MAGULONG (Cave near)
25.216700,93.541700
Description
An apparently southeast-facing, about 90 m wide and 20 m high cave entrance opens at the base of what had been in May 1946 a »thin, bright waterfall« at the head of an unidentified stream (no name mentioned). The »immense rock-arch« leads to a »golden-lit shelter« (keyword: hide-out) or relatively »big cave« in the front of »a wide, shallow cave« (GRAHAM BOWER, U V 1950). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1950: »An immense rock-arch. Three hundred feet [91.5 m] it spanned from side to side and seventy feet [21.3 m] from top to bottom slab. Behind was a wide, shallow cave, flat-roofed and sloping-floored, stained with all shades of grey and earthy-brown. Treetops rose to meet it from the depths below and a thin, bright waterfall splashed down over the mouth and into a shallow pool. Here was the secret hold of the village, where in time of war the whole community hid, men, women, children, pigs and poultry; above and below were cliffs, beyond were crags - there was no entrance but the climb over the rib, where one man at a breastwork could hold off an army. Only once before in the story of Magulong had strangers been allowed to see the place; years ago, as a great honour, they had shown it to Gaidiliu [note 1]. We reached the cave before the others did, and standing there, saw the long file slipping, with quick and supple gait, down the sloping path. The golden-tawny figures, hard, perfect and Greek, the scarlet cloths and coloured necklaces, the grey-brown background of the weathered rock, were breathless, lovely beauty in the sunlight; blue-green beyond, the forest fell away; and high above, in the last, uplifted cleft of the crags, white rhododendrons tossed against the sky. We sat for a while in the great, grey, golden-lit shelter, watching the little fall glitter and splash in the black basin of rock« (GRAHAM BOWER 1950: 241-245). SITUATION: About 50 km in a direct line east of Haflong (25°11'N: 93°02'E) and on a southeast-facing flank of the Barail Range, at the head of a valley (no name mentioned: Helaiki nadi or Aleki nadi), and near the village of Magulong (note 2), which lies 5 or km in a direct line from the orographically left (locally north-western) bank of the Barak River but about 1000 m higher up. APPROACH 1950: »Up the hill we went, climbing through fields to woods, higher and higher; up through the untouched forest, far behind and away, over logs, through underbrush which thinned as we mounted and trees which grew small with the height; till at last we were almost at the summit. It rose in front of us in a dome. On its brow, as we looked at it across a cleft and between the trunks of the trees, were scrubby mountain growths and thin bushes; and, splash upon splash of white in the summer sun, were snow-white rhododendrons - huge white blooms, fading a little now with the season old, but caught and hung everywhere about the barrenness of the peak. They came down in a fringe along the slope; and below the roots the ground, with a slash, ended - down went a wall of rock, water-stained, vertical; down out of sight, into space, down to the dull green of the valley below. As we stood waiting for the guides to move on towards the peak, the man leading us turned and slid over what looked like the edge of the gulf itself.We followed, clawing our way down hand and footholds kicked in a bank of loose earth. They became a ledge, which turned under a rock, and twisting, clinging, we clambered into a cleft. Scrub, gnarled roots, loose scree, scramble and clutch, struggle and hold and pull, round projections and inlets of the mountain-side - goodness knows which way they took us through. A flange of rock stood out from the hill. The path turned left up it, and where it met the edge of the flange there was a small nick over which the guide ahead of me vanished with a vault and a scramble. His head and shoulders reappeared and he gave me a hand over. Right on the edge, in the elbow of the climb, were the remains of a wall; beyond, a rock-shelf led away gently down. Another twenty yards, and the cliff was jutting above us to form a roof. Abruptly Tim and I stopped, and stood staring.The cliff on whose ledge we were curved round in an amphitheatre, closing the head of a wild and tree-filled ravine. In that cliff, immediately before us, was an immense rock- arch …« (GRAHAM BOWER 1950: 241-245).
NOTE 1: Gaidiliu, a Rongmei Naga born 1915 in the village of Langlao in Tamenglong as niece of Chadunang, a Heraka priest, became at the age of 13 a sacrifice priestess in the »Pubon Cave of the Cachar Hills« (i.e. –>Yoni Dvara, Bhuban Pahar, Assam State). Three years later (1931), at the age of 16, Gaidiliu was the leader of the Heruka cult, which had become politic and fought against the British. In spring 1933 she was imprisoned for life. Only 13 years later, in 1946, Gaidiliu, by now considered a »Rani« (queen) and a popular freedom fighter, was allowed to return to the Naga Hills (GANGULI, Milada 1970 / 1976: 274). NOTE 2: Magulong is shown near (±2500 m) N25°13': E093°23'05” (AMS sheet NG46-11 Kohima, U502 series,1956 edition) high up on the south-east flank of a ridge above the west bank of Barak River and between the streams Helaiki nadi (northeast of Magulong) and Aleki nadi (southwest of Magulong).
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14.9 | KALEMKI, Tharon | ||
| 20.6 | NENGLO (Aperture below) | ||
| 43.0 | ASHRUBANYA TUNNEL | ||
| 61.1 | DZÜLEKIE UNDERGROUND STREAM | ||
| 65.5 | DZUKOU VALLEY CAVES | ||
| 69.0 | KHONOMA (Hole at) | ||
| 73.1 | PRIPHEMA (Cave near) | ||
| 76.4 | GHOLHO, from [] (Cave of) | ||
| 89.0 | KHANGKHUI MANGSOR |