The Sinja Valley is located in the

Jumla District Jumla District (), is one of the ten districts of Nepal, districts of the Karnali Province, Karnali province of Nepal. This district has Jumla (town), Jumla as its headquarters, an area of ; it had populations of 89,427 and 108,921, respectivel ...

Karnali Province Karnali Province () is one of the seven federal provinces of Nepal formed by the new constitution, which was adopted on 20 September 2015. The total area of the province is , making it the largest province in Nepal with 18.97% of the country's ...

, of

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. The valley was the ancient capital city of the

Khasa Kingdom Khasa-Malla kingdom (), popularly known as Khasa Kingdom () and Yatse () in Tibetan, was a medieval kingdom established around the 11th century in regions that are presently in far-western Nepal and parts of Uttarakhand state in India. The ...

and is considered a historically significant place. The valley is also considered as the birthplace of

Nepali language Nepali (; , ), or ''Gorkhali'' is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official and most widely spoken Languages of Nepal, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a ''lingua fr ...

Site description

The valley houses the ancient capital city of the

Khasas Khasas (Sanskrit: खश, ) were an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe and a late Janapada kingdom from Himalayan regions of northern Indian subcontinent mentioned in the various historical Indian inscriptions and ancient Indian Hindu and Tibetan litera ...

that ruled this area from the 12th to the 14th century. Palaces, temples, and the ancient remains of a settlement were uncovered during excavations spearheaded by the Department of Archaeology at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. Major finds from the site include a large network of underground pipes that formed a complex water delivery system as well as a ring of massive monolithic stone columns circumscribing the settlement.Sinja valley - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
/ref> On the cliffs at the valley edge were found some of the earliest written examples of

History

The Khasa kingdom fragmented into twenty-two individual kingdoms after the 14th century, which then remained until Nepal was unified in the 18th century. The founder the Khasa kingdom of Sinja valley was Nagraj. Across from the Hima River there are caves with ancient votive Buddhist chaityas and cliff inscriptions. Even today the ancient rites of the Masto (Shamans) are practiced in many of the stone Dewals or temples. The Sinja Valley was where the Nepali language originates from and the earliest examples of the Devanagari script from the 13th century were found on the cliffs and in nearby Dullu.

World Heritage Status

This site was added to the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Tentative List on January 30, 2008 in the Cultural category.

Notes

References

Sinja valley - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Retrieved 2009-03-03. {{Commons category, Sinja Valley Culture of Nepal Jumla District Archaeological sites in Nepal Valleys of Nepal