The Lake of Death: Still as Mysterious as When it was Discovered in 1942

8/20/2024

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
A search for rare plants 18,000 feet up the Himalaya Mountains yielded a find, much rarer and macabre than what was being sought.

The lake is located above the highest inhabitable point in the Himalayas

In the summer of 1942, a forest officer found the lake which measures 200 feet long and 150 feet wide. Skeletal remains with tattered clothes littered the shore.

This place is above the highest inhabitable point in the Himalayas. It is remote, and the closest village is almost 20 miles away.

The only other person known to have visited the lake was Lt. Hamilton, a British army officer who arrived in 1942, soon after the forest officer had been there. He brought back with him pieces of clothing and wooden utensils. His ulterior purpose was to verify if the bones belonged to Japanese soldiers that died as they crossed the mountains during WWII.

In 1955, Indian officials returned and they were told about the bodies by the villagers. One of them said, "We were climbing up a steep slope near Trisul Massif when we saw the lake, and all around it several bodies lying in haphazard fashion. As soon as we saw them the villagers with me fled, shouting 'ghost', but I was not afraid and stayed there to examine the bodies."

He described where some of them were covered with a light layer of sand, and others were buried with only their hair showing. There was no "scent of death", but the bodies were bloated. Around the remains were wooden utensils of a type used by Indians who trade into Tibet for churning tea and butter.

An Indian state official was told by frightened villagers that the bodies, all 200 of them were well preserved, despite being there for hundreds of years. They said the remains belonged to a group accompanying a maharajah of Gwalior. He was Raja Jasdhaval, and his wife was the princess Rani Balampa. In one version they were a hunting party, in another they were pilgrims who were visiting the temple of the goddess Nanda Devi. Local folklore said that due to their inappropriate behavior they were struck down by the wrath of the goddess.

According to the book Deep in the Indian Himalaya (2007):

The King of Kannauj a city on the Indian plains, decided to make a pilgrimage in Nanda Devi's honor. He brought a huge entourage with him, including his pregnant wife, servants, dancers and musicians. When they reached Roopkund, they should have dropped the idol of Nanda Devi off to continue the journey to Mt. Kailash on her own. The King, however wanted to go further and insisted everyone continue traveling with him, including his wife, his newborn (born during the trip) the musicians and the dancers. Newborns and their mothers are considered polluted until the appropriate time period has passed and puja has been completed, and musicians and dancers were strictly forbidden to go beyond Roopkund, so as the troupe trekked pass the lake, Nanda Devi became angry at the King's lack of respect for propriety, creating a horrendous storm, killing everyone at Roopkund in its wake.

The human remains at Roop Kund have been well preserved due to the dry, cold air.

The goddess' wrath came in the form of a snowstorm or an avalanche.

The remains were scattered around Lake Roopkund (Rupkund) before the Trisul Peak, in Garhwal close to the Tibetan border. The bones could be seen through the water during the one month when the ice over the lake melts. They were all very fresh with hair and flesh still preserved by the cold air. Besides the human bones are those belonging to horses as well as iron spearheads, rings and leather slippers.

In 2004, 38 of the remains with flesh attached, were brought to the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology by National Geographic magazine. They included men, women and children. There were 23 males and 15 females. Some skeletons had matching DNA. They were tall and had a an extra bone in their skulls.

The skeletons at Roopkund Lake are only accessible during a short period of time when the ice melts

By 2019, it was determined that the sample individuals were clustered around three distinct groups. Twenty-three of them fall within range of present-day South Asians. Fourteen have ancestry belonging to the eastern Mediterranean. There was only one person with Southeast Asian-related ancestry.

Radiocarbon dating indicated the remains were not deposited at the same time. The ones with South Asian ancestry date to 800 A.D., however they all died at the same time. All the others date to 1800 A.D.

A different dietary profile is found for the two groups. Both were generally healthy, but there were three persons with unhealed compression fractures. A theory that has been floated is that they died during a violent hailstorm, which is known to occur in the area. It is believed to be the source for the Nanda Devi story.

There is one group of robust and tall individuals outside the range of almost all South Asians (referring to the territories of the present day countries of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh). The other group is made up of smaller and thinner individuals

In some cases the males and females had similar proportions, making it difficult to believe they were part of a military expedition. None of them were closer than three degrees, which dispels the belief they belonged to the same family. The sex of the individuals was accomplished by computing the ratio of the number of sequences that align to the X chromosome versus the Y chromosome.

There was one person between the age of 20 to 35, 10 people were between the age of 35 to 49 and six were in the 50+ age group. Approximate age could not be determined for six of them.

Examination of 20 skulls found they suffered from a short term lack of Iron and Vitamin C and D, which is consistent with a prolonged trek towards the Roopkund where fresh food and sunlight are in short supply.

One of the skulls had a fracture but it was sustained before death, and it was completely healed.

Both groups ate plants and animals.

The later group correspond more closely with inhabitants of present day Crete.

None of the groups had any genetic ties to groups from the Himalayan region.

Later research finds that Roopkund Lake is not on any major trade route, but is a present-day pilgrimage route. The Nanda Devi Raj Jat pilgrimage occurs every 12 years, however description of the ritual do not appear until the late 19th century, but there are inscriptions in nearby temples dating to between the 8th and 10th centuries.

The true amount of human remains at the lake is estimated to be about 200 or more

The later group appear to be descended from an Indo-Greek population established after the time of Alexander the Great. The group is men and women who are not related, and were born in the eastern Mediterranean during the time it was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Hindu practices were not common in this area of the world, which would not agree with the theory they were pilgrims.

It was earlier believed by the local populace that the skulls were of General Zorawar Singh of Kashmir and his men, who had gotten lost, and died in the middle of the Himalayan region after they got caught in bad weather while returning from the battle of Tibet in 1841.

Other theories are that they were the victims of an epidemic, or a suicide ritual performed near the lake.

The estimate of how many dead are strewn around the lake range from 200 to as much as 800. Since no count has ever been done, and many of them have been removed over the years, the exact number will probably never be determined.

Despite the genetic analysis of the remains, a true cause of death is yet to be determined. Many of the bodies have not been examined. What has been established is that they did not die due to an epidemic, neither was their deaths attributable to battle. There were no weapons found nearby.

An anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania offered an explanation that the area is a graveyard, which could account how they all ended up in the lake, since it's unlikely all the individuals would expire at the lake's edge. However since they are not connected genetically to any local groups, it does not explain why this would be used as a cemetery.

The belief that there was evidence that many had died due to a skull fracture is found not to be accurate after the examination of the skulls. The reason for their deaths, or how they all came to be at this place is still a mystery.

In 2009, the Chamoli district administration had decided to develop the area as an eco-tourism destination.