves) first excavated and how did the residents access them, perched as they are on vertical cliffs?" asked Broughton Coburn, an American member of the survey team.
"It's a compelling, marvelous mystery."
Explorers from the United States, Italy and Nepal used ice axes and ropes to climb to the caves, cutting steps in the cliff face as they went.
If you ask me, the "monks" made these caves BACK when the earth's water table was MUCH higher and accessing these caves was less of a chore! Isn't this what Algore or L Ron Gore likes to have us believe? Wait-a-minute! Just because the earth's ocean levels MAY flood the earth in the future, doesn't mean that they have in the past! This L Ron Gore principle flies in the FACE of accepted environmental philisophy today.
My tiny brain can't remember the term, but there is one to describe the assumption that scientists make that there are no differences in the environment today versus the environment of the past. Things are as they are now today because it is how they were back then. Again, my little brain can't remember what this term is, but it DOES remember reading about it in a science book from either middle school or high school. If any of you can remember this term, don't be shy about it! Share it with me!