Some months after the change.org petition to save the Sakyamuni Caves Monastery at Gunung Kanthan, there is finally some good news. This applies not only to the Kanthan monastery, but also to other cave temples and religious sites in general. On 27 January 2024, change.org issued an update "A Commitment to Protecting Sacred Sites: Prime Minister's Pledge to Safeguard Religious Monasteries". There is a link to this Facebook page - And this leads to the next link - It is encouraging news. Let's see what happens as a result. There was a further update on 21 Feb in FMT "Century-old monas ..read more

Thai Monk Cave at Gunung Lanno is now known as Chinaraj Cave monastery. It is located at ground level on the southwest side of Gunung Lanno in Perak, not far from Kong Fook Ngam temple.  I first visited in May 1996. At that time it had a concrete path leading up to it and inside the cave. But about 10 m in there was a locked gate and we could see the cave continuing. There was a store room. To the right was a series of cement tanks/gours and a passage to another entrance. The cave is by a bend in the Sungai Raia.  My next visit was May 1999. The cave had been developed sinc ..read more

In  2008 on the caving expedition to Cambodia, we spent time exploring and surveying caves in the Battambang area. The best known hill is Phnom Sampov (Sampeu). Phnom Sampeu is the famous hill which contains the killing caves and is on the tourist itinerary. It is a striking limestone outcrop with a wat on top. Towards the end of a day spent surveying caves on the hill, we descended and had a look at the northern side, which is on the opposite side to the killing caves. Here we saw Bat Cave.    In our reports, we called the cave La Ang Pracheu. Our description (fro ..read more

 Atlas of the Great Caves and the karst of Southeast Asia,  3rd edition Hot off the press, Dec 2023  Available for sale from the publisher in Germany. Contact me for details ..read more

 The VnExpress on 2 Nov 2023 reported on "Vietnam uncovers oldest human remains".  Skeletal human remains dating back 10,000 years have been found in a cave, making them the oldest human fossils ever unearthed in Vietnam. The remains were found last March at the Tam Chuc Pagoda Complex in Kim Bang District, in the northern province of Ha Nam. At the Tam Chuc complex, archaeologists discovered three graves of children and adults, with the people buried in a kneeling position. There were also mollusc shells and teeth bones of small animals, which could have been food sources ..read more

 An earthquake off northern Sumatra on 7 Nov 2023 apparently caused cracks in the rock at Phi Hua To cave, Krabi, Thailand. The cave has been closed indefinitely after there were small rockfalls and cracks appeared. The cave is in Than Bok Khorani National Park, in Ao Luk district. See Bangkok Post report. I visited the cave on a canoeing trip in 2002, and wrote two blogs, "Canoeing in Than Bokkhorani Park, Krabi" and "Canoeing around Krabi - Star". The cave is best known for its petroglyphs and is known as the Big Headed Monster Cave ..read more

 In 2011 I wrote a blog about Tham Phu Pha Phet in Satun, Thailand, which I had visited with the Axbridge Caving Group in 2001.  The area now comes under the Satun UNESCO Global Geopark, designated in 2018. On 6 November 2023, Nature published a report "Unravelling the hidden diversity of cave mycobiota in Thailand’s Satun Geopark". In 2019 researchers had studied the mycobiota or fungi, in two caves in the Geopark, Le Stegodon and Phu Pha Phet Caves.   From the article : "Satun Province in southern Thailand, recognized as the "Land of Palaeozoic fossils," became the c ..read more

It looks like the Dhamma Sakyamuni Caves Monastery at Gunung Kanthan, Perak is in danger again. The Court of Appeal’s recent decision means the likely forced eviction of the occupants of the monastery. The Court has made a unanimous decision in favour of Associated Pan Malayan Cement (APMC), a subsidiary of YTL, in a land dispute case under Order 89, against the Malaysia Dhamma Sakyamuni Monastery. Once again there could be imminent destruction of the century-old monastery and also the Gunung Kanthan unique distinctive karst landscape, as well as the endemic flora and fauna. On 13 Sept 20 ..read more

 News emerged in mid June 2023 about 86,000-year-old human bone found in Laos cave. The cave is Tam Pà Ling, or Cave of the Monkeys, located about 3,840 feet (1,170 m) above sea level at the top of Pa Ling mountain in northeastern Laos. See Wikipedia on Tam Pa Ling.  Hominin fossils have been found by researchers since 2009 and there were more significant finds in 2013. Dating the bones  indicated a maximum age of 63,000 years, this would be the earliest skeletal evidence for the presence of Homo sapiens in mainland Southeast Asia. The articles released in June 20 ..read more

 In March 2023 it was announced that the new Gombak-Hulu Langat Geopark had been established. This is in Selangor, Malaysia. The Geopark includes Batu Caves and Damai park, as well as Bukit Takun, and the Klang Gates quartz ridge. The Gombak-Hulu Langat Geopark (GHL) was certified as a national geopark on 13 March.  See article in The Star 23 April "Malaysia's new geopark is a geological wonder that's just an hour from KL".  It is the 7th national geopark. Others with karst area are Langkawi, Kinta Valley and Lenggong ..read more