Our visit was concluded by a sumptuous dinner at the tsawbwa’s house, the great point of etiquette apparently being to leave no part of the table unoccupied by dishes, save a margin for the guests to use their chopsticks. After dinner the tsawbwa introduced the subject of religion, and was much surprised at our not believing the doctrine of successive existences. Speaking of Gaudama, he distinguished him from Buddha, and was anxious to learn from us in what country he, Gaudama, was at present living.
The Buddhism of the Shans is, as has been already noticed, marked by great laxity among the phoongyees, and the most active religious feelings among the people belong to the belief in and worship of nats. During our stay, on the 13th of August, the fire festival of the Shans was celebrated, and about twenty bullocks and cows were slaughtered in the market-place; the meat was all speedily sold, part of it being cooked and eaten, while the remainder was fired out of guns at sundown, the pieces which happened to fall on the land being supposed to become mosquitoes, and those in the water leeches. Immediately after sunset the tsawbwa’s retainers began to beat gongs and blow long brass trumpets; after dark, torches were lit, and a party, preceded by the musicians, searched the central court for the fire nat, who is supposed to lurk about at this season with evil intent. They then prosecuted their search in all the apartments and the garden, throwing the light of the torches into every nook and corner where the evil spirit might find a hiding-place. Three other festivals are annually devoted to the nats of rain, wind, and cold.
The eclipse of the sun which happened on the 18th of August, commencing at 9.5 A.M., had been predicted by us at various places, and here also. The diminution of light was, as the Shans admitted, not sufficient to have called their attention to it, unless forewarned. The tsawbwa showed his usual intelligence by being able to use the telescope. As soon as he had satisfied himself that the eclipse had really commenced, he ordered his saluting guns to be fired, and the long trumpets to be blown, while, at his earnest request, we were obliged to order out the police guard to fire two volleys; all this was to terrify some monster that was threatening to devour the sun. The chief, however, listened attentively to our endeavour to explain the natural causes of the phenomenon, and even imparted them to the excited crowd which flocked eagerly about us.
Some of the khyoungs in the valley were altogether sacred to the Chinese deities Kwan-yin and Showfoo, the Prah, or god of the Yunnan Chinese, with various evil nats and famous teachers, such as Tamo, to the utter exclusion of any trace of the Buddhistic creed.
At a dilapidated little temple close to Hotha, dedicated to certain nats, the entrance was guarded by two horses, each with a horseman standing at its head. Similar figures of horses, tended by a man in Tartar costume, occurred in the khyoung at Muangla, and the reader may remember that the Manwyne women paid daily offerings of rice to the horse’s image in the khyoung at that town. The fact that the Shans are a race of horse-breeders and horsemen may account for the preservation of this curious relic of their pristine religion, along with the primæval propitiation of the dangerous nats, or powers of earth, air, and water.
The principal Buddhist khyoung of the valley, situated in the pretty walled village of Tsendong, is perfectly free from any admixture of their older superstitions. The tsawbwa, who acted as our cicerone, seemed very proud of the temple, which was declared to be very old. It is built on a low stone platform, surrounded by a narrow terraced verandah, the whole of the outside being roughly but skilfully carved. It contained richly gilt book cabinets, and elaborately carved altar-pieces, and might have been transported entire from the Burmese plains. The remains of an old and venerated phoongyee, who had died two months previously, lay in state under a double-roofed temporary pavilion, close to the khyoung. The sarcophagus, supported on two dragons, was a handsome structure, surmounted by a richly carved miniature pagoda. The ground had been levelled, and was kept scrupulously clean, and the whole enclosure carefully railed off. On a neighbouring terrace stood an octagonal zayat, enclosing a small pagoda. It was built almost entirely of wood, with five roofs, diminishing in size upwards, and capped by a golden htee. A series of open windows of carved wood-work ran round the building, and over each were two beautifully carved panels, representing a single object, as a bird, deer, plant, or bat. Each roof was raised on three projecting bearers, terminating in grotesquely carved heads. The enclosed pagoda was a square structure, with a delicately tapered spire reaching to the interior of the highest roof.
The presence of these purely Burmese buildings in the Hotha valley, while pagodas are altogether wanting in the valley of the Tapeng, is probably due to the vicinity of the ancient embassy route, but in 1769 the Burmese appealed to the existence of pagodas in this valley as a proof of their ancient right to include it within their boundaries.
The heavy rains which continued during our stay at Hotha delayed our progress, and at the same time prevented more complete explorations of the neighbourhood.
As already mentioned, we were to proceed over the Kakhyen hills, at the western end of the valley, the plan of crossing into Muangwan being impracticable, so far as we were concerned, although a Burmese surveyor was detached to examine the route. As before stated, we were debarred from even visiting the southern heights, but Mr. Gordon and I made an excursion to the eastern head of the valley, where it is closed in by a transverse ridge connecting the two ranges. A good road led to the ridge, which was crossed by a narrow track, the highest point not being more than four hundred feet above Hotha. A steep declivity led down into another valley, probably branching off from Muangwan. To the east-north-east, another valley could be descried, leading in the direction of Nantin, which lies one thousand one hundred feet lower. Through the mist and heavy rain, glimpses of high hills were dimly seen on every side, and we concluded that the Hotha valley, as a thoroughfare to Momien via Nantin, would present more difficult heights to be surmounted than the valley of the Tapeng.
We learned that from Old Hotha a road led to Muangla, reaching the Sanda valley by a gorge of lower elevation and more gradual descent on the northern slope than the route by which we had climbed up and scrambled down in our passage from Manwyne. Even an excursion, however, beyond the limits of the Hotha valley was rendered impossible by the presence of Li-sieh-tai and his force in Shuemuelong. We accordingly addressed ourselves to quit the pleasant quarters at Hotha, and recross the Kakhyen hills to the Burmese plain, all the chiefs of the hill tribes along the route having attended in person or by deputy at a meeting on August 22nd, when satisfactory arrangements had been made for our transit.