The Sky Caves of Mustang

High in Nepal's Mustang district, above 3,000 metres, ten shaft tombs at Samdzong open onto a sheer cliff face. Inside lay scraps of metal and glass beads that had crossed the Himalaya, and a funerary mask of gold and silver that has become famous. At Mebrak, eight levels of burials survived beneath bird guano with their organic goods intact. Genomes from both sites show a population of high-altitude East Asian origin, stable across the centuries, with Tibetan-related ancestry present in the Himalayas by about 1420 BCE. The twelve here were laid to rest between the fourth century BCE and the seventh century CE. Village and descendant-community representatives were present during sampling, and the collections remain in village care.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Ancient genomes from the Himalayas illuminate the genetic history of Tibetans and their Tibeto-Burman speaking neighbors.

Every Ancestry Map includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances. That is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Sky Caves of Mustang are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about Ancestry Map, the full Global25 report.

• 01

  Who were the Sky Caves of Mustang?

  The Sky Caves of Mustang (c. 400 BCE-700 CE, Samdzong and Mebrak, Mustang, Nepal) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 12 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "Ancient genomes from the Himalayas illuminate the genetic history of Tibetans and their Tibeto-Burman speaking neighbors".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Sky Caves of Mustang mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

• 03

  Are they my ancestor?

  No, and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

• 04

  How do I see my own distance to the Sky Caves of Mustang?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestry Map, never sold separately. Order Ancestry Map, our Global25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers. Browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

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