Secret towers of the Himalayas

[Evo]

Astronuc, this is the show with the Tibetan Sky burial, if I am not mistaken.

This is a wonderful show about the stone towers of Tibet. It's on the science channel tonight at 9PM CST here, you might want to check your local listings.

[Astronuc]

Hey, thanks Evo, it's on here. If I miss it at 10 pm, and could watch it 0100 or 0500. :tongue2:

Something you might find interesting - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederique_Darragon

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Towering_Mysteries.html

www.stonefoundation.org/stonexus/snx7issue/startowers.pdf <<< nice article

[Mk]

I remember watching a show on the Discovery channel about these tall stone towers in Tibet, it was very interesting. If it is the same show, I recommend it, if not, I'm sure it will also be good :) Thanks, Evo.

[Evo]

I remember watching a show on the Discovery channel about these tall stone towers in Tibet, it was very interesting. If it is the same show, I recommend it, if not, I'm sure it will also be good :) Thanks, Evo.It's the same show.

Either I missed it or they cut the Air Burial scene a bit. I remember them saying that the reason the monks choose this is so that they would spare an animal's life by feeding the vultures with their bodies.

[Astronuc]

I finally saw the show. WOW! Far out!

They did show one of the sky burials, but it was not associated with one of the towers. They have a slab where a special group of men cuts up the body and tosses the parts to the vultures.

Age of towers:
The oldest towers are those found at the highest altitude, in Kongpo in the southeast of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. One wood sample from that region was dated from between 780 to 1040 AD; another from 900 to 1140 (of course, the wood samples might be older than the tower itself, so, bearing this in mind, she was careful to sample smaller pieces of wood which was less likely to have been reused.)

Of 58 towers dated, the youngest were found to be around 500 years old: the oldest could have been built as long as 1200 years ago. It is an interesting coincidence that the era of tower building here, 900–1400, corresponded roughly to the great era of cathedral (and tower) building in Europe.


Frederique Darragon has a website - http://www.unicornfoundation.org/page/english/inthenews.asp

[Evo]

I'm a Frederique Darragon wannabe. A truly amazing woman.

[Astronuc]

I'm a Frederique Darragon wannabe. A truly amazing woman. She was apparently planning to study snow leopards, but a colleague suggested she go see the towers. She saw a few, abandoned the leopard study, and ended up cataloguing the towers. She's trying to get the towers and parts of the region declared a World Heritage site under UNESCO.

Four regions: Qiangtang, rGyalrong, Miniak and Kongpo have towers with the oldest towers being in Kongpo, which is westernmost. Perhaps the towers toward the east were simply copied for reasons of prestige. There is a lot of history in that area. The people speak dialects some of which are related to Tibetan.

[Ouabache]

That video sounds like one I would like to see.

Darragon was especially intrigued by the more than 40 roughly star-shaped towers she encountered. Some have 8 points, others 12. In both configurations, star-shaped towers are rare, scholars say. ref (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Towering_Mysteries.html)

It is interesting they found 8 and 12 pointed star-shapred towers. Both 8 and 12 have special meaning in Chinese culture.
Eight is a particularly lucky number, believed to be linked to wealth and prosperity. They felt strongly enough about it, to begin their Olympic games on 8/8/08 at 8 seconds and 8 minutes past 8 pm.
For twelve, there are 12 Earthly Branches (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthly_Branches), in their organization of time, leading to 12 years in zodiac cycle, 12 months in year, 12 units in a day.

The oldest towers she dated (1200yrs old), could have been built during the Tang Dynasty (http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/imperial2.html#tang), which is considered a high point in Chinese civilization. Buddhism flourished as well as literature and art, duiring the Tang period.