MAHABON, Chiehruphi, 1st (Krem)
25.204700,92.370300
Description
What had been on 5th March 1998 a relatively small stream of water falls over the lip of a rift pot, which breaks through an about 1.5 m sandstone cap rock but is inaccessible to expedition cavers because it would need a ladder to be entered and explored. ETYMOLOGY: Unknown. The origin, history and meaning of the Synteng Khasi (Pnar) cave name Krem Mahabon (Kharpran Daly B D 1998.03.05) has not yet been identified. On philological grounds, it is suspected that Ma U Bun is a honorific address for an ambivalent "maternal uncle" or tutelary deity, who features not only the ability to provide abundance (wealth) but also to cause fear (note 1). SITUATION: At an unidentified location and in an unspecified setting somewhere near the village of Chiehruphi (25°12'36”N: 92°22'22”E) and about 250 m (west?) of the coal miner's settlement called Phlang Met (note 2) where a water pipe in a dry stream bed had been met with. The cave entrance may be found by following the streambed for an unknown distance downstream into an unidentified direction. POSITION: The so-called »entrance coordinates« or GPS position had not only been read without attempting to identify precision error and, for that matter, rather far from the cave entrance (at an estimated distance of about 100 m in an unspecified direction) but also were gathered with the "help" of a generally unreliable 4–channel GPS Magellan XL.
NOTE 1: ba ma (Khasi; adjective), spelled: ba má (SINGH, N 1906: 126), dangerous, frightful (SINGH, N 1906: 126); dangerous, hazardous, impending, malignant, precarious (SINGH, N 1920: 107, 215, 235, 305, 393); black, parlous, serious (BLAH, E 2007: 31, 215, 465).i má (Khasi; noun; honorific appellation) a maternal uncle, »used in case of address« (SINGH, N 1906: 126). ka 'ma (Khasi; noun), an abbreviation of: ka thma (SINGH, N 1906: 126), ka thyma (SINGH, N 1920: 277) a battle, a campaign (SINGH, N 1906: 126).u (Khasi; article / pronominal prefix) denotes the singular masculine gender: a, an, the (SINGH, N 1906: 242; SINGH, N 1920: 18; GURDON, P R T 1906: 207) and "u" (Khasi; masculin personal pronoun, singular) he, it (SINGH, N 1906: 242). bun (Khasi; adjective and adverb) many, much (SINGH, N 1906: 17); considerable, copious, countless, diffuse, diverse, immense, manifold, many, numerous, plenty (SINGH, N 1920: 89, 94, 98, 122, 134, 233, 306, 307, 344, 384); divers, enormous, numerous, rife, several, sundry (BLAH, E 2007: 83, 92, 202, 443, 269, 295). NOTE 2: u phlang met (noun) good, full grass (SINGH, N 1906: 132) from: u phlang (Khasi, noun), binomial; u phlang u kynba" (SINGH, N 1906: 157), the grass (SINGH, N 1906: 157; SINGH, N 1920: 206; BLAH, E 2007: 120); straw, grass (OLDHAM, T 1854 / 1984 appendix C: lxviii, lxvi), tussock (BLAH, E 2007: 316) as: ka [ri-] phlang, grass land (GURDON 1906: 39).
History
EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1998.03.05: Lucky Dkhar and Robert Lal from Chiehruphi guided Brian D. Kharpran Daly, Jennifer 'Jenni' or 'Jenny' A. Brooks and Annette Susanne Becher to one of the cave entrances collectively recorded as »Krem Mahabon« (Kharpran Daly B D, Brooks J A & Becher S A 1998.03.05 personal communication).