The cave deposits, especially the stalagmites, are widely distributed and precisely dated terrestrial archives for paleoclimate studies, the stable oxygen isotope sequences from which were believed to duplicate well between spatially seperated caves. Nevertheless, climatic interpretation of oxygen isotope from the stalagmites, particularly in the Asian monsoon regions, has been challenged due to insufficient quantitative studies. Thus, previous investigations on quantitative studies of speleothem indicators, i.e. δ18O, δ13C, trace element, layer thickness and growth dynamics are summarized in this paper. Compared with other geologic records, some urgent issues are tentatively put forward involving calibration with monitoring data, multi proxy studies and combination with the regional tree ring data. The aim for this paper is to further understand the quantitative relationship between stalagmite proxies and climate, and promote the regional and global comparison with the speleothem records.