Article

Caves

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Caves

Caves of the Malay World: A Survey of Documented Sites

The caves of the Malay Peninsula and Borneo constitute a diverse assemblage of limestone and volcanic formations that have served, across millennia, as sites of habitation, burial, trade, and ecological significance. From the swallow caves of the Sumatran coast to the Neolithic burial grottos of Sarawak and the karst tunnel systems of the Perak Valley, these subterranean environments have attracted sustained scholarly attention since the late nineteenth century. The records preserved in the Society’s journals document at least six distinct cave systems across the region, each revealing different facets of the geological, biological, and cultural history of the Malay world.

Geological Setting and Formation

The caves documented in the archival record fall into two principal geological categories: volcanic and karstic. The island of Klouwang (Kluang), off the west coast of Atchin (Aceh), Sumatra, is composed chiefly of trachyte, crossed by numerous bands of quartz and porphyry, with masses of selenite and melaphyre covered by lava overflows [1, p. 155]. The sea has hollowed out immense caves in the island’s rock face, where swallows build their nests [1, p. 154]. Wallon, a French civil engineer of mines, noted that the fact that the cavern floor lay above sea level could only be explained by supposing it was originally below that level, constituting one of many observations indicating the ascending movement of the Malay landmass, a movement he considered still continuing in his own time [1, p. 158, n. 1].

In contrast, the caves of the Malay Peninsula and Borneo are predominantly karstic in origin. Gebauer and Price (1995) provide the most comprehensive geological framework, tracing the distribution of limestone outcrops from Perlis in the north to Selangor in the south, and explaining how Mesozoic east–west erosion patterns, Tertiary uplift, and metamorphism produced the characteristic fengcong (tropical karst tower clusters) landscape of the Kinta Valley [2, pp. 29–31]. The Permian Kinta formation limestones, metamorphosed to marble, form the bedrock of the Gunung Gajah–Tempurung massif, the largest and best-studied fengcong in the valley [2, p. 30]. The authors draw on the karstographical terminology of Chinese geographers—gufeng, fengcong, fenglin—to classify the landscape, and discuss the role of footcaves in both the mechanical development of karst towers through solutioal undermining and in cultural history, from prehistoric rock paintings at Tambun to Mahayana Buddhist shrines and more recent Chinese cave temples [2, pp. 30–31].

The Selangor caves near Kuala Lumpur, first described by Daly in 1879, are situated in a limestone hill approximately 400 feet high, nine miles north of Kwala Lumpor [3, p. 116]. Daly noted the absence of fossils or shells in the cave deposits, concluding that the sea had never reached the hill [3, p. 119].

Swiftlet Colonies and the Nest Trade

The economic significance of several cave systems derives from their swiftlet colonies. At Klouwang, Wallon and Hervey described a magnificent cave inhabited by millions of swallows, whose piercing cries mingled with the deep murmur of the sea to produce an awe-inspiring reverberation from the distant depths of the cavern [1, p. 156]. The main swallow cave is an immense subterranean canal, fifteen to twenty metres high and ten to twelve metres in width, in which bamboo scaffoldings of extraordinary lightness and boldness enable the Atchinese to collect the nests [1, p. 156]. A submarine communication between the cavern and the sea allows a gleam of light to penetrate at the waterline, illuminating fish whose scales flash countless colours [1, p. 156]. The cavern floor is composed of light, dry soil formed from swallow excrement, in which insects breed in great numbers [1, p. 157].

The Gomanton caves in Sabah, described by E. Banks in 1958, comprise a lower gallery (Simud Hitam) and an upper gallery (Simud Putih) connected by a vertical funnel, with a further narrow funnel (Bun Bulat) leading to the hilltop [4, p. 177]. Banks records the collection of 80–100 piculs of “black” nests (Collocalia lowi) and up to 20 piculs of “white” nests (C. vestita) per harvest, estimating minimum populations of one million and 150,000 birds respectively [4, p. 177]. He also discusses the “mossy” nest swiftlet (C. esculenta) and a similar species in the Simud Putih that he assigns as a subspecies of C. whiteheadi from Palawan and the Philippines [4, pp. 177–178].

The holothurion (sea-cucumber) trade is noted at Klouwang as an important local commercial activity, with the product preserved and highly valued by the Chinese [1, p. 155].

Faunal Communities

Beyond swiftlets, the caves support diverse faunal assemblages. Banks’s most vivid passage describes the evening bat exodus at Gomanton: a conga-like column a mile or more long, two yards wide, emerging in a whirling spiral from the vertical tunnel [4, p. 178]. He identifies the mouse-eared bat as the dominant species, with horseshoe bats forming dense clusters that break away from the column, and contrasts this spectacle with the less dramatic bat issue at Niah caves in Sarawak [4, p. 178]. The note closes with observations on fish-trap bird communities at Beluran and Semporna, where Brahminy Kites, Adjutant Storks, and various terns exploit the tugau (stake nets) [4, pp. 178–179].

