Four years ago, it was a muddy, chaotic and emotionally tense scene at the entrance to Tham Luang Cave, where thousands of people, from volunteers to parents to cavers from around the world, came together with one goal: to rescue 12 boys and their football trapped inside.
During an 18-day ordeal, much of the world’s attention was turned to the cave, with many fearing the worst. But against the odds, the entire team was saved.
The miraculous rescue has become the focus of documentaries, Hollywood blockbusters and more than a dozen books. Today, the area in front of the cave is a construction zone, as the national park prepares for an expected wave of tourists wanting to see the site.
Areas where family members awaited news of the children disappeared, and shelters where volunteers were recovering from arduous cave incursions were torn down. In its place, a visitor center, tourist facilities and a large replica of the surrounding mountains are being built.
Tham Luang, which for a long time was a quiet and little-visited old national park, is back on the map thanks to the rescue of the Wild Boars football team. “I never expected it to change that much, because before the boys were trapped in the cave, nobody knew about Tham Luang. Even neighboring districts didn’t know about the cave,” says Naphason Chaiya, 54, head of Baan Jong village.
In a first wave of improvements, roads were repaved and hotels, shops and coffee shops sprang up. In honor of Saman Gunan, a volunteer diver who died in the endeavor, a statue of him with 13 wild boars at his feet was erected.
Soon after the rescue, so many tourists began to arrive that the line of cars was sometimes longer than 1.5 km. To the dismay of local merchants, however, the boom was interrupted in 2020, with the pandemic. Now, with the virus receding and the release of films and documentaries — such as Ron Howard’s “Thirteen Lives: The Rescue” on Amazon and “The Thai Cave Rescue” on Netflix — many residents are hoping that Tham Luang will return to be a visitor magnet when the rainy season ends.
“I’m optimistic. The cave is bringing more tourism and improving the city’s economy. I see a lot of new projects, new businesses, restaurants and cafes,” says Pansak Pongvatnanusorn, who built the Teva Valley Resort 5 km from the cave in 2019 and maintained it. open during the pandemic.
Tham Luang is in the Doi Nang Non Mountains, which run along the Myanmar border in Thailand’s northernmost province, Chiang Rai. Considered sacred, the formation rises from the valley, overlooking rice fields and villages. In the dry season, the place is a long, narrow cave system punctuated by subterranean chambers. During the heavy rain season, it quickly becomes an underground river, which is why the boys were trapped.
Vern Unsworth, an amateur explorer who played a key role in the rescue, recruiting the British divers who found the boys, has since led efforts to expand the cave system, finding new entrances and chambers and connecting dead-end segments.
In these efforts, the ensemble gained more than 11 kilometers in length. “By next year, it will be the longest in Thailand.”
After all the international attention the rescue received, little is now known about the boys and their trainer, Ekkapol Chantawong. One reason is that they and their family members sold the rights to their story to a government-linked company, which in turn sold it to Netflix. In the contracts, the children and Ekkapol are barred from telling the story publicly for years. (Several of them, contacted by the New York Times, declined to speak.)
Unsworth says that some of the boys and Ekkapol returned to the cave to explore with him during the dry season. “They don’t have a problem with what happened. They just tried to live life as best they could. They didn’t put themselves on a pedestal, they kept a low profile.”
Many still dedicate themselves to football. One of them, Duangphet Promthep, was recently accepted by Brooke House College Football Academy in the UK. Adul Sam-on attends the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, on a scholarship — he was one of three stateless persons who, in addition to Ekkapol, were granted Thai citizenship after the rescue.
Adul, in high school, is proficient in five languages ​​and had a dream of becoming a doctor, according to his great-uncle and guardian Go Shin Maung. But the rescue and international attention have broadened his worldview, and he now hopes to do humanitarian work, possibly with the UN. “The boys still talk and exchange messages, but they are going their own way,” says the Christian pastor.
Although most of the region’s residents are Buddhists, many maintain a traditional belief in spirits and say they see the figure of a woman sleeping on the edge of the mountains.
According to local legend, a long time ago a princess fell in love with a groom; after she became pregnant, they fled to the cave. One day, when the young man went out to get food, he was killed by the king’s men, driving the princess to suicide. Her blood became the river that flows in the cave, and the mountains above took on its shape. The cave’s full name, Tham Luang Nang Non, means “great cave of the sleeping lady”.
During the rescue, many volunteers prayed and left offerings at a shrine at the entrance to the cave. When the Boars were discovered, the location of the chamber they were in meant to many that the lass was indeed keeping everyone safe.
“Fate is written because they were found under the eyes of the princess. Their fate was that all people would come together to save them,” says park ranger Kamon Kunngamkwamdee.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
