FAR PUK

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 28/03/2016

The "Pine Cave" is actually a rock shelter consisting of an approximately 50 m long ledge which is in the average one to two metres wide and located about halfway up an east facing cliff at a place situated at a linear distance of 3 km (about 5 km along the fair weather road) to the north (015°) of Farkawn (resthouse: 23°04'30”N: 93°17'30”E, WGS84, Gebauer H D 20.01.1999). It looks a lot as if the overhang has developed by gravitational forces when the lower part of a friable rock strata, which consist of frequently laminated and arenaceous silt- and mudstones, have crumbled away under the load of the upper ones. A small amount of calc tufa is deposited on the hanging roots and bark of a fig tree flourishing in the waterfall. CULTURAL HISTORY - Human use: The site, offering shelter from rains and full sunshine, provides amenities which make it an excellent place for human use due to a waterfall which provides a trickle of water even in the dry season. In times of social insecurity the ledge must have served as a bastion difficult to storm. It is accessible only from the narrow northern end. An additional "line of defence" is provided by a fallen slab of rock in the central part of the shelter. No wonder the shelter is said to have been used as a hide-out during the insurgency. The archaeological potential, however, is probably limited by an apparently less than 1 m thick sediment cover -unless there are buried pits buried below the surfacial debris. CHATTERJI, N (1979: 39) gives one monochrome photograph without scale and claims »the cave has gained great importance due to its association with the Sailo chiefs of the earlier days« and reports (page 40) a tradition: »Kairuma, the great and popular chief of Biate was at war with Laltuaka, another popular chief. Kairuma's men held Laltuaka's sons in siege in this large cave for seven days. But fresh water flowing into this cave enabled Laltuaka's sons to continue offering effective resistance for quite some time. As an easy measure of liquidating them Kairuma's men were planning to poison the water. But such an inhuman act was decried by Kairuma very strongly and they were prevented from indulging in the same.«