At the Selangor caves, Daly records thousands of bats in Gua Lambong, with deposits of bat guano three to six feet deep [3, p. 117]. Ridley (1898) documents a cave-adapted population of Coluber tæniurus, a white snake newly recorded from the Selangor caves near Kuala Lumpur [5, p. 99]. Specimens captured by Ridley and C. B. Harvey in December 1896 were identified by G. A. Boulenger at the Natural History Museum as C. tæniurus, a species previously known from Darjeeling, Sumatra, Borneo, and China but not the Malay Peninsula [5, p. 99]. Ridley provides a detailed colour description—bluish-grey head, pale ocreous back with isabelline-tipped scales, yellowish vertebral centre, pale yellowish-white belly, and a white-and-black barred tail—and notes that all ten specimens examined were uniform in colour [5, pp. 99–100]. He argues that the snake’s coloration is a remarkable adaptation to the pale ocreous-yellow limestone walls of the caves, where it rests motionless on ledges near bat roosts to ambush its prey, making it nearly invisible against the rock but conspicuous on the dark cave floor [5, p. 100]. Comparing his specimens with Boulenger’s catalogue description, which depicts a much darker olive-grey-brown animal with black transverse lines, Ridley concludes that the cave form is “at least on the way to become a species distinct in the eyes even of the systematist” [5, pp. 100–101].

Prehistoric and Historical Burial Sites

The caves of Borneo preserve significant archaeological evidence of prehistoric and historical funerary practice. The Magala cave system at Niah, Sarawak, on the southern fringe of the Subis limestone formation, was excavated by the Sarawak Museum in 1964 and reported by Barbara and Tom Harrisson in 1968 [6, p. 148]. The system comprises over 52,000 square feet of interior space, divided into twenty topographically distinct sub-sections [6, p. 149]. A significant analytical difficulty arose from earlier guano extraction, which had removed deposits from the most accessible areas and displaced materials across the formation [6, p. 149].

The Harrissons identify two culturally discrete burial phases separated by a gap of over two millennia. The early phase, centred in a single shelter (Mouth E), consists of haematited primary and secondary cremated burials associated with native earthenware—including the characteristic Niah double-spouted funereal vessel—polished stone tools, and imported riverine shells [6, p. 150]. Radiocarbon dating yielded 3,130 ± 240 years (c. 1,180 B.C.) for the Magala E Neolithic burial and 3,070 ± 410 years (c. 1,130 B.C.) for the comparable Lobang Jeragan sealed jar, establishing the temporal separation [6, pp. 150–151]. The authors interpret this assemblage as representing a small-statured group of modest economic status, practising burial rites with minimal grave furniture [6, p. 152].

The later phase is a Metal Age burial ground characterised by imported Chinese and Siamese stoneware, thousands of glass seed beads, metal ornaments, wooden images of Melanau type, and secondary burials accompanied by ritual pig deposits [6, p. 155]. Through reconstruction of 1,477 ceramic sherds into 53 original vessels—32 jars and 21 saucers, bowls, or plates—the authors demonstrate that the ceramics were deliberately fragmented at the time of burial, and that specific jar types were subjected to type-specific ritual modification: all 15 Type H jars (temmoku-glazed, dark olive brown to black) had their necks and rims chiselled away, while all 7 Type F jars (olive brown glaze, loop handles) retained intact rims [6, pp. 161–168]. A total of 5,184 beads were recovered, all but four being monochrome glass seed beads of 0.1–0.6 cm diameter; an estimated 20 per cent showed heat distortion [6, p. 170]. Skeletal remains totalled 15,206 grammes of bone (96 per cent in Area B), with 136 human teeth and 88 pig teeth identified [6, pp. 172–173].

In British North Borneo, Pastor Orolfo, Senior Forest Ranger of the North Borneo Forest Department, documented the discovery of ancient coffins in caves across the Madai, Baturong, and Tapadong Hills [7, p. 133]. The coffins, made primarily of Belian and Merbau with some softwoods from the Dipterocarpaceae family, were fashioned by splitting tree trunks, hollowing them out, and carving them; some bear “tembadau” heads on the lids [7, p. 133]. They are one to two inches thick, can reach nine feet in length, and are so heavy that five men can barely lift an empty one [7, p. 133]. Smaller coffins found inside larger ones may have contained the deceased’s jewellery and property [7, p. 133]. Orolfo notes the coffins’ resemblance to Chinese-made examples, suggesting possible Chinese influence given Chinese presence in North Borneo from at least the twelfth century [7, p. 133]. The Dusun at Batu Blas Cave were said to still practise similar burial customs at the time of writing [7, p. 134].

Research and Documentation

The scholarly documentation of Malay caves spans nearly a century and a half, reflecting shifting disciplinary interests from colonial natural history through speleology to archaeological science. The earliest account in the record is that of Wallon and Hervey (1881), originally published in the Annales de l’Extreme Orient in August 1879 before being translated and reprinted in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 8 [1, p. 153]. Wallon’s role as a civil engineer of mines situates this account within the broader French colonial geological surveying of Indochina and the Malay Peninsula during the 1870s [1, p. 153].

