Meditation Caves, Mustang, Nepal

A black and white photo of meditation caves on a cliff face near the Kali Gandaki gorge in Mustang, Nepal

Upper Mustang is a dry desert landscape with occasional small fertile valleys.

These dry, wind-eroded cliffs are in a side valley from the main Kali Gandaki gorge that runs north to south through Mustang. The side valley heads east to our destination, Luri Gompa (Monastery).

There are thousands of meditation caves in Buddhist Mustang, dating back a thousand years. Whole monastery complexes appear to have been built in these inaccessible rock faces but there is no written history to explain their numbers.

Now, they're sometimes used by shepherds.

A guide to approx sizes
A3: paper size 42x29.7cm, image size 40x28cm
A2: paper size 59.4x42cm, image size 57x40cm
70x50cm paper size, image size 68x48cm