Strange Creatures in Thai Temples

                                  by Jim Goodman

mom images at Wat Umong Mahatherachan

       At some point in ancient India, certain individuals had the leisure time and intellectual curiosity to wonder about the nature of the world around them. They began speculating on the elements of the universe, both on what could be seen and what could not.  No record exists as to what kind of debate ensued over the interpretation, but eventually a consensus emerged.  The self-styled philosophers of that era came up with a description that would underline all the myths of the Hindu religion as well as, centuries later, Buddhism, both in India and in Southeast Asia.

       They were living in the Gangetic Plain, a broad swath of the heart of India, bounded on the north by the Himalaya Mountains, the earth’s tallest.  It’s doubtful whether any of these mythographers explored these mountains, but they were always visible from the northern edge of the plains.  They reckoned the center of the universe was Mt. Meru, the highest of the 84,000 peaks that made up the northern mountain range.  The sun, moon and planets all revolved around Mt. Meru.

naga at the foot of Wat Doi Suthep stairway

nagas at Chedi Luang

       Thousands of years later, when Buddhism gained ascendancy in northern India its adherents also subscribed to this world-view.  The Buddhist heavens were supposed to be just above Mt. Meru, while all around the mountain’s base lay the Himmapan Forest, home to a wide assortment of ethereal creatures.  Some were totally fanciful, others based on real animals, still others hybrid varieties.  Some preyed on others in the forest, but in general, Himmapan residents, experiencing no suffering and therefore no aging, were eternally youthful.

dragon-headed lion at Lamphun's Wat Haripunchai

Lion Capitals of Ashoka, Wat Bupharam

       Thai people converted to Buddhism, via Sinhalese missionaries, long after the religion died out in India, when it was already heavily influenced by Hindu concepts.  As a result, the imagery associated with Thai Buddhist temple compounds includes that of Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, along with the weird denizens of Himmapan.  Some of these creatures represent protectors and guardians of the sacred space and buildings of the compound.  Others are decorative sculptures enhancing the walls or standing freely in the courtyard.

       The most striking of the guardian animals are the serpentine nagas.  A pair of them flanks the staircases to the main temple buildings.  They were originally modeled on the king cobra, but have heads and fangs more suggestive of a dragon.  Thai versions have anywhere between one and seven heads.  According to Buddhist mythology, after his Enlightenment the Buddha was seated in meditation one day when a violent rainstorm broke out.  The king cobra Mucalinda rose up behind him and spread the hoods of his seven heads to shield him from the rain. 

elephant-headed lion, Wat Lamchang

elephant-headed horse, Wat Muensan

       The naga image evolved from the Mucalinda tale, became associated with the protection of Buddhism, and thus guards the entrances to the assembly hall (viharn), ordination hall (ubosot) and, at Chiang Mai’s Chedi Luang, the staircases climbing up the sides of the ruined chedi. The naga’s color varies from all white to mostly yellow to a variety of colors on one sculpture, such as the ones at Wat Doi Suthep.  The fangs are always bared and a crest rises upward from the top of its head.

       The lion is another guardian animal, usually seated at the compound entrance or beside a chedi.  As the King of the Beasts it represents power and strength, ready to repel any spirit attack.  But it doesn’t always play that role.  At the entrance to Wat Bupharam four lions stand back to back on the columns on either side.  They are replicas of the famous Lion Capital of Ashoka, originally created in the 3^rd century BCE, named after Emperor Ashoka of Maurya, who promoted the spread of Buddhism all over the Indian sub-continent.

elephant-headed nagas, Wat Chiang Yeun

elephant-headed bird, Lamphun lamp post

       In this case, the four lions symbolize the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism:  suffering exists, craving causes it, the end of suffering comes with the end of craving, and the way to achieve that is to follow the rules of the Eightfold Path.  The other distinction of the Lion Capital of Ashoka is how closely they resemble real lions.  The animal was quite common in India back then, so one can safely assume the sculptor’s rendition was based on observation in the wild.