Daly’s 1879 note on the Selangor caves, read at a meeting of the Society on 7 April 1879, represents the first systematic description of a Peninsular cave system in the record [3, p. 116]. The caves were first located by Mr. Syers, Superintendent of Police, during a hunting excursion [3, p. 116]. Three caves are described: Gua Lambong (the swinging cave), a grand vaulted cavern with a Gothic-dome appearance, 50–70 feet high; Gua Belah (the divided cave), lower in height but with fantastical limestone formations and Sakei charcoal drawings on the walls; and Gua Lada (the pepper cave), 90 yards long with side corridors, where stalactites and stalagmites have joined into columns [3, pp. 117–118].

The most extensive speleological survey in the record is that of Gebauer and Price (1995) on Gua Tempurung in the Kinta Valley, Perak, based on fieldwork conducted 2–5 February 1993 [2, p. 29]. The survey recorded 4,392 m of survey legs, 97 per cent at BCRA 4c precision, yielding an approximate passage length of 3.44 km and a maximum elevation of +150.8 m above the resurgence [7, p. 42, n. 8]. The two principal chambers are Gergasi Cavern (approximately 200 m long, 150 m wide, 75 m high) and Alam Cavern (130 m wide, 200 m long), the latter containing boulders estimated at 3,000 tons [2, pp. 46–47]. The active river passage spans 1.6 km between the resurgence at 21 m above sea level and the sink at 43 m above sea level, with a gradient of 0.37 per cent [2, pp. 39]. The authors interpret the cave’s development as controlled by two transposed fault systems cut by a major north–south thrust that has horizontally dislocated east–west passages by 70 metres [2, p. 35]. The succession of abandoned fossil levels, each marked by alternating chemoclastic (dripstone, flowstone) and physioclastic (gravel, sand, mud) deposits, is read as a record of repeated base-level changes driven by eustatic sea-level oscillations over the Quaternary [2, p. 36]. Intraspelean traces of tin exploitation reach 50 vertical metres above the present erosional base level (70 m above sea level), while the initial cave levels lie at 190 m above sea level, or 150 m above the resurgence [2, pp. 41].

The survey supersedes the 1975 map produced in Crowther’s hydrochemical Ph.D. thesis (University of Hull, 1980), correcting the relative positions of sink and resurgence and adding the fossil passages “Top of the World” and “End of the World” [7, p. 42, n. 8]. The article contributes to the historiography of West Malaysian karst by integrating Chinese karstographical terminology with Western geomorphological frameworks and by explicitly linking speleological survey data to eustatic sea-level reconstructions, a synthesis not previously attempted for a Kinta Valley cave [2, p. 29].

The article also documents the cave’s current threats: commercial tourism development proposed by the Perak State Government in 1993 (estimated at RM3.9 million), the opening of the North–South Highway in 1994, and the cumulative damage from tin mining, guano extraction, and unregulated visitor traffic [2, p. 48]. The North–South Highway Gopeng–Tapah stretch, passing the east side of the massif, was opened in February 1994 after authorities were persuaded to divert the route away from cutting through the Tempurung massif [2, p. 48]. Gebauer and Price frame the cave’s “supposedly worthless” sedimentary deposits as a non-renewable palaeoenvironmental record of incommensurable value [2, p. 48].

The Harrissons’ 1968 report on Magala contributes methodologically by applying systematic sherd reconstruction and spatial scatter analysis to Bornean burial ceramics, a technique that became standard in subsequent regional archaeological work and that here demonstrates both ritual intentionality and post-depositional disturbance in a single site [6, p. 148]. The primary data derive from the 1964 Sarawak Museum excavation, supplemented by the Museum’s reference collection of over 3,000 non-archaeological whole ceramic pieces accumulated over two decades from native informants across Borneo [6, p. 164].

MBRAS Sources

References

  1. D.F.A. Hervey and M.L.H. Wallon (1881). Klouwang and its caves, west coast of Atchin; travelling notes of M.L.H. Wallon, civil engineer of mines. .F.A. Hervey JSBRAS 8: 153–158.
  2. D. Gebauer and L. Price (1995). Gua Tempurong JMBRAS 68(1): 29–52.
  3. D.D. Daly (1879). Caves at Sungei Batu in Selangor JSBRAS 3: 116–119.
  4. E. Banks (1958). Gomanton caves JMBRAS 31(1): 177–178.
  5. H.N. Ridley (1898). The white snake of the Selangor caves JSBRAS 31: 99–101.
  6. Harrisson B and Tom Harrisson (1968). Magala – a series of Neolithic and Metal Age burial grottos at Sekaloh, Niah, Sarawak JMBRAS 41(2): 148–175. Read on JSTOR
  7. P. Orolfo (1933). Old coffins in British North Borneo caves JMBRAS 11(2): 133–134.