Expedition Name (& Club): Prehistory and palaeoenvironment of Bhutan: first cave explorations

Destination country: Bhutan
Region:

Lat: 27.3143 Long: 91.2110 Elevation: 0 m
MEF funding: none

Leader: Miss Gina Moseley

Brief Expedition objectives:

List a short summary of the main Expedition objectives.

We plan to prospect, explore, survey, photograph and conduct scientific studies in caves of the Bhutan Himalaya. Caves are known about by our own team, but have only partly been explored. Associated scientific studies in the caves will improve our understanding of archaeology, geology and palaeoenvironments.

Detailed description of objectives:

Give a more detailed account of the purpose of the trip, including any particular known caves you intend to visit, specific areas where you will explore for new cave, and scientific experiments you will attempt.

During September 2013, a team of 6 people (2 British, 3 Austrians, 1 Australian) will visit the Bhutan Himalaya to explore, survey and document caves. Bhutan is a little-explored country which was formerly inaccessible due to a complex political situation. However, our expedition and wider research endeavour has been endorsed by the Bhutanese government (See additional information), and represents an historical opportunity to break new ground in a hitherto under-researched alpine karst area.

Bhutan and, in particular, the Eastern Himalayas, are part of the upper watershed of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basin. After the Amazon and the Congo-Zaire, this basin is the third largest in the world with an average rainfall of 500- 1000 mm per year in the lower alpine elevations. Under these conditions, limestone dissolution and cave formation is possible if local erosion is more rapid than geologic uplift (All et al, 2005).

Initially, our main work will be to locate caves. Several known caves already exist, though because speleology is not well developed in Bhutan, and because foreigners have not easily been granted access, these caves have not yet been explored and surveyed. Only two caves, Dung Phug (‘Ghost Cave’) (Motegi et al., 2001; All et al., 2005) and Khaling Cave 35 km from Tashingang Dzong (Yonge 1993:18) have any surveys whatsoever, and even these are sketchy. The phreatic passage of Ghost Cave, currently ends in breakdown from which strongly blowing cool air issues, suggesting that the cave continues beyond what is currently known.

The known caves from Eastern Bhutan that are on our investigation schedule include the Thakpang and Mongar caves (both Kuru Chhu basin; Stein, 1988); the cave near Khaling (Tashigang district; Yonge, 1993); and Ugyen Chholing or Ghost Cave (Tang valley, Bumthang district; Motegi et al., 2001; All et al., 2005). The Ghost Cave (Motegi et al., 2001; All et al., 2005) is of particular interest, because it is of considerable size (200 m of explored cave passages) and is well decorated. Rumours exist that more caves can be found in the vicinity of the aforementioned caves, and we will look into these local reports and explore further karst formations known to occur in the area. In addition, greater than 10 cave systems were discovered by one of our team members (Dr Kamminga) during his prospections in November 2011. These were only partly explored and require futher detailed investigations.

To aid us in our prospection, we propose to task regionally located field staff of the Geological Survey of Bhutan to identify sites that have potential. This site location strategy will be supplemented by initial ranking and follow-up inspections.

Upon discovery of a cave, Robbie Shone and myself, who are the recognised speleologists within the team, will coordinate exploration, surveying and photography of the system. Aiding us will be an Austrian student, who will write up the results in the form of an M.Sc. thesis for the University of Innsbruck. In addition to the cave documenting, the M.Sc. student will also undertake geological mapping on the surface.

Previous work in this area:

Give details of any previous work in this area by your own and other teams. Include references to reports and articles published on the area, and the names of any local cavers or academics with whom you have discussed the Expedition.

Preliminary fieldwork has already been conducted in the Bhutan Himalaya by Dr. Kamminga, who carried out an initial archaeological site survey of caves and open-air archaeological sites in November 2011, and by Dr. Meyer, who worked in the remote high-altitude valley of northern Bhutan in the course of three scientific expeditions from 1999 to 2001.