       Nowadays lions have vanished from all over India except for one preserved area in the Gir Forest of the western province of Gujarat.  They were never in Southeast Asia, though, so the usual Thai or Burmese rendition of a lion is quite different.  The body shape is close, but the head is much fiercer, more like that of a dragon.  Like the naga, the guardian lion has to look properly frightening to deter evil spirits.

bird with elephant and naga heads, Wat Srisupoan

thep norasri, Wat Saen Muang Ma Luang          

       An animal closer to home, that also plays a protective role in Thai temples, is the elephant.  Quite reduced in numbers now, elephants were abundant in past centuries.  Artists didn’t even have to go out to the jungles to see what they looked like, for kings rode them in processions and armies had stables of war-elephants. Consequently, their sculptures of elephants are generally realistic, even when they are just the front half, like the ones around the chedis of Wat Chiang Man and Chedi Luang.           

mermaid at Wat Saen Muang Ma Luang

       Admired for its strength, majesty, intelligence and good nature, the elephant is also associated with Buddhism through another ancient story.  Accordingly, the Buddha was out walking in the countryside one day when an elephant approached him.  While the Buddha stood in the path, the elephant sank to its knees and bowed its head and trunk to the ground to pay respect and obeisance, acknowledging the Enlightened One.

       A Chiang Mai temple specifically honors the elephant.  Called Wat Lamchang, Temple of the Tethered Elephants, it stands on the spot where King Mengrai temporarily kept his stable of royal elephants while he oversaw the construction of Chiang Mai in 1292.  Elephant statues flank the stairways of the buildings, surround the chedi and stand in the gardens.  They can be white, black, brown or terracotta red, from near life size down to the size of a flowerpot.  They can be very realistic, with trunks raised, or small, smiling, almost cartoon-like.  They can also be half-elephant, like the pair of elephant-headed lions that stand before the rear building in the compound.

crocodile-headed flying horse, Wat Saen Muang Ma Luang

       These are called kochasri and are creatures from the Himmapan Forest, where nothing dwelling there is visible to mortal eyes.  So their depictions are up to the imagination of the artist.  At Wat Lamchang they are standing sculptures, while at Wat Meunsan they are gilded low relief images on a gate panel and at Wat Phra Singh carved in stone on the base of the library.

       Elephant-related Himmapan hybrids include the sinta pakuchorn--a green, elephant-headed horse, the kunchun uneu—front half elephant and back half fish, the nok hussadee—an elephant-headed bird, and the karinpuksa—an elephant body with the wings and tail of a bird.  Bigger than an ordinary elephant, it can soar, fly and hover in the air. 

      Elephant-headed nagas are the main motif decorating the shrine in front of the chedi at Wat Chiang Yeun.  Embellishing the roof corners of the Silver Temple at Wat Srisuphan are sculptures of a large bird with two heads—the lower one elephant, the upper one naga.  And the creatures on the roof corners of the ubosot at Wat Chedi Liam have an elephant head on the breast of a bird, with what looks like a serpent’s tail rising high up behind and over the head.

flying horse on the base of the library at Wat Phra Singh

       A final example of the elephant head theme is that of Ganesh, the Hindu god with a human body and an elephant head.   Some Ganesh sculptures have three heads, like the god Indra’s elephant mount Erawan.  The other Hindu deity adopted by Thai Buddhism is Brahma, the creator god, whom the Thai know as Phra Prom and who has four heads, one in each direction.   

       The mythical menagerie of the West has nothing like an elephant-headed naga.  It has dragons, but very different from those in the East.  But a couple of the Himmapan creatures look familiar.  One is the mermaid.  Except for the facial features it is just like the famous statue in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Another type of Himmapan mermaid, though, has wings, unlike any Occidental mermaid.  An equally familiar being is the flying horse, no different from the Pegasus of Greek myth.

       Western myths have other hybrid creatures, such as the half-man, half-bull Minotaur, but nowhere near as many as Himmapan.  The forest is also home to the unique Naruphon tree.  Its fruits produce female, human-like beings called makaleepon, though if the fruits are not plucked within seven days they die.  Not all the animals are hybrids, either, for two kinds of lion live there, one red, one black, both herbivores.

aquatic hybrids from Himmapan Forest

       Other kinds of lions and part lions dwell in Hammapan.  The ghilen is a lion with deer antlers and scaly skin.  It lives a thousand years, represents virtue and punishes the wicked.  The to is a lion with two horns, while the loto is a lion with a flaring head and eagle claws on its feet.  Lion bodies with the head of a dragon, a bird, the head and tail of a naga and one with the upper torso and feet of a monkey also roam around Himmapan and appear in decorative temple sculptures.

