MILU PUK, Sazatlang

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 25/04/2016

A west facing, 27 m wide and up to 1.7 m high cave entrance gives access to the shallow, daylight-lit rock shelter of Milu Puk (skull cave), which is formed on Sazatlang (mountain) in a in frequently layered and mica rich arenaceous mudstone that dips by about 5 or 10 degrees to the east. ETYMOLOGY: The Mizo noun "lu" means »head« and "milu" translates as »people« (Betsy Chhakchhuak 2001.04.22 personal communication). SITUATION: Some 15 m up in a 25 m high cliff at the top of Sazatlang (mountain), in the east of the old (western) road from Lunglei (N22°53': E92°44') via Serkawn (N22°54'45”: E92°45'25” WGS84) and Aibawk to Aizawl (N23°44': E92°43'). The shelter is easiest reached by abseiling from the edge of the cliff — a severely trampled and barren patch in the vegetation cover clearly indicates the most suitable abseiling point — but the original approach could have been via descending tree roots. Rock surfaces in the vicinity show taffoni. CULTURAL HISTORY - human use: The shelter was used to deposit in a secondary burial human bones ascribed to ancestors of Tlau people, a Mizo tribe. The site could be of great cultural importance but vandalising sportsmen who pilfered the skulls as souvenirs disturbed the archaeological sequence. In the meantime the skulls were returned — at least much of what survived the excursion and tertiary burial — but the sequential composition is destroyed and the information contained lost for ever.