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| Captain Hans Jensen. |
Mr.
Steiner then collected two pieces with the inscription and forwarded them to
the Society. He then suggested that the small area where the Captain actually
fell, 30 meters from the road should be registered and that a small memorial
stone should be placed there. He asked the Society to bear the expenses. Someone
financed a small durable memorial, which is still there today.
Recently
a foreign friend told Mr. Torben Poulsen, a Dane residing in Chiang Mai, that
the inscription on the obelisk of Hans Marqvard Jensen was no longer readable
and the stone was dirty. He asked the Embassy for support to renovate the
memorial, but in the end found that all he needed was some scouring powder and
a bit of elbow grease. He then did the job himself.
And so,
the name of the courageous Danish Captain who broke the back of the Shan
rebellion and helped the Kingdom regain control of the North is again readable
and his reputation lives on – at least among us who live here, know the
conditions and respect him.
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| Original article about Danish Captain Hans Jensen. |
After
working in Lampang 10 years, Canadian Doctor William A. Briggs wanted to carry
enlightenment and advancement to legendary T’ai people way up the Mekong, in
Sipsongpanna, China - even further from the emerging modern world than the
cities of Lampang, Lamphun and Chiang Mai, which, large though they were, had
no connecting highways, railroads, telegraph or even effective (rapid, anyway)
boat connections to the world at large.
For 100
years Canada had been a successful colony; India the jewel of empire, had been
a success for Britain twice that long. Four hundred years before, filthy
Europeans had begun spreading disease and death throughout the globe we call
our world; hundreds of millions died premature deaths due to European
ignorance, aggressiveness and lack of hygiene and manners.
But, as a
result of the food sources and stimulants they’d found and brought home, for a
hundred years there’d been ample energy devoted to growth and development.
Russia had expanded east, civilizing much of Siberia, and the world was
becoming industrialized, with electricity, motors, steel, interchangeable parts
and many important advances in scientific understanding.
It
appeared as if the white man’s sins would be counter-balanced by contributions;
soon the world would not only be understood, but well-managed, polite and
happy. Surely, to Briggs’s mind, all that was needed was for good men to spread
science and Christianity.
In modern
times, the presumption of offering advice in a host’s home has been cruelly
obvious to the few sensitive expats trying to politely fit in, but Briggs
wasn’t just a guest, or missionary. He was a doctor, engineer, social scientist
and agriculturalist well-welcomed for his skills and energetic hard work.
Farengi/Farang
(the term comes from Frank, used by Persians, many of whom were traders but a
few Siamese Court officials) in the area were few, though Brits had come to
Chiang Mai as early as 1829 (to purchase elephants, oxen and buffalo) and had
attached the Shan States in 1886.
The
French made a clear declaration of their intentions on Laos in 1893. What later
became the province of Chiang Rai had only about 5000 people, when Dr Briggs
came, with the little “city” under Doi JomTong only 500. This was remote
enough, the danger already great enough, the Presbyterian Mission surely felt.
Indeed, it was so. After five years in his new position, Dr Briggs found himself at war.
But what
a strange war. The people he fought were people he was the chief governmental
representative of, although they were from Burma and this was in Siam! For, in
addition to everything else, Briggs served as British consul for Chiangrai, a
very important position, due to the teak trade.
Christian
missionaries and clergymen began helping plan educational, medical and health
matters, construction and town mapping. The most important person in planning
the modern ChiangRai City was Dr. Briggs.
In
addition to founding the areas first hospital (Overbrook), he mapped out
official building areas, business areas, residential areas, recreation areas, a
prison, and a military camp (with another hospital), with a drainage ditch
around the town. Officials from Bangkok, come to implement the new
administrative structures, didn’t help much: they imposed harshly excessive
taxes, supposedly meant to replace corveé labor. Traditional demands for unpaid
labor didn’t end, though.
Shan
ruby-miners, teak-workers and road-builders, nominally British subjects in an
area economically dominated by the British, began rebelling in July 1902. They
seized Chiang Mai, killing over 20 officials there. Other Shans beheaded the
Siamese governor at Phrae, sacked the town and murdered all Siamese they could
find. With Phrae’s hereditary ruler along, they marched on Lampang. Shans
revolted in Nan and attacked ChiangRai too, but were defeated by Dr Briggs and
companions, barricaded in their hospital with a canon.
Those rebels fantasized establishing their own independent
state. Whether this was to be a revival of Lanna is unclear; there is a Shan
belief in a King Surakhanfa the Great (1291 - 1364) who ruled Ahom, Dali, Keng
Tung, Chiang Saen, Luang Prabang, Lampun, Sukhotai, Chiang Mai, Pegu, Ava and
even Mergui (a small port way to the south).
The
Siamese and few remaining Khon Muang (Lanna people), quite equally, saw
themselves as distinct from each other. Perhaps the Shan workers expected not
only local, but also British, support. They didn’t get it.
According
to Singkaew Suriyakam, a “troop of Shans from the Shan States numbering 200
strong tried to plunder the city of Chiangrai. They encamped on the opposite
bank of the river. At that time the river was high. There was a bridge made of
bamboo across the river. The news of the approaching force come suddenly,
therefore hasty preparations had to be made to defend the city.
The police
force was not properly organized and no army barracks was nearby. Before the
enemy came near the city, the rulers, acting on the suggestion made by Dr.
Briggs, sent post-haste to the barracks at Chiangmai an appeal for troops.
Moreover Dr. Briggs advised the ruling prince of Chiangrai to arrest all Shans
and Burmese living in the city and confine them in the precincts of Phra Singh
Temple and hold them as hostages, fearing that the Shans would act as spies or
what people today call a "fifth column."
The
people who lived along the banks ran away into the forest. Well-to-do people
who had elephants and big families did as Phya Pakdirajakit, a next door
neighbor to Dr. Briggs. He put all his family on the backs of elephants and
they fled north of the city. Many Christian and non-Christian families took
refuge in the house of Dr. Briggs, which offered convenience and protection.”
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| Today's Chiang Rai Map. |
At that
time the writer of this story was a child and his mother took him to Dr.
Briggs' house too. His mother told him later that Dr. Briggs ordered all
refugees to lie flat on the ground should firing of guns occur. The writer
himself was forced to lie flat under the bed of Dr. Briggs.
The
bamboo bridge mentioned above was just opposite to the present-day police
station. The ruling princes of that time placed an old mortar with its muzzle
pointed to the bridgehead on the other bank ready to fire at any moment. The
bamboo mat floor in the middle of the bamboo bridge, where the current was very
strong, had been removed and a camouflaged floor had been put in its place in
order to lure the enemy to be drowned there.