       Horses are also part of temple imagery, particularly at Wat Kun Kha Ma, the ‘Value of Horses Temple’.  In the early centuries of Lanna’s history, this site was a horse farm, providing the nobles with their favorite transportation vehicle and military officers with their mounts.   Then one day a disease swept through the herd and killed most of the horses.  The distraught owner, wanting to commemorate his beloved animals, had a temple constructed here in the early 16^th century.  Its most outstanding feature is the row of golden horse sculptures, 64 altogether, that line the walls of the compound.

winged anthropomorphic Himmapan creature

       These figures are modeled on real horses, but some horse hybrids, besides the winged one and the elephant-headed type, exist in Himmapan, too.  The durong kraisorn is a horse with a dragon’s head.  The hemara ussadorn has a bird’s head.  And the ussadorn hayra is half-horse, half-crocodile.

       Always a scary animal, the crocodile is also the inspiration for the body of the mom, though the head is more dragon-like.  Quite common and usually in pairs, they flank the stairways of subsidiary buildings in the compound, sloping downwards, the head at the lower end, raised and baring its fangs.  The mom is also associated with rain and when the monsoons are tardy, farmers take mom images to the fields and implore them to make the rains come.

       Yet more oddities populate Himmapan.  The mungkorn vihak has a dragon’s head, cow’s body and bird wings and tail.  The sintu puksee has a bird’s body and a fish’s fins and tail.  The upper part of the greenish colored panom masuek is a monkey, while the lower part is a deer.  The sagoon hayra is a bird with the head of a crocodile, sometimes with deer antlers.

sphinx-like man-lion, Wat Mahan

kinnara playing a drum, Wat Mahan

       A special Himmapan category comprises those creatures that, like the elephant-headed Ganesh, are part human and part animal.  Garuda, the mount of the god Vishnu, is one example.  It has an eagle’s head, beak, wings and talons and the body and limbs of a man.  Garuda is considered the King of the Birds, is a sworn enemy of snakes and has the license to devour bad men (except the ones who are Brahmins).

       On other anthropomorphic beings the human part is the upper portion.  The lower half of an upsom sriha is a deer or a lion.  The thep norasri stands on deer’s legs and has a lion’s tail.  Other creatures resemble a sphinx or a centaur.  The most popular in this category is the half-human, half-swan creature called the kinnara, especially its female counterpart the kinnaree. 

kinnaree--half-woman, half-swan

       One type has human legs as well as the swan’s wings and tails.  The more common rendition has a human upper torso, with arms, and a swan’s legs, wings and tail.  The female form—kinnaree—is particularly graceful and has a reputation as a wonderful singer and dancer.  The kinnaras, like the ones on the viharn exterior of Wat Mahan on Tha Pae Road, are often depicted playing musical instruments like the drum, lute, horn, viol and flute.

       The rules for making Buddha images, as well as those for the Hindu pantheon in India, follow standards set centuries ago.  In depicting Himmapan creatures the artists have more leeway, which is why one sees so many different kinds of lions, nagas, kinnarees and other beings.  They have the precedents of previous generations, but can embellish them with personal touches.  And since the creatures of Himmapan are invisible and myriad, they can even come up with new hybrid combinations if they choose.  From Himmapan, anything is possible and everything is plausible.

hybrid Himmapan creatures on a roof at Wat Chedi Liam

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Illuminated Nights--the Loy Krathong Festival

                                            by Jim Goodman

Big Krathong pr9cession 1993

       Most of the festivals in the Chiang Mai calendar year are primarily religious affairs.  They celebrate important Buddhist events like the Buddha’s first sermon, his birthday, the enrollment of boys in the monastery, the opening and closing of the retreat season.  The night before Buddha’s birthday devotees ascend on foot to Doi Suthep Mountain to be at the temple there to honor the Buddha when dawn arrives.  Otherwise the activity is mostly restricted to prayers and offerings at the temples.  Some stalls will offer food instead of flowers, candles and incense, and there may be traditional musicians playing a while in the compound.  In general, though, the atmosphere is reverent and sedate.

       The one festival in which the opposite mood rules is Songkran, held in mid-April at the peak of the hot season.  While the program has some religious elements, the general activity consists of three full riotous days of people throwing water on each other.  There are stage shows after dark, when the water-throwing is supposed to cease, though a lot of foreign tourists don’t seem to know that.

