LAMSIAL PUK

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 07/04/2016

A small and dry, gravitational cave of historical and archaeological importance contains a secondary (or tertiary?) deposition of human bones, ascribed to former inhabitants (DISTRICT GAZETTEER 1989: 373-374; RAY, A 1993: 16) or the warriors (CHATTERJI, N 1979: 20-21) of Lamsial (Old Village), an abandoned village on the western slope of Tan Tlang (Tan Mountain, peak near 23°08'45": 093°18'45": 6320 feet = 1926 m asl), which disappeared without leaving a visible trace. SITUATION: The cave lies at a linear distance of 6.5 km approximately north (352°) of the village of Farkawn (N23°04'30": E93°17'30") and is reached via the shorter but bumpier of the two roads to Champhai. A weather worn and overgrown signboard »Lamsial Puk« marked in January 1999 the junction (N23°08'09: E93°17'14" WGS84) from where a jeepable but overgrown road eastwards merges after about 200 m into a footpath which contours for some 300 m on the southern flank of a deep valley. The well trodden footpath ends at the foot of a cliff face exposing bands of frequently layered, cross bedded and sandy silt- and mudstones. CAVE DESCRIPTION: The 2 m wide and high entrance was reached in January 1999 by a sturdy wooden 3 m ladder but CHATTERJI (1979: 20) gives a photograph showing a pair of notched wooden logs which were used earlier as climbing aids. The cave's solitary chamber (1.5 by 1.3 by 6 m) is controlled by a tectonical rift (005°/±00°) and slightly dipping strata (275°/-05°) while the short side passages (1 to 2 m long) are aligned along gravitational rifts (300°/±00°) parallel to the cliff face. The cave seems to have come into being due to gravitational mass dislocation when blocks of the host rock became detached, commenced sliding and eventually fell out of the cliff face leaving the small chamber behind. CULTURAL HISTORY - human use (burial cave): The main feature of Lamsial Puk (Old Village's Cave) is a wooden box packed with about a cubic metre of clean, well preserved human bones. A visitor's book is provided to sign in but quite a few of the visitors preferred, reminiscent of dogs, to mark the territory by inscribing their names on the bones themselves. The photograph in CHATTERJI (1979: 21) shows a selection of human bones (one skull, several longbones and a rib) which might have been arranged to suit the cameraman's taste. According to DISTRICT GAZETTEER (1989: 373-374), it is commonly held that the inhabitants of Lamsial village, when shifting to another site in about 1450 - 1700 AD, deposited all the bones and skulls of their ancestors in this cave: »As many bones and skulls as possible are still preserved by the local people. No anthropological survey, however, has been made.« shubhyatra.com/mizoram (accessed 2005.11.09), apparently following CHATTERJI, N (1979), suggests that »Lamail Puk is another cave, the site of a war between two villages.«