A thousand miles on an elephant in the Shan StatesHallett, Holt S. (Holt Samuel)
History
A thousand miles on an elephant in the Shan States
Hallett, Holt S. (Holt Samuel)
Laos -- Description and travel; Thailand -- Description and travel
Dr Cushing with the help of the Chow, who had set his heart upon
entering Kiang Hai in state, marshalled the procession. Ten armed men
led the way, and were followed by the prince’s elephant, some
attendants, Dr Cushing’s elephant, some attendants, Dr M‘Gilvary’s
elephant, some attendants, my elephant, five loaded elephants and the
baby-elephant, and a long train of servants, porters, and elephant
grooms. I could not help laughing as we went along, as we appeared so
like a travelling circus advertising itself in a provincial town.
Leaving the Chow Hona’s house at half-past six, we marched through the
plain, passing several laterite hillocks, and crossing one to avoid a
swamp—and skirting five villages, until at the village of Sun Kong we
came in sight of the crenelated walls of Kiang Hai. Thence we traversed
the graveyard of the governors of the city, and shortly afterwards that
of the abbots of the monasteries, entered and crossed the city, and
halted at the rest-house lying between it and the Meh Khoke. The
rest-house is situated 352¼ miles from Hlineboay, and 1320 feet above
the sea.
One of the tomb pillars in the cemetery of the governors was six feet in
height, and had a pyramidal cap ending in a flame-like ornament. For one
foot from the ground the pillar was six feet square. Five steps, or
offsets, occurred in the next foot in height, reducing the sides of the
square for the following foot to four feet; then three offsets, together
measuring three and a half inches in height, supported a cap five feet
square, upon which the pyramid rose in offsets of two inches. In front
of the pillar was an altar, on which flowers and vegetable-wax tapers
had been freshly laid.
The rest-house in which we put up was in a very leaky condition, owing
to the thatch not having been renewed, and to the devastation wrought in
the leaves and rafters by the bamboo-beetles. The Chow’s rest-house,
which was next to ours, was in a still worse condition, as many of the
floor planks and girders were rotten, and the floor was thus a
succession of man-traps. This was soon remedied, for as soon as the Chow
Hluang heard of our arrival he despatched men with new bamboos and
thatch to render our habitations more secure and comfortable.
Kiang Hai, whose Pali name is Pantoowadi, is picturesquely situated on
the south bank of the Meh Khoke. From the crest of the small hillocks
near the city, when the air is free from haze, the eye can range 20
miles westward up the river valley; 18 miles eastward to Loi Tone Yang;
the same distance to the south, or farther if there was anything high
enough to see; and to the north as far as the low hillocks, 15 miles
distant, which divide the Kiang Hsen plain from the valley of the Meh
Khoke.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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