        In contrast to all the other annual events, the Loy Krathong Festival combines the religious and the secular, accented by spectacular evenings of lamps, lanterns, fireworks, stage shows and processions.  Held for three days and nights around the full moon in November, when the rains have practically ceased and evenings are refreshingly cool and everybody seems to be I a good mood.

making a krathoin

krathongs in the river

       A krathong is a little leaf boat, about 20 cm long, made by wrapping folded banana leaves around a section of the tree’s stalk.  As the festival arrives Chiang Mai people start making bunches of them for sale to participants.  When they have gotten all the leaves in place they add flowers, incense sticks and a candle.  Beginning the night before full moon and continuing through the night after full moon, people take the krathongs to the riverside, light the incense and candles and place them carefully in the water to join the succession of other krathongs floating down the Ping River

Loy Krathong nights on the river

       Thais believe that by doing this they send away all bad luck and disappointment of the year.  In Chiang Mai, Loy Krathong coincides with the city’s own Yi Peng Festival, which honors the river goddess.  Part of the motive in sending pretty little krathongs down the river is to beautify it and impress the river goddess.  At the same time they implore her to take the waters back, reduce their level, make the rains stop, it’s time for our harvest.  The krathongs, lanterns and the illuminated shore and sky are meant to be a proper send-off to the river goddess.

       Placating the river goddess is not a Buddhist concept, of course, but an animist one.  Yet Buddhism has never succeeded in eradicating superstitions or animist notions from the Thai psyche.  But more properly Buddhist activities are also part of the Loy Kratong program.  Some of these are part of every full moon day, which is a particularly auspicious day in the Buddhist year, along with new moon and the 8^th day of the lunar month. 

       For Loy Krathong, however, the sermon for the occasion is one from the Jataka Tales, which narrates the lives of previous incarnations of the Buddha.  This one is about Prince Vessantara, who gradually gave away all of his possessions to the poor, exemplifying the virtue of selfless charity.  Thais know the story well.  It is also depicted on the wall murals of the viharn at Wat Bupharam.  Yet these Loy Krathong sermons are still well attended and the sermon, the krathongs on the river and the grand procession of decorated floats are the three parts of the festival program that have remained unchanged for the thirty years that I have been in Chiang Mai.

Loy Krathong boat races, 1990

       Every year city authorities publish the festival schedule of events.  In recent years, other than the Vessantara sermon in the temples, the activities are all at night.  When I first observed it in 1988 longboat races were held in the daytime, between the Nakorn Ping and Nawarat Bridges over the Ping River.  The long, narrow boats, with dragon-headed prows, held 23 rowers and another on the rudder.  After some rowing practice the crews paired off for a race that terminated north of the second bridge.  Winners paired off afterwards until a champion finally emerged.

       The other daytime event was the krathong contest held the first two days in the compound of the city’s Municipal Office, on the river next to the Muang Mai market and the American Consulate.  These krathongs were much bigger and more elaborate than the simple ones people bought to float on the river.  The awards were given the second afternoon because many of them would be carried as part of the second night’s Little Krathong procession.

women in the first night's procession

men in the first night's procession

       The boat races disappeared from the program in the late 90s, but the krathong contest continued longer.  The city scheduled one this year, but either it was canceled or nobody entered, for the Municipal Office lot was empty each day. 

       The festival always begins with an official ceremony and speeches and a classical Thai dance performance.  In the past this was held at Tha Pae Gate, though in recent years it has shifted to the square in front of the Three Kings monument.  Various kinds of lanterns, big and small, fill the area, in the shape of stars, begging bowls, baskets and wheels. 

women with krathoings, first night's procession

       Made of paper, but usually around a bamboo cylinder to protect them from igniting from the heat of the candle mounted within, they are also hung from posts along the procession route and strung across temple courtyards.  One type spins around from the generated heat, revealing portraits on its sides of the twelve zodiac animals or other pictures.

       In past years, the first night’s procession was on foot.  Participants dressed in classic Lanna clothing and some in each contingent carried tall poles with long, thin, woven cotton banners called tung in Thai, or brandished big lanterns.  The second night was the Little Krathong procession.  Back then it was hand-carried, even if it was so big several people were required to carry it.  The third night was the float procession, with men and women in traditional clothing and jewelry riding on spectacularly decorated floats on flatbed trucks.

lantern procession

       Participants in these processions marched in contingents representing various companies, banks, schools and other city organizations.  Most dressed in old-style Lanna clothing, the women wearing classic northern textile designs, like a parade of traditional fashions.  Their hair tied up in buns and decorated with jewelry, they carried krathongs or lanterns, while the men filed along hoisting the poles with the dangling tung banners.  A large, wheeled drum accompanied some groups, with shirtless men taking turns pounding it.

