The Unexplained Travelers of India's Skeleton Lake

ROOPKUND, THE SKELETON LAKE In 2013 the headlines said the mystery was solved: ninth-century people, killed in a hailstorm. The bones disagreed. In 2019 a team led by Éadaoin Harney, then a graduate student in David Reich's lab at Harvard Medical School, sequenced 38 genomes and dated 37 of them directly. The people in the lake were not one group. Twenty-three fall inside the range of present-day South Asians; fourteen sit closest to Greek and Cretan groups; one is Southeast Asian-related. The older group died around the year 800. The rest died around the year 1800 — a thousand years apart, with no relative pairs found among them. The physical-anthropology report published with that study is careful: three unhealed fractures, and hail “a reasonable suggestion” for some of the deaths. The rest of the explanation is still missing. Roopkund sits at 5,029 metres at the foot of a steep slope on Trisul, about 40 metres across, frozen for most of the year, a five-day trek from habitation. It is not on a major trade route. It is on the pilgrimage route: the Nanda Devi Raj Jat, which comes through Roopkund about every twelve years. Sources for every claim are in the description. 0:00 What the snow gives back 0:51 The shore 2:02 The answer that fit 3:41 Thirty-eight people 5:12 The travellers of 1800 6:42 What three skulls can say 8:03 A path still walked 9:45 The lake today 11:06 What the bones will not say SOURCES [1] Harney et al. (2019), “Ancient DNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in India”, Nature Communications 10:3670 — https://www.nature.com/articles/s4146... [2] Harney et al. (2019), Supplementary Information (Supplementary Note 2, physical anthropology assessment, Walimbe ed.) — https://reich.hms.harvard.edu/sites/r... [3] The Times of India, 31 Oct 2004, “Team unravels bones' mysteries” — https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c... [4] The New Yorker, 14 Dec 2020, “The Skeletons at the Lake” — https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20... [5] BBC News, 28 Feb 2021, “The mystery of India's 'lake of skeletons'” — https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-i... [6] BBC Travel, Jul 2021, “The unsolved mystery of Skeleton Lake” — https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20... [7] BBC Reel, “The ancient mystery of the Himalayan 'Skeleton Lake'” — https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p08mqn... [8] India Today, 31 May 2013, “Roopkund lake's skeleton mystery solved!” — https://www.indiatoday.in/india/north... [9] ETV Bharat (Hindi), 23 Jan 2026, “Kurud announces 2026 Badi Nanda Jat; Nauti sets Raj Jat for 2027” — https://www.etvbharat.com/hi/bharat/n... [10] ETV Bharat (Hindi), 5 Sep 2026, “Nanda Raj Jat, Badi Jat and Lok Jat explained” — https://www.etvbharat.com/hi/bharat/n... [11] ETV Bharat (Hindi), 22 Sep 2026, “Badi Jat puja completed at Homkund” — https://www.etvbharat.com/hi/state/na... [12] Himalaya Trekker (trek operator), 31 Jul 2026, “Bugyal camping ban lifted in Uttarakhand” — https://himalayatrekker.com/trek-upda... [13] Supreme Court of India, daily cause list for 20 Jul 2026 — https://api.sci.gov.in/jonew/cl/2026-... [14] Dainik Bhaskar (Hindi), Jul 2026, “Supreme Court removes 3 bugyal restrictions” — https://www.bhaskar.com/local/uttarak... [15] Amar Ujala (Hindi), 28 Jul 2026, “overnight-stay ban in high bugyals lifted after 8 years” — https://www.amarujala.com/dehradun/ba... PHOTO CREDITS “Bedhni Kund, Uttarakhand” by Abhijith Shastry, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Some details are disputed, including who first reported the site and how many skulls show hail-type injuries. The film says so.