The mystery of 50,000 human bones in Skull Lake on the Sino-Indian border, the cause of death has not yet been solved
In 1942, a forest ranger patrolled Trisur Peak on the Sino-Indian border, and stumbled upon hundreds of human bones next to a glacial lake, and immediately reported it to the British in India, but Governor Victor Hope was too busy arresting Gandhi and Nehru to care about it, and simply confirmed the death toll and did not ask any more.
At first, the British side thought that it was the vanguard of the Japanese army, and wanted to smuggle into the Himalayas to reconnoiter the military, but there was an accident, because it is located in a plateau area, and it is more than 300 kilometers away from China's ** Zada County, even the mountain finches cannot fly over, and the local residents will not go to the deserted ice lake in groups.
But as soon as the summer passed, there was even more alarming news: after the glacial lake melted, more bones were excavated, and thousands of them were scattered around the lake.
In 19, a British human research team in India reassembled the first unearthed skeletons, and the results showed that they were much taller than the Japanese, and they were all adult men, but there were no traces of soldiers, so it was certain that they were not Japanese soldiers.
Due to the limitations of science and technology, as well as the independence of India, the study of glacial lake skulls has been at a standstill, and with the continuous improvement of carbon 14, this question has been raised.
In the past two or three years, National Geographic magazine of the United States has carried out a systematic investigation with more than a dozen archaeologists from Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, and on this basis, 38 well-preserved remains have been found. On the way back, they also went to more than a dozen villages and villages within a few hundred miles of the surrounding area, hoping to get some useful information.
But strangely, in this village, which is rarely visited because of snow-capped mountains and rivers, there is a strange story that in the sixth century, it was the center of the Connoi Empire, and it is said that a king at that time, with his wife, servants, escorts and dancers, came to the southern part of the Dadvi Snow Mountain (this Xi practice continues to this day), but they encountered a snowstorm, were trapped in a canyon, and all the people were buried in the ** of the Trident Snow Mountain.
Located in the Himalayas, the Trident Mountain is shaped like a giant trident, which is also the sword of Shiva in Indian legend, it is located on the right side of the Trident Snow Mountain, which is a lake formed by meltwater on the peak of Trisul, from October to July of the following year is a freezing season, and in summer, there are only a few months to melt.
Because of the unpredictable weather in the Himalayas, coupled with the alternating wet and dry plateaus, the Trident Snow Mountains are also known as "extreme climates", often sunny during the day, and the next second there are snowstorms and even hail.
In the ancient mythological era, the Trident Snow Mountain was a forbidden area for human beings, and because of this, there were countless "temples" and "sacrifices", and the "national saints" and "temples" on the Nanda Devi Snow Mountain were not orthodox temples, but simple altars made of thin stones.
As for this statement, several experts in the cooperation group were disdainful, but they were still very happy: hundreds of people entered the mountain, coupled with a large-scale hail attack, wouldn't this be a perfect solution?
However, as more and more studies of the 38 skeletons were studied, the minds of archaeologists became more and more confused.
The DNA characteristics of the bones did not match those of the indigenous populations on the Sino-Indian border, and they were finally submitted to the UNOC Anthropological Society for genome comparison, and the results showed that out of the 38 remains, only 23 had local overlap with the South Asian genes, and one was from Southeast Asia.
What is even more incomprehensible is that these 14 people are all indigenous to the Mediterranean, such as Greece and Crete, and the age gap between these 38 people is at least 100 years, and the longest one even reached more than 1,000 years.
That is, the causes of their deaths did not occur in the same area at the same time.
Now that scientists have ruled out the cause of individual disasters, the question has become even more acute: why did people travel all the way from the Mediterranean to the great mountains of the Himalayas?How could they die in this icy lake?In addition to external factors, there are also factors such as disease, poisoning, low temperature, lack of oxygen, etc.
National Geographic magazine soon published a documentary titled "The Mystery of the Dead: Skull Lake", which detailed the scientific findings, and later the Indian Centre for Cellular and Molecular Research was involved, and a film called "Himalayas - The Mysterious Frozen Lake" was published, making it one of the world's most popular adventure wilderness destinations from both the perspective of technology and legend.
Both guides are indigenous to the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and one of them said that he was a "descendant of the Connoys" and that he was small and swarthy, but that he was the most famous field guide in the area, and that twelve years had passed under his guidance without a single accident.
The route is popular, but few people can reach it on foot, and there are more than a thousand people a year, most of whom leave at Bedney camp. ”
The Bedney camp is the largest of the steppe villages, with an average height of between 3,500 and 3,800 meters, and is home to a large number of alpine sheep, as well as some wild wild horses and bison. There is a natural snow lake on the plateau of Grassland Village, which was the largest drinking water for mountain people in the early years**, but due to the breeding of a large number of livestock, it has become a drinking area for livestock, and it is also the largest supply station to Bone Lake.
There is no main road west of Bedney, just a 20-centimeter-long winding trail that climbs up the mountain, and another guide told us that from here the temperature drops by 1 to 1 for more than 100 metersAt 5 degrees Celsius, the average climber is a hardy climber, but he does not dare to wear short sleeves after more than 4,000 meters.
But for me, the biggest change is not in the temperature and altitude, but in the green meadows, which start to turn yellow at some point.
At an altitude of more than 4,500 meters, the surrounding vegetation has been completely destroyed, leaving only some scattered rocks and snow, but fortunately it is sunny today and there is no bad climate.
The guide pointed out that this is the ancient Indian legend of "Nanda Devi Peak", we are now on the upper half of the Trisur Peak, at an altitude of more than 5,100 meters, there is no need to climb to the top, just need to walk all the way down the middle of the ridge to reach the Skull Lake.
Although Trisur was conquered by humans in 195, so far only more than 1,000 people have been able to reach the summit, not counting the British General Harold with 220 soldiers in 1950 and two Yugoslav teams in 1960 and 1987, a total of 76 people.
How come there are so few people who reach the top?The weather on Trisur is unpredictable and often landslides occur, and it is very difficult to accurately estimate the wind speed and humidity. In the 21st century, the Indian Army once again issued a ban on Trisur Peak, and no longer allow any commercial or recreational activities to climb the mountain.
Walk down the pass to the right of the trident and you will find one of the "temples" of King Connoi, which, according to the guide, were built by the villagers with these stones, facing the snow-capped mountains of Nanda Devi.
According to the traditional custom of Kannaui, pilgrims would hold a shell as a messenger and pray to Shiva or the earth in the temple to explain the way, and in case of a snowstorm, it means "no traffic". The tour guide demonstrated for a while, and then said: "This is unbelievable, in such a heavy snowfall, you want to move on, it is tantamount to suicide." ”
Below the pass is Skull Lake, and as we took pictures as we walked forward, several teams were walking forward, and some of the brave ones were rummaging around, hoping to find a white skeleton in the snow.
So, where has the research on this lake of bones reached now, and has it solved the mystery of the year?
In fact, we went to Skull Lake in August 2018 and recently found more than 800 skeletons, including horse bones and sheep bonesThere is also the maximum depth of the glacial lake, which is 22 meters.
Four years have passed, and it is not until 2022 that archaeologists have come to the conclusion that the total number of bones has reached more than 50,000, but there are no clues about why the bones are spread across the two continents of Europe and Asia and how they died.
Tips: Whether it's summer, spring or autumn, you should prepare winter clothing, crutches, tents, sleeping bags, first aid medicines, GPS and other necessary items when traveling to Skull Lake, if you are not a professional climber, it is recommended to do it every three or four days, so that you can enjoy more beautiful scenery, and let your body have enough time to adapt to the plateau.