       Throughout the 90s the processions all began at Wat Phra Singh in the western part of the old town, advanced along Ratchadamnoen Road, passed through Tha Pae Gate and proceeded down Tha Pae Road to just before the bridge.  Here they turned left, passed along the river and terminated at the Municipal Office.  Nowadays they begin in front of Tha Pae Gate, but otherwise follow the same route.

Big Krathong rider, 1993

Big Krathong rider, 1990

       The first night’s procession did not involve any vehicles other than the drums on wheels.  Each contingent consisted of at least twenty men and women, all dressed their best for the occasion.  On the second night’s Little Krathong procession folks carried krathongs much bigger and more complex than the small ones sold by the riverbanks.  Some of these later wound up placed in the river.  As the years went on, though, people no longer carried them, but placed them in trucks.

       The grandest procession was, and still is, that of the Big Krathongs, of huge, fanciful krathong displays mounted on long, flat truck trailers.  Both the men and women riding these dress in the most ornate costumes of all.  Some wear the garments of centuries ago, their hair buns adorned with crowns and tiaras, plus lots of rings, necklaces and bangles.  The floats feature sculptures of lotuses, nagas and other mythical creatures, demons, birds and elephants, sometimes with three heads.

Big Krathong procession, 2017

       This procession, usually of a couple dozen floats, could take hours to complete.  In the past, at the terminus of the route, people lifted two or three of these floats into the river.  They floated downstream, with the riders still aboard, only as far as the first bridge before hauled to the side.  But it was quite a climax to the procession.  Unfortunately, like the boat races, that was also dropped from the program long ago.

       At the turn of the century the city added another attraction to the festival by staging a ‘sound and light show’ on the riverbank opposite the Municipal Office.  The stage show featured skits of players in ancient costumes, carrying noble ladies in palanquins across the stage, classic dances and loud, recorded music.  Fireworks shot off behind the stage, but there were fireworks from other points all along the river as well.  The stage occupied the most popular area for launching krathongs, which sort of interrupted the main festival activity.  Besides, Loy Krathong already was a ‘sound and light show.’  After two years, with little attendance, the city dropped the show from the program.

       While the processions are in progress, now as in the past, other activities take place along the route and on the riverbanks.  The yard of the Governor’s Mansion, just before the bridge at the end of Tha Pae Road, is full of food stalls.  One can buy snacks, rice or noodle meals, grilled meat, dried fish, sushi and more exotic specialties like gilled chunks of goat, sheep, rabbit, wild boar, ostrich, deer, crocodile and scorpions.  Behind the stalls stands a Ferris wheel, just like at a circus.

Big Krathong on the Ping RIver 1990

Big Krathong on Tha Pae Road, 1993

       All along the river are piers from which people place their krathongs in the water.  Food, drink and snack stalls line the sidewalks.  In between the piers folks shoot off small fireworks or light sparklers, while on the third night a series of skyrockets burst into the sky in multiple colors.  And for about a dozen years now the illumination includes the addition of sky lanterns.

       More like a hot-air balloon in the way it operates, the sky lantern is a wire-frame paper cylinder about one meter high.  Fixed to the bottom is a small tray containing cotton soaked in kerosene.  The user lights the cotton and then holds the lantern steady while the flame heats it up, which normally takes about a minute.  When enough heat has been generated inside the lantern, the holder releases it and it goes floating high into the sky.

like a traditional fashion show

       Problems can arise, especially if a breeze suddenly comes along.  If the lantern is released too early, it could tilt and catch fire, slam into a tree or crash into the river.  But considering the thousands of people sending sky lanterns aloft, that doesn’t happen very often.  Most of them successfully join the other launched lanterns in a stream that speckles the heavens.

        The lanterns are usually white, which makes them pale orange in the sky.  A few are red or blue or have faces painted on them.  The best to watch are the ones that have a long tail of sparklers attached.  Once they ascend they start leaving a trail of glitter below them that follows them high into the night sky.

