The Koo Tow.
During the evening (20th March) we had a heavy downpour of rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning.
The next morning, after leaving the village fields, and crossing the Meh Chan for the last time, we passed between a newly raised footpath and a ditch for about half a mile. The footpath had been raised, because, when the Meh Kong is in high flood, the ground about here and between this and Kiang Hsen is occasionally inundated by the Meh Khum. At 389 miles we skirted a hillock, called Loi Ngome, on our right, and soon afterwards came to the village and fields of Hsan Hsoom Hpee. Many low hillocks were now seen at distances varying from 800 feet to four miles to our right. A short distance from Kiang Hsen I halted near an irrigation-canal, 100 feet wide and 6 feet deep, to visit the Koo Tow, a celebrated leaning pagoda, which, unlike any other pagoda that I have seen in Indo-China, has been built in the Chinese style. The figures of the Tay-wa-boot or male angels, which are executed in bas-relief in excellent plaster, are Burmese in design. The pagoda is circular, and about 75 feet high; the upper 60 feet rising in three storeys, like a drawn-out telescope. Each storey is divided into two by an ornamental band, above which are Tay-wa-boot with hands upraised and palms pressed together in adoration, and below which are similar Tay-wa-boot with hands pressed together in front of their chest. Before the pagoda a Burmese image of Gaudama has been erected, which was still in good condition with the exception of the loss of a hand and an arm.
On remounting the elephant, a deer sprang up from the long grass close by and crossed the track. Six minutes later I crossed the Meh Khum, or golden river, 80 feet broad and 9 feet deep, with 3½ feet of water; and three-quarters of a mile from the pagoda, entered the fortifications which enclose the west central gate of Kiang Hsen. The gate opens on to one of the main streets of the city, along which we passed amidst numerous ruins of religious buildings, and a few clusters of recently built houses, to the sala or rest-house, which we occupied during our stay. The sala is situated 1274 feet to the west of the Meh Kong, or Cambodia river, 393 miles from Hlineboay, 1097 feet above the sea, and only 89 feet higher than Zimmé.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE MEH KONG AT KIANG HSEN—RINGWORM—EXTENSIVE RUINS—DESCRIPTION OF CITY—IMPORTANCE OF SITUATION FOR TRADE—CHINESE SETTLERS FROM SSUCHUAN, KWEICHAU, AND YUNNAN—PROJECTED RAILWAY—SURVEYS BEING MADE BY KING OF SIAM—EXCURSIONS FROM KIANG HSEN—TEAK-FORESTS—ROBBING AN IMAGE—LEGEND OF KIANG MEE-ANG—ANCIENT CITIES—COMPARISON BETWEEN ANCIENT BRITONS AND SHANS—ANCIENT PRINCIPALITY OF TSEN—KIANG HUNG—DESTRUCTION OF KIANG HSEN—CARRIED AWAY CAPTIVES—TREACHERY IN WAR—POPULATION OF ZIMMÉ CHIEFLY SLAVES—KIANG HSEN REOCCUPIED IN 1881—RESETTLING IT—ACTION OF KING OF SIAM—FRIENDLY FOOTING OF MISSIONARIES—VIEW ACROSS THE KIANG HSEN PLAIN—FLOODED COUNTRY—LEAVE FOR KIANG HAI—A WHITE ELEPHANT—BRANCHES AS SUNSHADES—ELEPHANT-FLIES—EMIGRANTS FROM LAPOON—BEAUTIFUL SCENERY—MR ARCHER’S DESCRIPTION OF TRAFFIC ALONG THE ROUTE.
Whilst the elephants were being unloaded and the servants were preparing breakfast, the Chow Phya, or district officer of Kiang Hai, who had been deputed to accompany us to Kiang Hsen, went to the Chow Hluang’s to inform him of our arrival, and we strolled to the bank of the Meh Kong, the Cambodia river of the French, to see the view.
We found ourselves a few miles above the entrance of the Meh Khoke, which is here separated from the Meh Khum by a long hillock, called Loi Chan (the steep hill). Just below the mouth of the Meh Khoke, the Meh Kong commences its great eastern bend, which stretches through two degrees of latitude to Luang Prabang.
The distance between Kiang Hsen and Luang Prabang by boat is about 200 miles, and the journey was performed by Dr M‘Gilvary in six days. The first day’s journey took him to Kiang Khong, a city of two or three thousand inhabitants, and the capital of a district under Muang Nan. In describing the river between Kiang Khong and Luang Prabang he says: “The river is a mile wide in places, and where the channel is narrowed it rushes along with frightful rapidity. Mountains rise from either bank to the height of three or four thousand feet. The river fills the bottom of a long winding valley, and as we glided swiftly down it there seemed to move by us the panorama of two half-erect, ever-changing landscapes of woodland verdure and blossom. Only as we neared the city did we see rough and craggy mountain-peaks and barren towering precipices.”