Phra Nang Cave cleared of sex toys

Apparently the sex toys have been removed from Tham Phra Nang, at Railay beach near Ao Nang, Krabi, Thailand. See this report from 27 Oct 2014 'Krabi Cave Cleared of Sex Toys'. It says "clear the cave of hundreds of phallic-shaped wood carvings and sex toys".

However the Phuket Gazette - 'Hardwood only: sex toy found lodged in sacred cave' - suggests that only the silicone sex toys will be removed and the wooden phalluses will stay. 




I blogged about the cave in 2008. I was back in Krabi in early Oct 2014 but I didn't go to the cave on that visit.

Blue hair Buddha in cave temples

In recent years, I've seen statues of Buddha with blue hair in cave temples around Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

I've searched the internet to try and learn about the blue haired Buddha, but have found nothing factual.

Some reports say it represents the medicine Buddha. Another report says Tibetan Buddha statues have blue hair as the color of the vairocana jewel is blue.

Da Seng Ngan at Gunung Lanno has an upstairs room dedicated to the blue hair Buddha.

 

 

There is also a single statue with blue hair in the group of Buddhas in the main entrance area -

 More photos of the upstairs Buddhas in 2014 -

Nam Loong Ngam at Gunung Layang Layang also has the blue haired Buddha :

Can anyone tell me the real meaning of the blue haired Buddha?

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UPDATE -
See my 2016 blog on Da Seng Ngan and the blue hair


© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Mulu article by Hanbury Tenison in Daily Telegraph

A very nice article on Mulu by Robin HANBURY-TENISON was published in the Daily Telegraph, 11 Oct,2014.

Malaysia's Gunung Mulu national park: revisiting one of the most spectacular rainforests on earth.

Robin Hanbury-Tenison was on the first Mulu expedition in 1977, organised by the RGS and lasting 15 months. He published a book, "Mulu, the rain forest".

Sulawesi cave paintings now older than first thought

Exciting news about the age of the cave paintings at Maros in Sulawesi, Indonesia. They are now said to be older than first thought.

I saw some of these paintings in 1994. My blog on Cave of Hands and an article I wrote for The Star.


The paintings at Leang Burung 2 were originally dated by Glover to between c.31,000-20,000 BP. The paintings are quite well known and include red ochre hand stencils and paintings of animals such as babirusa - an endemic wild suid [Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science, 2004].

Now Dr Maxime Aubert of Griffith University, Queensland, Australia has redated the paintings. The oldest is at least 40,000 years old. The minimum age for the hand stencil is 39,999 years old, which makes it the oldest hand stencil in the world. The babirusa or pig has a minimum age of 35,400 years. Other paintings are 27,000 years old, which means the inhabitants were painting for at least 13,000 years.

Until now, paintings this age have only been known from caves in Western Europe.

These new dates for the Sulawesi caves mean that ideas about our evolution will have to be revised. Maybe art came out of Africa, not from Europe.

In northern Spain, cave paintings at El Castillo have been dated at 37,300 years old (41K). They are similiar to the ones at Bone, which is 100 km north of Maros. The famous paintings of animals at Chauvet Cave in France are about 37,000 years old. Some Australian rock art is thought to be of a similiar age but the dates are not confirmed. The oldest confirmed Australian rock painting is 27,000 years old at the Arnhem Land site of Nawarla.

The Maros ages were determined by measuring ratios of isotopes of uranium and thorium in tiny stalactites that had formed on top of the paintings.

The paintings at Bone could not be dated because the stalactite growths do not occur.

The scientific paper was published in Nature 514, 9 Oct 2014.

Other refs :

SEAArch

BBC    (it is worth watching the video on this link)

 Australian Geographic

The Guardian 

National Geographic

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Kanthan's lafargei snail in international news

End of August saw a flurry of pieces in the international media about the newly described Gunung Kanthan snail that is named after the quarry company Lafaarge who are destroying the hill. The snail is called Charopa lafargei, and is endemic to Gunung Kanthan. The scientific paper was published in Basteria, (2014) 78(1-3).

Mongabay on 24 August 2014 had this piece, "Scientists name new endangered species after the company that will decide its fate".

The Guardian in the UK published this piece on 25 August 2014, "A tiny, rare snail in Malaysia has big consequences for global cement giant".

