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Upon reaching
Kam Peng Pet
Kam Peng
Pet (diamond wall) was passed on our way. This at one time was
an important city in Siam's history. There are the ruins
of some old temples built of squared slabs of laterite, which is
abundant in the district, and there are many fortifications now
in ruins. Explorations in this district would disclose many facts
of great interest in connection with the history of Siam.
M. Tak (Raehang), the most important town on the Me Ping
between Chieng Mai and Paknam Po, is growing in extent
and importance every year. The town is on the left bank of the river,
which here is upwards of two thousand feet in width. The Governor's
house is of brick and mortar, and usual wooden houses and grass
shanties on raised platforms stretch for upwards of four miles,
straggling along the bank and interspersed here and there with brick-and-mortar
temples. There are about twenty thousand inhabitants in this district,
and, as is the custom, the bulk of the inhabitants live near the
Governor. In other parts of the district the villages are poorly
built, some of them consisting of only two or three houses. At one
time Raehang was a portion of Chieng Mai, and was
given as a dowry to some subordinate prince, from whom passed under
the direct control of Bangkok.
There is not
much rice cultivated in Raehang. The fields for supplying
the town are on the right bank of the river, which owes its importance
to its geographical position. It is within seven days' journey of
Maulmain. One meets a number of Burmese pedlars dispersed
over Siam, travelling to Sokathai, Pitsunalok,
or Pechai on the Nan River and thence to the valley
of the Mekawng to Luang Phrabang, Chiengkan, Nawngkai.
They positively swarm over the valley of the Mekawng. They
are met with everywhere, selling their stock of brass buttons with
the Queen's head stamped on them, knives, matches, needles,
and countless other things. With the proceeds of their sales they
buy an elephant, raw silk, or gum-benjamin, and these they take
back to Burmah. There is an excellent path to Chieng Mai
which elephants can follow, arriving there in nine marches. The
telegraph line is along the path.
The Governor,
an old friend of mine, was absent on my arrival, but the second
Governor was there. A keen explorer himself, he has always
been interested in our work and given great assistance to us. I
was not a stranger in Raehang. Some years previously, I had
been working in this district in the month of March, the
thermometer marking 110 degrees. I then knew nothing of the language
or people, and for the first time in my life had a violent attack
of fever, which nearly cost me my life. After going through some
extraordinary experiences, I got into Raehang with very great
difficulty, more dead than alive, where fortunately there was a
timber trader, Mr. Stevens, under whose kind care recovered
completely.
We were delayed
a few days, changing boats, and have engaged a crew of Lao,
who are excellent punters or polers, the only way in which a boat
can be propelled. The poles are of strong bamboo, tipped with an
iron prong about an inch long, which enables a better hold to be
obtained on the trunk of a tree or on a rock. Walking down the board
on the side of the boat the "poler" turns his face up
stream and then throws forward the pole. As soon as he feels the
bottom, he presses on the end of the pole with his shoulder and
advances, stooping as low as he can, to the prow of boat. There
are usually three polers employed who follow one another in rapid
succesion, and thus keep the boat constantly in motion.
We are soon
on the way, and on the very day on which we start, we notice rather
a curious sign of the times in the despatch of a full-sized billiard-table
to Chieng Mai. After crossing broad reaches of sand, with
hundreds of teak logs high and dry, we come ti the Nam Wang,
a large tributary of the Me Ping on which are the towns of
Wang, Lakawn Lampang, and Tern, each the centre of
an active teak trade. At Ban Nah we take in a supply of ropes
and make preparations for ascending the rapids. Here the mountains
begin to close on the river which now narrows, and the scenery every
day becomes more beautiful. We find a number of bullocks crossing
the river and making their way by a very difficult route to Maulmain.
This suggests the thought whether, even ten years ago, the people
of the country were not more actively engaged in trade than now?
The trade that has increased is in the hands of Europeans,
Chinese, and Burmese, but it seems to have passed
away from people of the country.
After all,
do the authorities here believe in the advantages of trade? I cannot
solve this question. Meanwhile we are in a rapid, and the boatmen,
surprised with the extra energy required of them, plunge into the
water, and with a good deal of noise get us over the first rapid.
The rapids follow one another pretty frequently: there being thirty-three
within a distance of about fifty miles. None of them are dangerous,
and beyond the delay occasioned they cause us no inconvenience.
The scenery is very beautiful; there is a legend that at Keng
Sawi , a party of men from a town near the present M. Li,
anxious to reach in a hurry the temple, now in ruins on the bank
of the Me Ping, constructed a raft and actually shot over
the precipice on the left bank of the river.
There seems
little doubt that the ruined temple once belonged to the Lawas
who occupied these hills. There are but few Lawas left now,
and they are found on the country to the west, and are engaged chieftly
in melting iron. A little distance from the river there are some
old rice-fields, where one may get a shot at a deer, or if the sportsman
is not careful, at an old woman instead, through his mistaking her
in the jungle for game. This unfortunate error happened not long
since, but the old dame was not much the worse for it. Curious to
say, each attempt of the Chieng Mai people to settle in this
part of the country, resulted in the settlers being "dacoited."
Sometimes dacoits give trouble, and murders have been committed
by them. At the same time there cannot be much danger, for I have
seen a solitary individual on a raft constructed from half a dozen
bamboos, sailing down the river. Europeans have never been meddled
with, although hundreds of thousands of rupees are taken up in boats
every year. Below Ban Mukla the rapids cease and the plain
of Chieng Mai is entered. It was once the bottom of a lake.
There is not an acre fit for rice cultivation that has not been
laid out in fields, whilst the system of irrigation is most elaborate.
The plain is about ninety miles long and five broad. Lampan
is the neighbouring province to Chieng Mai, and it is difficult
in some places to ascertain where the boundaries of the provinces
come to contact. A graceful pagoda, Dawi Kung, on a small
hill, attracts our attention. It was once in better order, and was
associated with state ceremonies of the Chief of Chieng Mai
when he passed this way. This is fast becoming a memory of the past,
and the pagoda is sadly neglected. The historical records of the
province are now offered to the spirits, and thousands of palm leaf
documents tipped with gold in teak boxes are under the rocks on
the bank of the river. This part of our journey is not interesting,
as we drag our weary way along in the boat.
M. Hawt,
the end of the land route from Burmah, is the most important
point passed. Here I met a number of Kamuks with the beautiful
metal drums which always have round the rim figures of frogs, and
from that circumstance are called Kawng Kop (frog-drums).
The Kamuks, originally from the mountain country of Luang
Phrabang, are the men who do all the hard work in the teak-forests.
After years of toil their great ambition is to posses themselves
of one of these drums, and take it to their village. After years
of toil their great ambition is to possess themselves of one of
these drums, and take it to their village. The drums are made in
the Red Karen country, and in Siam are used only in
ceremonies in connection with the King.
At the mouth
of the Nam Kan there is a rather numerous village of lepers,
but as they are allowed to wander over the country, and go even
to the markets of Chieng Mai, there is no particular isolation.
Here we enjoy a very fine view of the mountains. To the west is
Dawi Intanon, height 8,450 feet, the highest peak in the
Chieng Mai province, and since the French aggression,
the highest mountain in Siam. Then the magnificent peak of
Dawi Sutep, which is only eight miles from Chieng Mai,
stands boldly out with the glittering pagoda, half way up the mountain.
We soon arrive in Chieng Mai, and are lost in the hundred
of boats of all shapes and sizes that are found here.
Other parts of the journey:
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