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RULES OF CAVING
Liz Price
The Malaysian Karst Society published a list of Rules of Caving in
its newsletter. Rule No 9 tells you not to urinate in a cave, the
reason being, wait for it ..............that you might upset the
spirits of the cave.
This follows the
Malaysian belief that if you have a pee outdoors, you should always
ask the spirits permission first, or at least warn them that you are
about to pollute their territory.
CAVING WITH SPIRIT HUNTERS
Liz
Price
In 2001 I visited
Gua Cinta Manis (Sweet Love Cave) which is near Karak in Pahang,
Malaysia, in a completely isolated limestone outcrop. The cave is
basically one huge chamber with a couple of side chambers leading
off, the only obstacle being a 15m pitch covered in guano. Whilst we
were preparing to descend, a group of 5 Indians turned up. Barefoot
and dressed only in lungis (sarongs), with seed and bead necklaces
and ash markings on their faces, they slung an ancient hemp rope
down the pitch and proceeded to descend hand over hand. Then they
lowered their heavy bags. Luckily one of our group was Indian and
could ask these guys what they were doing. It turned out they were
looking for a spirit. These Hindus (and indeed most Malaysians)
believe that spirits are everywhere, and one of the men wanted a
spirit at home in his house. So they went to the cave to see if they
could find one spirit willing to move to the man's house.
The 'bomoh' or
shaman was conducting the proceedings and they were making offerings
of fruit, lighting incense sticks and burning camphor. Whilst going
into a trance the bomoh lit a piece of camphor on his tongue but
didn't seem affected by the flame or heat. Maybe he had been
imbibing alcoholic spirits beforehand and was immune to the pain!
The group intended
to spend at least one week in the cave, going all around to look for
a suitable spirit. We were a bit worried about their safety as they
had few torches between them and intended to do one or two tricky
climbs up slippery walls. For the pitch we had our full SRT gear and
safety backups, they had an old knotted rope. I only hope they got
up their knotted rope alright after one week in the cave. No doubt
the spirits helped them.
AXBRIDGE CAVING GROUP ANNUAL GENERAL
MEETING - 9 JANUARY 200
Alan
Gray
Present – Matthew Nicholson, Mark Giles,
Paul Hodgson, Janna Cook, Dave Watts, Jo Lee, Simon Moth, Alan Gray,
Elaine Johnson, Hugh Tucker
1. ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN FOR THE
MEETING
Alan Gray was elected as Chairman for the
meeting.
2. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
John Dobson, Keith Lee, Jason Nichols
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