       The sky lanterns can also interfere with aircraft.  A few years after their introduction the city decided to restrict their use to two nights only and canceled all flights from 7 p.m.  When they burn out the lanterns fall back to the ground, on roads, in gardens and people’s yards and that has caused complaints.  This year the government announced the day before the festival that sky lanterns and fireworks of any kind were prohibited under pain of 60,000 baht fine and three years in jail.

sky lantern lift-off

sky lanterns along the river

       Either Chiang Mai got a special dispensation or the city simply ignored the decree.  Authorities had already canceled 78 flights.  To ‘uncancel’ them would have been just as much trouble, since the airlines had already readjusted.  Newspaper editorials denounced the sky lanterns as not being a traditional part of Loy Krathong and a nuisance.  They also slammed the post-festival rubbish problem in the rivers.

       I doubt that Chiang Mai people see it the same way.  This year the festival was as enthusiastic as ever.  Sky lanterns filled the sky for two nights and fireworks characterized the third night, though not as many as in the past, for it was individuals setting them off and not part of a city show.  And no one muttered about the mess to clean up next day.  That’s always been a familiar aftermath, one they’ve dealt with for centuries.  For local folks, Loy Krathong will always be worth the trouble.  It’s the most beautiful event of the year.

taking a break during a procession traffic jam,  2017

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The Frontier Peoples of Western Dehong

                                    by Jim Goodman

Dai farmer and his son riding buffaloes outside of Ruili

       Dehong in southwest Yunnan is an Autonomous Dai and Jingpo Prefecture.  Only about 20% of Dehong consists of plains and valleys.  The rest of the prefecture is hilly or mountainous and has a forest cover of around 60%, the highest rate in the province.  The population tops one million, with the Han a slight majority.  The Dai dominate the plains and valleys, while the Jingpo constitute the largest ethnic minority in the hills, especially in the western part of the prefecture.  Han Chinese only began migrating to Dehong after the eradication of malaria in the early 50s and largely, but not entirely, reside in the urban areas.

       The Dai are not the only indigenous folks in the plains, nor are the Jingpo the only hill people.  As for the Han, some also have farms in the plains, while others work in the coffee and tea plantations in the hills ,such as Dachang, east of Lianghe.  Such Dehong features become apparent when taking a trip from Tengchong, just north of Dehong in Baoshan Prefecture, to Ruili in southwest Dehong.

Nandin Xuanfu, the former palace in Lianghe

       Lianghe, the first city on the route, is an easy ride through the plains from Tengchong.  But even when I visited two decades ago the city was thoroughly modernized, almost entirely Han-inhabited.  The only Dai elements consisted of a couple small restaurants, a pagoda in the inverted bell shape built around 1980, and the palace of the former Dai ruler.

       This is the city’s main attraction, originally built in 1851, when Lianghe was known as Nandin.  The palace (Nandin Xuanfu) consists of seven connected courtyards, with gardens, pools and red brick buildings with dark gray, tiled roofs.  The doorways from one courtyard to another are circular or oval, a feature seen in many temples in the prefecture as well.  Here the district’s chaopha (Lord of the Sky in the Dai language) lived in sumptuous splendor, while lesser members of the aristocracy owned smaller houses, but still in marked contrast to the simple dwellings of the commoners.

Achang woman

Achang woman returning from the fields

       The Dai in Dehong speak a different dialect than the Dai further east and use a different alphabet than that used in Xishuangbanna.  They generally live in houses of gray-brown brick and tiled roofs that sit on the ground.  In rural villages some build homes, one or two stories, with walls of plaited split bamboo, with roofs of tin or thatch.  Like other Dai, they are accomplished rice farmers, with irrigation canals that intersect the fields and provide a source of fish.  Dehong rice is especially tasty and that grown in Zhefang district in Luxi County was one of the tribute items demanded by the imperial Qing Court.  The prefecture is also famous for its pineapples.

countryside near Yingjiang

       Dai villages lie west and south of Lianghe, but to the north and east lie settlements of the Achang minority nationality.  The Achang in Yunnan number a little over 40,000, nearly all of whom live in Dehong.  Another 2000 or so reside across the border in Myanmar.  Chinese historical records indicate the Achang were living in Dehong in the 13^th century. 

