So
nothing happened as planned by the Shans. Simultaneously gun-fire began at the
bridgehead mixed with the sound of drums and gongs and Shans shouting "Wat
Lae! Wat Lae!" which was similar in meaning to the cry of dacoits farther
south who would shout, "Ai sua aow wah!" when making an attack. Apart
from firing their rifles the Shans shot off fire crackers to frighten people in
the city.
Then the
robbers who thought themselves invulnerable because they were tattooed all
over, marched with swords in both hands to the bridgehead and came within the
firing of the big gun hidden on the city side. When the robbers came near the
middle of the bridge, the ruling prince himself pulled the trigger of the big
gun and the vanguard of the enemy disappeared into the river.
The
followers, very angry, rushed over the bridge to invade the city despite the
rain of bullets from the city side. Many of them fell and disappeared into the
current because the false floor in the middle of the bridge did not bear their
weight. The rearguard, seeing the failure to cross the river, retreated and
encamped about six kilometers from the city.
 |
| 1902 Chiang Rai. |
By
mistake the Thai soldiers thought that all the houses on the other bank of Mae
Kok River belonged to Shans so they burned all of them down. They beheaded two
Shan rebels and put the heads up for public view in front of the present
government office just opposite to the officials' club.
Later
investigations showed that old people, and women and children had been badly
treated by the Shans. During the fighting people gathered up bundles of clothes
and food in order to flee into the jungle.
In the
city many houses were hit by bullets from the muskets of the enemy, especially
the house of Phya Pakdirajakit. In the bedroom near the river, which happened
to be the bedroom of the writer of this sketch, there were many holes caused by
the bullets. The owner of the house kept them as they were until recently.
Dr.
Boriboon Pakdi (the nephew of Phya Pakdi) was obliged to demolish that old
house in order to build the classrooms of the present <1962> Daroon Suksa
School in its place. No life was lost in the city. It is not certain whether
the Shans intended to rule the city or merely to plunder it. During that time
the city of Prae also had a severe battle with the Shan invaders (1905).
Shortly
after the repulse of the Shans, an army barracks was set up in Chiangrai for
the first time. It was erected on the tops of the hills along the bank of the
river from the house of Dr. Briggs to Doi Tong. The barracks offered a fine
view of the landscape and meant security to the people.
After
that Dr. Briggs was made a medical officer attached to the Chiangrai Regiment
and he was commissioned a captain in the army. Every week both Dr. Briggs and
the colonel in command would inspect the health of all soldiers in each company
and give treatment to those who were sick. All the privates and officers would
salute Dr. Briggs whenever they met him.
Vengeance
by Siamese troops under Field Marshall Surasak was ruthless; many innocents
were punished. The rebellion had lasted 14 months. In December 1905, Prince
Vajiravudh, who became Rama VI, visited ChiangRai, solidifying royal authority.
As King, Rama VI required surnames for all; “sometimes whole villages were
given the same last name”!
When the
northern rail route reached the Lanna area (Pitsanulok in 1907, Lampang in 1916
and Chiang Mai variously reported as 1919 or 1922), control from Bangkok became
quite fully, and firmly, set. Dr Briggs, though, had already left...
unfortunately, never to return.
Siamese Atrocities in Chiang Kham
French
attitudes towards the Siamese hardened when reports started coming in of
“unspeakable atrocities” committed by Siamese troops in their repression of the
rebellion. An account of an incident in late October 1902, was provided by the
French Consul in Nan.
After
some confrontations with rebels around near the village of Ta Pha (near Chiang
Kham), Siamese troops marched into the
village. They arrived at a house belonging to the Bombay Burma Company, a
British trading and timber business. Here is an edited translation of the
Consul’s account (with most of the original spelling, which is sometimes very
difficult to decipher):
In a
nutshell this is what happened: Tapha is a small village, at the junction of
the roads, which lead from Nan and Pré. It is inhabited by Luus and Khamous
people, it is a forestry station where the Bombay Burmah Company has a house, a
shop and a rice granary. The rebels based in Xieng Kham had sent a vanguard on
the 24th October to Tapha to try to stop the troops coming from Pré to cross
the ford of Nam Méyon.
In the
morning of the 26th they learnt that a second column was coming from Penh-Yao
to take them from the rear and decided to go towards it. They met at five or
six kilometres from Tapha, when the column had just left Muong Sa.
Since
they only had flintlocks they could only hold for a few moments and fled
through the forest, towards Muong-Song, without entering into Tapha. This took
place at 11am. Instead of following the rebels, the column kept marching on
Tapha, which it reached at two o’clock in the afternoon. As soon as they came
in sight of the houses, and although there was not a single rebel left, they
fired several salvos and came to the
Bombay Burmah land.
They
removed the flag of the company, destroyed the fence and riddled the house with
bullets before going in. Inside they found three Khamous, a Lao, a Luu and an
eight-year-old child; and two Burmese hired as guards.
The
soldiers chased these poor unfortunates who had taken refuge in the kitchen;
one of the Khamous, the Lao and the Luu were killed at close range, the two
other Khamous and the eight-year-old child were seriously wounded. The two Burmese were chained. The private
house, the shop and the rice granary were vandalised and looted.
After
that they saw a big hut which belongs to the indigenous wife of the of the
Company agent. There they massacred two women in their sleep, including a sixty
year old and wounded two more.
Once
these summary executions over, the crazed gunmen spread through the village to
take people from their houses and move them to the pagoda where they were kept
until nightfall. Meanwhile the plunder of the village took place in a
systematic fashion by the soldiers, the partisans and the coolies of the
column.
The
morning after the Phaya Datzakone, who styles himself “Commander in Chief of
the vanguard army”, arrived at Tapha were the whole army was now gathered. For
five days, 600 regulars and as many coolies finished ruining the village before
leaving for Xieng Kham.
The day
they left, the two Burmese of the Bombay Burma Company were taken five
kilometres away, were tied to a big tree each, facing the tree, and
decapitated.
What is
important/what we should keep in mind is that all the victims were in houses
belonging to foreigners; and that all of them are, with no exception, English
and French protégés and either employed or relatives of employees in the
service of Foreigners. I met with my English colleague at Tapha who had also
come to investigate; he is as upset as me. What will be done? It would seem
improbable that both governments would leave such crimes unpunished. As to the
rebels, they seem to have scattered for the time being.
[The
image is an extract from a petition presented by the heads of villages near
Chiang Kham seeking protection from the French.]
(Shans were the predominant inhabitants in the northern part of
Thailand - then known as Siam – till the very end of nineteenth century. In
July 1902 Shans dreaming of establishing an independent state in northern
Thailand rebelled against the ruling Thais. But the Thais - then known as
Siamese - ruthlessly crushed the rebellion and brutally slaughtered the Shans
there and by September 1903 the now-completely-forgotten Shan Rebellion was
over.)