Talk:Roopkund

A fact from Roopkund appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 25 March 2005. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Skeleton Lake in India is named after the remains of approximately 600 people who died there in a sudden hailstorm?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2005/March.

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Untitled

'Skeleton Lake and 'Roopkund' is the same thing .Name 'Roopkund' indicates geographic location and only popular name in India. So,better merge both the articles under single name 'Roopkund'.Tribhuwan

Agreed. Please go ahead and do so if you feel motivated. Wachholder0 00:33, 19 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

WP:INDIA Banner/Uttarakhand workgroup Addition

Note: {{WP India}} Project Banner with Uttarakhand workgroup parameters was added to this article talk page because the article falls under Category:Uttarakhand or its subcategories. Should you feel this addition is inappropriate , please undo my changes and update/remove the relavent categories to the article -- TinuCherian ^{(Wanna Talk?)} - 13:55, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Legends - how much weightage to be given?

It is a proven fact that hundreds of skeletons are found in the lake. But, there is no historical reliable records for the reasons of this find. Legends say that hail stones of size of cricket balls killed a large group pilgrims and some sources are also available for these legends. My question is, how much weightage/importance is to be given for this legend/legends in the body of the article? Some importance is appropriate, as there are no other proven reliable records for the reasons of such a large number of skeletons in the lake. Rayabhari (talk) 04:56, 30 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Ongoing edit conflict regarding altitude of the lake

We seem to have an ongoing lack of consensus regarding the lake's altitude and whether or not it should be converted. Can we please discuss this before further changes are made? Thanks.

Cadar (talk) 17:39, 24 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

nature.com article

Research published @ nature.com suggests that the remains are from ~800CE and ~1800CE, eastern Mediterran and Southeast Asian individuals. Andree.sk (talk) 13:50, 22 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

1800 CE is what it says in the nature article CE Common Era , ie AD. This has been morphed to BC in the article as well as in popular press coverage. (Perhaps using an obscure but politically correct terminology isn't such a great idea after all!) -- Gjxj (talk) 20:33, 22 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Some more information

I started some research on this mysterious lake (or tarn) out of disbelief that the disarticulated state of the skeletons there was due to the activity of contemporary hikers/tourists -- the skeletal remains are in such disarray & the location is so distant that I can't believe modern insensitive tourists are solely to blame -- which led me to [this link https://jaguardian.org/2024/05/05/the-mystery-of-roopkund-lake-axel-scaramuzzi-27/], which adds some more information. I've not added these assertions to the article because I'm uncertain about the reliability of this source.

"In 1898, Roopkund lake’s skeleton remains were first mentioned by T. G. Longstaff, a British doctor, soldier, mountaineer." This article is the first to mention Longstaff as the initial discoverer, so I'd be more comfortable to find another source that confirms this fact.
"In 1956, the skeletons and artifacts recovered from the lake were studied." How much information about the lake & the skeletons is provided in the publication about this study? Assuming it was published & can be found.

My own thoughts:

There one theory for these bodies is that they are somehow connected the army of the Dogra warrior Zorawar Singh, who invaded Tibet in 1841. This would be a unit of that army that had lost its way while leaving Tibet. Could this explain the more recent group of skeletons? (The older group would have been pilgrims in an older precursor to a ritual pilgrimage currently practiced, who died while en route.)
I'm still unconvinced that all of the disturbance to these skeletons is due to contemporary visitors. Doubtless there have been some modern visitors who have collected "souvenirs" from around the lake. However, the lake is difficult for anyone but determined travelers to reach, & there are only a few times in the year the lake is accessible: a few weeks at the end of May & early June, then another few weeks in September & October. Even then, as is typical in any mountain range, the weather can turn & prevent any visiting party from reaching the lake. The numbers of tourists, let alone tourists intent on disturbing the site, can't be that large. -- llywrch (talk) 16:33, 1 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]