Language: English with trilingual abstract in English, German, and French
Until 2009 Myanmar was still one of the “blank spots” on the speleological world map. Since then the country has made remarkable progress with regard to access to foreigners and also in political liberalism. However, there is still restricted access to areas along the borders to China, Thailand, Laos and India. In 2009 an expedition team of the “Northern Lao–European Cave Project” visited the area of Moulmein, explored 14 caves and surveyed 12 of them, yielding 3,8 km in 5 days (Dreybrodt 2009; Laumanns 2010). This prepared the basis for a British expedition in 2010 to the Taunggyi/Hopong area, which explored several important caves. In the same year a standard country monograph in this publication series was released (Laumanns 2010), which summarised everything known on karst and caves in Myanmar up to 2010, including the British 2010 expedition, and even included many cave surveys that were previously unpublished. This compilation also strived to align erroneous locations, name transcription problems as well as double listings assigned to the same caves – all of which occurred in the literature.
This publication, similar in style and presentation with the afore-mentioned monography, continues the “Myanmar cave story”. It focuses on the Shan plateau and comprises the results of the latest expeditions from 2011-2013 (98 caves with a total of 16,6 km of mapped passages). Further findings will be the subject of another volume in this series.
Abstract / Zusammenfassung / Résumé 5
1. Acknowledgements 5
2. Introduction (by J. Dreybrodt & M. Laumanns) 7
3. Geographical and geological settings (by Liz Price) 8
4. History of cave exploration in Myanmar (by L. Price, M. Laumanns, J. Dreybrodt) 14
5. Cave descriptions 16
5.1 General remarks 16
5.2 Caves of the Northern Shan State 17
5.2.1 Lashio Area 17
5.2.2 Kutkai Area 22
5.3 Caves of the Southern Shan State 23
5.3.1 Kalaw Area 25
5.3.2 Hopong Area 30
5.3.3 Pinlaung Area 40
5.3.4 Ywangan Area 56
5.3.5 Nyaungshwe Area 62
6. Biospeleology of the Shan States, Myanmar (by Helmut Steiner) 71
7. Conclusions 80
8. References 80
Annex 1: Caves explored 2010–2013 in Myanmar
Annex 2: Photo tables
Annex 3: Survey of Kyauk Khaung