It was assumed by researchers at that time that rival warrior groups were the ones sacrificed OR more recently people might have assumed that it was virgin women who were sacrificed.
So, it is blowing everyone away now to discover it was boys under 6 years old and often they were twins or related to each other in some way.
So, this is a big revelation in the whole Anthropology community to discover this by researching the actual DNA of the victims themselves.
At that time (late 1980s and early 1990s) I was interested in becoming a Cultural Anthropologist and my then wife and I were interested in trying to chronicle Tibetan Culture because then it was being wiped out by China and people were prevented from Worshipping Tibetan Buddhism or they were killed for worshipping their religion.
Partly because of the compassionate stance of people like the Dalai Lama combined with surviving at over 8000 feet in elevation we felt that this culture had a lot to teach the world regarding both cultural and physical survival in difficult circumstances. AT that time we had traveled into India and Nepal but didn't go into Tibet because we didn't want our children to die driving in a bus over the 20,000 foot pass between Kathmandu, Nepal and Lhasa, Tibet. A friend of ours had taken a bus over the Himalayas and had come across a bus load of tourists from all over dead at altitude when the bus broke down at the top of the pass. After hearing this that even 1 year later their bodies were still mummified by the temperatures and couldn't easily be recovered we didn't want that to happen to us or our children. So, we trekked in the Himalayas in Helambu nearer to Kathmandu and Mt. Everest instead with our children and trekked about 50 miles total sometimes hiring porters to help carry our heavy back packs. We were snowed on in Tarke Gyang too.
They had open beamed ceilings without chimneys where the smoke went out and they built their fires in the middle of the room which made the ceilings above black from soot and smoke and then the smoke went out the eves they built for the smoke release. However, they did not heat their homes even in a snow storm so if you wanted to be warm you dressed appropriately even indoors so the only time you were warm is when they were cooking over the open fire in the living room.
Here is more on Tarke Gyan where we trekked to. It was somewhere between 9000 and 10,000 feet in elevation.
Note: we never became Anthropologists mostly because we separated a few years later and I remarried by 1995. However, all my children and I including my new wife then are all grown up now and close to us and we all visit as often as we can. end note.
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