Tham Ku Kaeo - CR0010
20.330501,99.863134
Location
Within the grounds of Wat Tham Plah, 50m north-west of the main entrance a flight of naga stairs leads up to the entrance.
Description
The entrance platform has a reclining Buddha. After 40m the cave bends sharply right and appears to stop at a statue of a hermit, but a small hole on the left leads to the inner part of the cave. The next section is fairly tortuous with several crawls less than 50cm high. After 150m the cave opens into a more spacious passage 8-9m wide by 5-6m high, decorated with columns and suspended gour pools. 500m from the entrance an irregularly shaped chamber has several short passages leading off it, all of which appear to be blocked. A couple of these cul-de-sacs house a marvellous collection of clay figurines representing the Buddha surrounded by the multitude of humanity going about their daily lives. Some of the breakdown sections in the floor are unstable and have pockets of bad air. The pitches at the end are over 20m deep and have not been descended. A monk called Kruba Boon Choom Yannawaro moulded the Buddha Images in this cave since he was a novice. In 2497 B.E. a monk called Luangpo Kamon Soothiyano made a doorway into this cave and surveyed it. He found that it is a nice stalagmite and stalactite cave then he named it ôKhoo Khaew Caveö.
Fauna
Eukoenenia lyrifer CondÚ, 1992 (Arthropoda, Arachnida, Palpigradi, Eukoenenioidea, Eukoeneniidae) - type locality (CondÚ 1992) Psiloderces septentrionalis Deeleman-Reinhold, 1995 (Arthropoda, Arachnida, Araneae, Araneomorphae, Ochyroceratidae) (Deeleman-Reinhold 1995) Belisana schwendingeri Huber, 2005 (Arthropoda, Arachnida, Araneae, Araneomorphae, Pholcidae) (Huber 2005) Troglopedetes multispinosus Deharveng et Gers, 1993 (Arthropoda, Entognatha, Entomobryomorpha, Entomobryoidea, Paronellidae) (Deharveng and Gers 1993) Protrinemura leclerci Mendes, 2002 (Arthropoda, Insecta, Zygentoma, Protrinemuridae) û type locality (Mendes 2002) Eustra leclerci (Deuve, 1986) (Arthropoda, Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae) û type locality (Deuve 2001)
Topographie
DEHARVENG, LOUIS ET AL. (1987) - Grade UISv2 3-2-A
Documents
[Topo] Tham Ku Kaeo 28/04/2019Bibliography 10/08/2019
- +ANON. (n.d.) "Caving Near Chiang Rai" www.guidetothailand.com/northern-thailand/caving-c… [accessed October 2007] +Barlow, Joel John (n.d.) "Chiang Rai Guide û Caves" www.chiangraiprovince.com/guide/eng/15.htm [accessed December 2011 inaccessible December 2016] +COND+, BRUNO (1992) "Palpigrades cavernicoles et endogÚs de Tha´lande et de CÚlÞbes (1ere Note)" Revue Suisse Zoologie Vol. 99 No. 3 p665-672 +DEELEMAN-REINHOLD, CHRISTA L. (1995) "The Ochyroceratidae of the Indo-Pacific Region (Araneae)" Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Suppliment No. 2 pp1-103 +DEHARVENG, LOUIS (1987) "Cave Collembola of South-East Asia" Korean Journal of Systematic Zoology Vol. 3 No. 2 pp165-174 +DEHARVENG, LOUIS; GERS, CHARLES (1993) "Ten new species of Troglopedetes Absolon 1907, from caves of Thailand (Collembola Paronellidae)" Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde Vol. 63 No.2 pp103-113 +DEHARVENG, LOUIS ET AL. (1987) "ExpÚdition Tha´-Maros 86" Association PyrÚnÚenne de SpÚlÚologie, Toulouse ISBN 2-906273-01-5 177pp +DEUVE, THIERRY (1986) "Ozaeninae cavernicoles de Thailande: Diagnoses preliminaires" Revue Franþaise d'Entomologie Vol. 8 No. 4 p161 +DEUVE, THIERRY (1987b) "Etude de deux Ozaeninae troglobies de Thailande a Genitalia Femelles Neotenique (Coleoptera: Paussidae)" Annals de la SociÚtÚ Entomologique de France Vol. 23 No. 3 pp287-298 +DEUVE, THIERRY (1987c) "Faune cavernicole de Thailande: Coleopteres Paussidae Ozaeninae" Bulletin de la SociÚtÚ Entomologique de France Vol. 91 (1986) No. 7/8 pp237-242 +DEUVE, THIERRY (1988b) "ColÚopteres Caraboidea des Milieux Souterrains de l'Asie du Sud-Est" Expeditions de l'APS en Asie du Sud-est: Travaux Scientifiques û 1. Association PyrÚnÚenne de SpÚlÚologie, Toulouse ISBN 2-906273-03-1 pp17-20 +DEUVE, THIERRY (2001) "Le Genre Eustra Schmidt-Giebel, 1846, Insectes (Coleoptera, Paussidae, Ozaeninae) Ó Genitalia Femelles Orthotopiques" Zoosystema Vol. 23 No. 3 pp547-578 +DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT (1995) "The Caves of Thailand" Speleological Research Council, Sydney ISBN 0-9589253-9-9 ***Harvey, Mark S. (2003) "Catalogue of the Smaller Arachnid Orders of the World" CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, ISBN 978-0643068056 385pp ***Harvey, Mark S. (2013) "Pseudoscorpions of the World, version 3.0. Western Australian Museum, Perth. www.museum.wa.gov.au/catalogues/pseudoscorpions [accessed June 2018] +HUBER, BERNHARD, A. (2005) "High Species Diversity, Male-Female Coevolution and Metaphyly in Southeast Asian Pholcid Spiders: The Case of Belisana Thorell 1898 (Araneae, Pholcidae)" Zoologica Vol. 155 pp1-126 +LATINNE, ALICE; WAENGSOTHORN, SURACHIT; ROJANADILOK, PRATEEP; EIAMAMPAI, KRAIRAT; SRIBUAROD, KRIANGSAK; MICHAUX, JOHAN R. (2013) " Diversity and endemism of Murinae rodents in Thai limestone karsts" Systematics and Biodiversity Vol. 11 online 22pp +MENDES, LUIS F. (2002) "New species and new data on Protrinemuridae and Nicoletiidae (Zygentoma) from Eastern Asia and Pacific Islands" Ann. Soc. Entomol. Fr. (n.s.) Vol. 38 No. 4 pp399-433 +MUNIER, CHRISTOPHE (1998) "Sacred Rocks and Buddhist Caves in Thailand" White Lotus Co. Ltd, Bangkok ISBN 974-8434-19-2 266pp +SIDISUNTHORN, PINDAR; GARDNER, SIMON; SMART, DEAN (2006) "Caves of Northern Thailand" River Books, Thailand, ISBN 9749863135 +VOGT, NILS B. (2013) "Temple Caves & Grottoes in Thailand: A Picture-Guide Book" Booksmango, Bangkok ISBN 978-616-222-160-6 214pp +ZEITOUN, VAL+RY; FORESTIER, HUBERT; NAKBUNLANG, SUPAPORN (2008) "PrÚhistoires au sud du Triangle d'Or" IRD Editions, Paris ISBN 97-2-7099-1642-4 252pp
History
1986 The cave was explored and surveyed by the APS expedition. 1988-01-21 L. Maffre, F. Pallier, C. Thouin, B. Tonnelier 2014-03-11 M. Ellis, R. Harper, V. Unsworth 2015-06 P. Collett, V. Unsworth attempted to descend the pitches at the end of the cave, but these were deeper than the equipment available. 2016-07-06 M. Ellis, Y. Sopha
Caves nearby
Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
---|---|---|---|
0.2 | Tham Plah - CR0013 | ||
0.3 | Resurgence CR0076 | ||
0.3 | Tham Plaew Plong Fah - CR0015 | 54 | 7 |
0.4 | Resurgence CR0077 | ||
0.5 | Cave CR0011 - CR0011 | ||
0.7 | Tham Noi [CR0078] | 8 | 0 |
0.8 | Tham Sao Hin Phraya Naak [CR0028] | 80 | 0 |
1.6 | Cave CR0101 | ||
1.6 | Sink CR0103 |