Saddan (Farm) Cave, Mawlamyine, Myanmar

After surveying the cave temple known as Farm Cave, we walked over to Saddan Cave.

This was also called Farm Cave in colonial times. The colonial records describe fauna collections, which were done in Saddan Cave in the 19th c. These caves are located in Kayon Hill just outside Mawlamyine in Myanmar. Mawlamyine (Moulmien) is the capital of the Mon state. We visited in 2009.

We walked through an avenue of palms to Saddan Cave.

There’s a wooden house for the monks at the base of the steps. When we visited workmen were making 2 elephants from Rhino brand cement, and they seem to be building a new road.

2 young monks took us through the Saddan cave

The cave is surprisingly big. There are Buddhas in the entrance passage,

then the huge main chamber, and we climbed up to a very small upper entrance.

At the small entrance the monklets and our guide Min went out and left us, so we went back in and began surveying.

There is some great stal in the cave.

Saw a root going through the stal wall.

The cave is not long, but it is wide and high, maybe 60m x 60m x 60m. Pity we didn’t have a disto to measure it accurately.

In the main entrance chamber a steep slope leads to an upper entrance, which we climbed so guessed the chamber height to be around 60m. Outside was a large Cycas, and I later saw many more on the cliff, all quite brown now in the dry season. There are also macaques on the hill.

The cave has some huge boulders, and 1 Buddha inside. Saw lots of crickets, 2 whip spiders, millipedes and small spiders, and 1 Thereupoda. Lots of fruit bats, but little guano, and not much invertebrate life considering the fauna reports.

guano on rocks

I saw graffiti from 1909 and 1922, but Helmut saw some from 1880s.

On the way out, I had time to take more photos

See more on Saddan Cave.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Farm Cave (Kayon Cave), Mawlamyine, Myanmar

Farm Cave near Mawlamyine is one of Myanmar's best known caves. It was made famous in colonial times, when it attracted a lot of visitors. In those days Myanmar was called Burma.

I visited Farm Cave in 2009 during a caving expedition to southern Myanmar.

Farm Cave is also known as Kayone Gu (Ka-yon) or Payon Caves and is located in Kayon Hill just outside Mawlamyine. Mawlamyine (Moulmien) is the capital of the Mon state. This is Kayon Hill as seen from the road

This is the entrance to the main temple cave.

Steps lead up to the cave

At the top of the steps, a passage to the right runs along the cliff face and has lots of Buddhas

The main cave is 302m long and is full of Buddhas.

In cave temples in Myanmar you have to remove your shoes at the start of the temple compound.

As in other cave temples in Myanmar, the statues now have flashing LED lights.

There were a lot of visitors whilst we were there and they liked having their photo taken.

Looking down on the entrance area

There are several reports from the colonial days describing the fauna collections done in the 19th c. at Farm Caves. However these collections were presumably done at Saddan Cave which is further round the hill from the main temple cave. And photos of Saddan Cave on this blog.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission