Gua Air Mata Dayang, Merapoh, video

We found Gua Air Mata Dayang in Merapoh, Pahang, Malaysia, in Nov 2012. It is a water cave and now used for tube "rafting".

This is a video of exploring the cave, on youtube.

Illegal logging in Merapoh, around Gua Hari Malaysia

A report in Sinar Harian on 15 Oct 2017, "Hutan Simpan Merapoh kini makin parah?" (Is Merapoh Forest Reserve getting worse now?), talks about illegal logging and maybe gold mining going on in the Merapoh Forest Reserve. It has happened recently, in Oct 2017. One of the worst areas is in the forest around Gua Hari Malaysia. The water flowing through the cave is now muddy.

"Based on the preliminary investigation with the villagers, there was no direct signboard confirming logging activities. We suspect illegal logging activities or steal gold. They are quite cunning because they operate during the rainy season and are believed to be involved with other parties, ".

"In addition, Merapoh Forest Reserve is known for its wildlife sanctuaries such as elephants, bears, goats, tapirs, tigers and the world's smallest flower breeding grounds."

"This is also the location of an international event that has attracted tourists to Malaysia, the Magnificent Merapoh Trail for three consecutive years since 2015, with almost 30 countries participating in it."

It has been known for a few years that illegal logging is taking place in this area of northern Pahang.
There was also a possibility that Gua Hari Malaysia would be quarried.

I've posted many blogs about the caves and flora and fauna of this area. It seems that everything is in danger of being destroyed - by logging, mining or quarrying.
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UPDATE

On 16 Oct, Bernama published "No Logging In Merapoh Forest Reserve"
No Logging In Merapoh Forest Reserve

KUANTAN, Oct 16 (Bernama) -- The Pahang Forestry Department today stressed that there is no logging or mining activity in the Merapoh Forest Reserve area in Lipis near here, as alleged by a non-governmental organisation posting which went viral on the social media.

Its director Datuk Mohd Paiz Kamaruzaman said the alleged logging activity was actually on land owned by the Agriculture Industrial Development Board (LKPP) and did not involve any forest reserve land.

He said the LKPP had the permit to develop the land and had built a 1.2-kilometre trail in the area to transport forest products before the land is developed.

"The process of making the trail to transport the forest products had been approved by the estate manager. The process does not involve the Forestry Department because there is no forest reserve land involved. It is understood that the trail was made as it was the nearest access to the main road.

"Although it is outside our jurisdiction, we took the initiative to investigate and see for ourselves the track as we were worried it involved forest reserve land. We also met and talked to the land owners.....

This was reprinted in The SUN on 16 Oct "No logging in Merapoh Forest Reserve" and also the Malaysian Digest.

There were 2 articles in The Star on 20 Oct :
‘Look for another trail to Merapoh caves’which is about talks with the locals and the land owners about the trails etc.

Seeing red over deforestation , with a photo of the destruction.

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UPDATE -

Some very depressing photos of the destruction in FreeMalaysiaToday 25 Nov 2017.

Batek orang asli at Merapoh

There are several caves in the Merapoh area that have rock art. These simple drawings are done in black, presumably charcoal, and can be seen on walls of rock shelters and on the walls outside caves.

The drawings are thought to be done by the local orang asli, or aboriginal people. They are typical of other drawings at orang asli sites in West Malaysia.

In the Merapoh area, the orang asli are from the Batek group. They live in a new settlement at Gunung Jebuk / Gunung Teluk Gunung. The government has built them new houses

 and is working on the water supply -

We went to the kampung in Dec 2012 to ask about caves at Gunung Jebuk

However it is not known if people from this village did rock drawings in the area.
Read more on SEArch blog.

Some of my blogs on the rock art :

Gua Seribu Cerita 
Gua Lima

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Rock art v graffiti in Malaysian caves

My article which compares rock art to modern graffiti was published in The Star on 22 March 2014.


Gua Badak: Cave art from the past

by liz price

 

Significant scribblings: This was how the Gua Badak drawings on the cave face looked like in 1992. Now they have faded. - Photos LIZ PRICE

   

Pre-historic drawings in some caves spark the imagination.


IMAGINE a family of cave men sitting in their cave shelter at the end of the day. The hunters have been successful and managed to catch some prey for the evening meal. The gatherers have gathered enough vegetables to supplement the meat. Everyone is contented.
The sun has not yet set over the plains. One or two people decide to while away their time by drawing. Paper hasn’t been invented yet. Pens and ink are unheard of. So what do the budding artists do? Pick up small pieces of red stone and draw on the cave walls.
Back then, people led a simple life so the objects they drew were limited to what they could see in everyday life. This, of course, was predominately food. And so the people drew animals they hunted and could eat.
Today, thousands of years later, these drawings still exist. What might have been the cave man’s doodles have become important archaeological art.

One man’s dugong is another man’s alien creature — the famous painting in Tambun, Perak.

The cliff face at Gua Tambun in Perak is a great example. The pre-historic drawings are located high up the face of a cliff that rises 50m above ground level. You have to climb a steep staircase to reach the cliff; be careful, as parts of these steps are covered by undergrowth.
At the top of the steps, you will come to the wide ledge in front of the cliff. The ancient paintings are mostly situated about 7m above this present-day floor level, and most depict animals. The main picture, featured in many articles and tourist brochures, is thought to depict a dugong.
It’s always interesting to view the paintings with other people as everyone has different ideas on what they represent. It can turn out to be quite a guessing game.
I imagine them to be a pig, a deer, and a round one looks like a turtle. Another seems to be a giant catfish – so were there large catfish in the rivers in those ancient days? There is even what appears to be a man with enlarged genitals!
Other motifs show abstract shapes, even a row of exclamation marks. It’s nice just to sit and gaze at the drawings and let your imagination come up with all sorts of ideas. Even archaeological researchers, who have recorded more than 500 individual drawings, are not really sure what some of the pictures represent.
Thought to be about 2,000 years old, the artwork was drawn probably with haematite. This red-coloured iron-based rock can be found around Gua Tambun, so the “artists” didn’t have too far to go for their materials.

Does this look like a scene from a Beano or Dandy comic? Paintings of figures in Niah Painted Cave, Sarawak.

Presumably, back then, the floor level was much higher, enabling the artists to draw on the rock wall. At the same time, they would have had a wonderful view of the plains which are now Ipoh and its surroundings.
Fast-forward to the present day. Graffiti is generally frowned upon, especially when drawn on buildings and walls without permission. Some exceptions are when the art is particularly good and admired, such as the recent paintings on walls in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang.
These city paintings are becoming a trend and, in the last few months, more and more have appeared. Some are now considered tourist attractions, and have even been sponsored by paint companies. So I wonder if, when the ancient cave people started to draw, did those around them scold them and tell them to stop. Or was it considered an art form even then?
Unlike drawing on paper or building walls, cave walls have limited space. After a while, there would be no more room for new drawings. It is rare to see ancient cave drawings that have been drawn over existing ones.
However, cave drawings can last over a millennia and are unlikely to be destroyed compared to those on buildings.

The Merapoh stick figure.

Apart from Gua Tambun’s drawings, the Painted Cave at Niah National Park in Sarawak is another good example of cave art. The paintings there are thought to be 1,200 years old and show “death ships” that carried the dead to the after-life.
To get there, you have to go through the Great Cave of Niah, which is famous for its archaeology and collection of birds nests. The Painted Cave is just beyond the ‘back door’ of the Great Cave.
At first, it is hard to see anything in the dark but, as your eyes adjust to the conditions in the cave, you can make out the red drawings on the wall at the back of the chamber, drawn with haematite. The “boats” are quite curved and show what I imagine to be rows of oarsmen. Interspersed with the boats are other shapes that are hard to determine, as well as several human figures. I would guess these represent hunters and warriors.
Drawings of animals can also be seen on the wall. I thought I spotted a sun with rays, but when I looked closer, I decided it was a person’s head with hair sticking up; further below, it looked like a human torso.
On the floor below are the remains ofthose “death ships”. They are actually boat-shaped coffins containing the remains of the deceased and a selection of items considered useful in the after-life, such as Chinese ceramics, ornaments and glass beads. These relics have been removed and sent to museums.
Some of the “coffins” have been dated as more than 700 years old. However, Niah Cave has an older history – a skull found there in 1958 is around 40,000 years old and it is thought that humans used the cave as far back as 46,000 years ago.

There’s a whole lot of things going on here. It would be fascinating to uncover the stories behind these cave drawings in Merapoh.

Apart from the pre-historic drawings, there are examples of modern “rock art”. These are thought to have been done by the Orang Asli, maybe 100 years ago. The best known of these are at Gua Badak in Lenggong, Perak. These charcoal drawings depict everyday happenings, such as a monkey climbing a coconut tree, people fishing, animals such as a horse and turtles, mats with patterns, and even cars.
Sadly, these drawings have really faded over the years; today, it is hard to see them clearly. Also the hill has been quarried, resulting in many fallen boulders in front of the rock face. Gua Badak is now part of the Lenggong World Heritage Site, but visitors are often disappointed with the sorry state of the place.
Over in Pahang, in the Merapoh area close to the Kelantan border, are more examples of pre-historic drawings. These have not been studied but are also thought to be modern and drawn in charcoal. These were only found in the past year, during our frequent trips to look for caves in the Merapoh area.
There are about six caves or rock shelters in Merapoh with drawings but, unlike those at Lenggong, the Merapoh ones are not easy to decipher. Some seem to show stick figures in strange positions; one looks like a skier, but I can’t believe it can be in tropical Malaysia!

Much of Gua Badak has been quarried.

There are lots of squiggles, including what looks like a railway line that runs through Merapoh. Maybe it was drawn when the Orang Asli first saw the railway constructed. They all seem to be drawn in charcoal.
Across the border in Kelantan there is at least one cave near Gua Musang with drawings similar to those in Merapoh. It would be good to get them professionally dated.
So this begs the question, when does graffiti become archaeological artefact and have historical significance?


Related story:

Getting to the caves
         

Gua Tambun       
This cave is located just outside Ipoh and is easily accessible to the general public. Head towards Tambun – the Gua Tambun rock shelter is in the hill behind the army camp. You can either park by the petrol station, or turn into the housing area behind it and park there. The trail is sign-posted and follows the edge of the stables and horse exercise area, then over a small stream and leads to the stairs that go up to the rock shelter. There is a small pondok and information board. Entrance is free.
As the drawings are located on the cliff face, you don’t need a torch to see them.

Painted Cave At Niah
The Painted Cave is part of Niah National Park. Niah is 110km south-west of Miri and 130km from Bintulu. The Park is located about 3km from the small town of Batu Niah. There is a regular bus service from Miri and Bintulu, to Batu Niah; taxis are also available. From Batu Niah, if arriving by bus or taxi, you can take a long-boat along the river, or take a taxi, or walk.
The park has a visitor centre, cafeteria and accommodation consisting of chalets and hostel-type rooms. There are no cooking facilities. There are also small hotels and eating places in Batu Niah.
The Great Cave of Niah is about 3.5km from the Park HQ and can be reached by a network of plank walks. The path takes you through the rock shelter of Trader’s Cave and then the West Mouth of the Great Cave. You have to walk through the Great Cave, then continue through another short section of forest to reach the Painted Cave. Do take a torch with you as you will need it to go through the Great Cave.
You can visit Niah as a day trip from Miri, but it is nicer to stay overnight in the park. Then you don’t have to rush and you can also watch the evening swiftlets and bats fly in and out of the cave.
There is an entry fee to the park, payable on arrival at HQ. Fees (subject to change): for adults – RM10 (locals) and RM20 (foreigners); for children (over six) – RM3 (locals) and RM7 (foreigners).
National Parks Booking Office
c/o Visitors Information Centre
Lot 452, Jln Melayu,
98000 Miri, Sarawak.
Tel: 085-434184
Fax: 085-434179
The office is closed on Sat, Sun and public holidays.

Gua Badak
It is located a few kilometres north of Lenggong town, in a kampung of the same name. There is no signboard on the main road, only on the kampung road. A narrow track leads to a small parking area where a new pondok has been built. It is only a couple of minutes walk to the rock face with the paintings. Do take care as there are many fallen boulders. Entrance is free.


© Liz Price

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Gua Cadu, Merapoh, Pahang

Gua Cadu is a limestone hill marked on the map, west of Merapoh.

It was documented by British geologists in the 1940s and shown on geological maps since then. It was initially written as Chadu, but now the 'h' has been dropped. Richardson wrote "Many of the limestone hills, notably Gua Chadu, ....., contain extensive caves, most of them festooned with stalactites and stalagmites.".

The limestone here is quite young compared to other parts of the peninsula.

As the hill has never been explored by cavers, we went to have a look 18 Nov 2013.

We went in from the north, from Pulai near Gua Musang. Much to my surprise there is a track all the way, although of course a 4WD is definitely needed. We passed some other limestone hills -

Gua Sembuang

and had to do a river crossing, luckily this car came through first so we were able to see how deep the water was

Part of the area is taken over by the Pulai mining company.

Gua Cadu is quite small and not very high but contains a large cave. Large in terms of passage size but it is not long.

The entrance is large. The slope up into the entrance chamber is well used by elephants. We have now seen a few caves in the Merapoh area which are visited by elephants, see separate blog.

A passage leads down into a small chamber and I found elephant bones here. Seemed to be a young elephant. The poor thing probably went down into that area and couldn't get out and must have suffered a horrible slow death by starvation.  There was no sign of the skull.

A climb leads up into the main passage which goes through the hill to another entrance.

There are some nice gour pools and above those, another climb leads to a large dry passage also going to another entrance. This is used by serows (mountain goats) as a toilet. It was good to see that
they only dirty 2 places and don't use the whole cave as their toilet.

fresh and old serow droppings

Looking out to the main entrance from the upper chamber

Across the Sg Cadu is another smaller hill

After lunch we continued driving along the logging trails. There is much evidence of logging, see separate blog.

I knew there are some long limestone hills to the south west, about 4 km long according to the map. We were eventually able to see them, although the view was obstructed by bamboo and there was a blue haze. These should be Gua Jadur and Timah.

.

 As already mentioned there were quite a lot of signs of logging

We eventually came out at Sg Temau. It had taken almost 2 hours to get to the cave and another 2 hours to get out back to the main road.

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See more on the elephants
and the logging and deforestation
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© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

More elephants in Merapoh caves

Earlier this year, in Feb 2013, I did a post on elephants in and around Merapoh caves. Since that blog I went back to Gua Gajah Marah in Nov. My earlier posting on this cave was in Sept 2012.

On this latest visit, I was shocked to find the whole area outside the cave had been completely cleared. See post on deforestation.

There was a lot less elephant dung in the entrance and none of it was fresh. So it looks like the animals have stopped going to that cave.

The day before, on 18 Nov we went to Gua Cadu. This is well visited by elephants as the
entrance slope was like a mine field, with droppings everywhere.

 The top of the entrance slope ends in a climb up so this is as far as the elephants can go -

However there was a small passage leading down, with a drop of about 1.5m into a small chamber. Sadly I found the bones of a probably young elephant in this chamber. It must have gone in and been unable to get out, and probably suffered a very slow lingering death as it starved. Found many of the bones but not the skull.

There were even piles of droppings on a ledge, not sure how it got there, I assume the
elephants just stick their backsides over the ledge.

As in the other Merapoh caves used by elephants, there is no sign of them digging for salts from guano or rocks. However you can see the rub marks below the ledge (above). And this tree trunk is covered in mud from elephants.

There is new life growing in the fresh droppings -

 There were fresh droppings on the logging trail, these smelt as if they had been deposited very recently -

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Cement & clinker plant at Merapoh won't go ahead

The idea of a cement and clinker plant in Merapoh has existed since at least 1996. Merapoh is in northern Pahang in Malaysia and there are many limestone hills and caves - see my blogs on Merapoh.

In the past no one objected to the idea of the plant.  I have these press cuttings from 1996 -

 

There was a consortium of groups involved. Now the project is under ASN (Asn Cement Pte. Ltd.). And there is a lot of protest against the plant.


slide by MNS HQ Nov 2013

However following the meeting on 11th Nov 2013 at MNS HQ with Datuk Sharkar, the latter told us that the proposed cement plant has been cancelled.

This is excellent news and a great success to all those who helped in the fight against it.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Merapoh villagers petition against cement plant

There was a meeting with YB Dato' Sharkar, Exco for Tourism, on Monday 11 Nov, 11.30 am at MNS HQ, for the representatives from the Merapoh villagers to hand in their petition against the proposed cement plant.

Datuk Mohd Sharkar Shamsudin is the Culture and Tourism Committee chairman for the Pahang government state executive council (exco).

The meeting lasted almost 2½ hours. Right at the beginning Dato' Sharkar said the cement plant had been stopped by Exco. But this is only verbal, there is nothing in writing.

MNS Pres Prof Maketab (left), Datuk Sharkar (right)

MNS gave a slide show on their work around the country including Pahang and rest of the meeting mostly focused on other sites in Pahang, in particular Cameron Highlands and Tasik Chini, as well as other places.

Little was actually said about Merapoh. Ruth Kiew from FRIM brought up the matter of orchids being collected from Merapoh, presumably by orang asli. The idea of an orchid farm/garden was discussed as well as having high end tourism to see the plants in situ.

Sabri from Merapoh said they could set up a 'caving school'. I said they first have to consider  conservation, as although the caves might be saved from quarrying, you don't want to spoil them by taking in large groups of students and other visitors before there is any protection. It needs to be planned out.

At the end of the meeting, the villagers handed their petition to Dato' Sharkar -

Attendees included MNS, FRIM, MYCAT, as well as RTM and The Star.
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See previous blog on the cement plant.
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UPDATE:
IT IS CONFIRMED THAT THE PROPOSED CEMENT PLANT HAS BEEN CANCELLED

According to MNS Prof Dr. Maketab Mohamed, 13 Nov 2013

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© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission