Type: Archaeological Site - Rock Art
Province: Gilgit-Baltistan
District: Skardu
Period: Historic
Relative Chronology: 6th - 4th Century BCE
Description: This site lies along the Skardu- Gilgit road on both sides at the village of same name. Most of the carvings are ibexes, hand prints, male figures and snow leopards etc. After Baghardo Das we can see the site in our right side before reaching the village of Sor Das. Regarding the hand prints, Cunningham says that in the middle of the fourteenth century appeared the great Lama Tsong Khapa, (who originated the yellow sect). Pictures of him are hung up in all the temples and the holy impressions of his hands and feet are said to be preserved in butter in the western chamber of the Potala Monastery. The prints of the grand Lama`s hands were eagerly sought for by the people (Turner, s Tibet, p. 459). A large number of hand prints are preserved on a clay patch near the modern grave yard of Tarkati village. The outspread hands are a favorite emblem in the east. They are seen in the lintels of Jews houses in Palestine and Syria and also in Calcutta. The rock carvings here and in the Indus valley, are represented as armed with bows and arrows. The bodies of the horses are sometimes formed two triangles, the horns of the ibex are exaggerated while in the pictures of the snow leopard the artists always cleverly suggest the cat-like drawing out its body when staking its prey, and the immense length of its tail, which reaches to the tip of its nose when turned over its back. Among the carvings we further noticed geometrical designs, fish, head of a bird, and a pillar and triangle.
Latitude: 35.588050000
Longitude: 75.205270000
Ownership: Private
Legal Status: Not Protected
Title of Publication: Pak-German Archaeological Mission to the Northern Areas of the Heidelberg Academy for the Humanities and Sciences
Published In: Miscellaneous
Year of Publication: Miscellaneous
Bibliography/Reference: Hauptmann, H.