The Epoch Times, 26 Aug, "Tiny Endangered Snail Named for Company".

CemNet.com 27 Aug, "New species of snail discovered in Lafarge Malaysia limestone quarry".

Global Cement on 28 Aug, "Future of Charopa lafargei snail in hands of Lafarge Malaysia".

Espandar Cement News , "Future of Charopa lafargei snail in hands of Lafarge Malaysia".

Novataxa BlogSpot on 24 Aug, "[Mollusca • 2014] ‘Charopa’ lafargei • A New, presumed narrowly Endemic Species (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Charopidae) from Peninsular Malaysia".

Then the Malaysian papers :
The Star 30 Aug published "New snail species found".

Malay Mail, 2 Sept
In Ipoh, rare snail named after cement giant is safe, says French quarry company

Ipoh Echo, No 197, 16-30 Sept
New Snail Species Discovered In Kinta Valley

Crystal removal from caves - highlighted in Descent

The removal of crystals from caves in Malaysia is a continuing problem. I have blogged about it earlier in 2014 and also in 2011. I also wrote a small piece in the international caving magazine Descent, published in England, issue 223.

Now I have had another piece published in Descent 239, Aug/Sept 2014 :

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Quarrying of Bukit Sagu & Bukit Tenggek, Pahang

Bukit Sagu in Pahang is being quarried by Pahang Cement / YTL. The neighbouring Bukit Tenggek is also being quarried. These 2 hills are among a group of 4 limestone hills located west of Kuantan, the others being Bukit Charas and Bukit Panching - the latter has been totally removed by quarrying. This is a GE image of the 4 hills in 2003, from south to north = Panching, Charas, Sagu, Tenggek -

Pahang Cement was established in 1995 as a 50:50 joint venture between the State Government of Pahang Darul Makmur and YTL Cement. The purpose of the joint venture was to build and operate the proposed integrated cement plant to be located in Bukit Sagu, Kuantan. The plant, the first of its kind in the Eastern Corridor, became operational in May 1998. YTL Cement acquired the remaining 50% of Pahang Cement in 2003. Pahang Cement Sdn Bhd (Pahang Cement) operates a state-of-the-art integrated cement plant in Bukit Sagu with the capacity to produce over 1.2 million tonnes of ordinary portland cement per annum. See more on YTL.

General view of the west side Bukit Sagu, with a large vertical opening on the left side -

View of Sagu from YTL plant -

and the YTL cement trucks waiting to take away the hill

View from the north end

1997 views -

 2003 GE -

The untouched southern end -

Bukit Tenggek in 2003 & 2011 -

2014 from west side -

 and 1997 view -

FLORA and FAUNA

Both hills have caves and are home to endemic flora and fauna. Of special interest, Bukit Tenggek is home to a snail, Hypselostoma elephas, listed on IUCN Red List as critically endangered. Another critically endangered endemic snail is Plectostoma tenggekensis. More on the snails on Red Orbit and Washington Post.
The hill is also home to Calciphilopteris alleniae, a fern known from only 5 limestone hills in the peninsula. Paraboea bakeri is an endemic species, it can be found only in small shaded populations on the limestone hills in two localities; Bukit Sagu and Bukit Tenggek, see FRIM report.
See more on Siputkuning blog.

ARCHAEOLOGY
These 2 hills are also archaeological sites. Gua Sagu was investigated briefly by Tweedie in 1935, he found pottery and stone implements. Then more recently in 1990 and 1991, staff from the Centre for Archaeological Research, USM and the Department of Museums and Antiquities, made excavations in Gua Sagu and Gua Tenggek. They found a lot of stone tools and some pottery/earthernware and food remains in Gua Sagu. Gua Tenggek revealed similar finds. They concluded that the sites were occupied during the Pleistocene around 14,000 years ago by a Palaeolithic group of people. See ref.

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UPDATE May 2015
IUCN published a report on global species and the snail Plectostoma sciaphilum that was found on Bukit Panching was mentioned. This hill has been completely quarried.

My photo of Bukit Panching taken 1993

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UPDATE 2016

Quarrying of Bukit Sagu & Bukit Tenggek, Pahang 2016

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UPDATE 2020

By 2019 both hills were almost completely destroyed and apparently by 2020 were gone. See Twitter .

So it looks like the endemic snail could be no more.

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© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission