Saddan Cave

Saddan Cave is a Buddhist cave temple hidden inside a limestone karst tower at the southern end of Mount Zwegabin, in Myanmar's Kayin (Karen) State. Its entrance hall is crowded with hundreds of small Buddha statues, a few large ones, a reclining Buddha and gilded pagodas, while beyond them a vast natural passage leads through the mountain into darkness and out again to a hidden lake.

The cave runs for roughly 800 metres from one side of the karst to the other. The entrance chamber alone is about 107 metres long and up to 40 metres wide, and local writers describe Saddan as the longest cave in Kayin State with a narrow entrance. A path leads through the main passage, past dripstone formations, one of which is known as the Stone Pillar of the King of Elephants, and past colonies of thousands of bats. At the far end the passage opens onto a lake at the foot of the cliffs; from there wooden canoes return through a second, much lower river cave, about 110 metres long and 3 metres high, that links two lakes on opposite sides of the mountain.

Local Karen tradition holds that the cave is named after Saddan, a king of elephants who lived in the area, and that the lake at the exit was his bathing place; another legend makes the cave a resting place of the hunter-king Paarwana. The cave remains an active place of worship, and a pagoda festival is held here on the last day of Thingyan, the Myanmar New Year water festival.

Getting there

The cave lies about 22–30 km south-east of Hpa-An, the capital of Kayin State, reached by road and a final stretch of village track. The nearest airport by straight line, Mae Sot (MAQ), is across the border in Thailand; the nearest airport in Myanmar with international flights is Yangon International Airport (RGN), about 170 km away in a straight line.