       They speak a Tibeto-Burman language and under imperial China enjoyed a measure of autonomy.  But their chieftains were subordinate to the Dai chaopha, who could make tax and service demands on the Achang as he wished.  Consequently, Dai culture has had a strong influence on the Achang.  They live in the same kind of gray-brown brick houses, practice Theravada Buddhism, with a temple in each village, and dress similarly.

Yunyan Pagoda near Yingjiang

       The men wear a side-fastened, long-sleeved, dark jacket over trousers.  The married women dress in the same back sarong as the local Dai women, with a long-sleeved blue or black jacket, also similar to that of the Dai.  The main difference is the headgear—a tall, tubular, brimless black hat.  Unmarried girls wear no hat, but tie their braids over their heads.  They also wear trousers instead of sarongs.

       The other major Achang concentration is in Husa district, Longchuan County.  Besides boasting the finest Achang Buddhist temple, Husa is renowned for its swords.  The tradition is a very ancient one among the Achang and they are so skilled at it that other peoples around them rely on Achang swords rather than make their own.

De'ang woman

Burmese-style tiered pagoda near Yingjiang

      The sword is like a machete, used to chop bamboo and wood, in defense against wild animals and bandits and part of local military gear.  The Lisu use Husa swords in their Climbing the Sword Ladder festival.  And Jingpo men brandish them upright during the ceremonial dance of the Munao festival.

Three Elephants Pagoda, Zhangfeng

       The Lisu and Jingpo minorities are especially prominent in the mountains of Yingjiang County, the next one west of Lianghe.  Yingjiang city is 50 km distant, after crossing a mountain to get to it.  Like Lianghe, its population is manly a Han, but with some minority touches, like a Jingpo statue and Munao festival house and arena, Dai elephant sculptures and a few Dai restaurants.  Jingpo swarm into Yingjiang for the Munao events, but rarely otherwise.  The Lisu live in the northern mountains and seldom venture to the city.  Dai villages constitute the city suburbs, so they are often in town during the day, the women in black sarongs and carrying their goods in baskets at each end of a bamboo pole.

Guangmu Pagoda, Jinghan

       Yingjiang was built around a reservoir a few km west of the Daying River.  A long, straggling Dai village lies between the city and the river.  A path at the end of the cemetery (Dehong Dai bury their dead) leads to the Yunyan Pagoda.  Rising from a square base, it consists of a white mound, with brass spires, topped with filigreed silver crowns, the central pagoda towering above forty smaller ones.  A nearby temple features a modest assembly hall and a five-tiered, pale red pagoda in a very different style from Yunyanta.  The resident monks, as in Myanmar, wear red robes.

       The road from Yingjiang to Zhangfeng, the administrative seat for Longchuan County, measures 136 km.  It crosses the Daying River and runs along the eastern side until entering Longchuan County, crossing high mountains tp gradually descend into the plains and Zhangfeng, seven km from the border town of Laying.

       Longchuan is about the same size as Lianghe, but had more of a non-Han feel to it back then.  Foreigners could only stay in the Hongchuan Binguan, a few blocks from the central market, but sited alongside a plain with a good view of the mountains to the west.   Dai, Bai and Achang restaurants were nearby and at the latter I tried the Achang specialty—guoshou mixian (over-the-hand rice noodles). 

       The noodles are made from reddish hill rice, served with chopped and ground pork, peanuts, chili, coriander, sauce and soup.  Achang folks take a handful of noodles and add the other ingredients, which gives the dish its name.  I and other non-Achang diners however, preferred to use chopsticks.

Jingpo men in Zhangfeng on market day

       Also near the hotel stood the finest religious monument in Zhangfeng—the Dai-style Three Elephants Pagoda.   All white, its base sits on a small island underneath the sprawling branches of a huge pipal tree, with the central spire rising above the three sculptures of trumpeting elephants.   Other pagodas in the suburbs and beyond were the Burmese kind, with several tiers of tin roofs, each level smaller than the one below.

       Jinghan, 12 km  northeast of Zhangfeng  is a nondescript town that was formerly the county capital.  Just outside town is the hilltop Guangmu Pagoda, accessible by a flight of about 300 steps.  On a white mound with a bronze spire, its original construction dates to 1632 and marks the spot where Dehong Dai believe Buddhism was first established in the prefecture.

Lisu woman in Zhangfeng

Dai food stalls in the Zhangfeng market

       Every five days Zhangfeng hosts open market day, attracting people from both sides of the border.  Besides the Dai, Jingpo and Lisu from the mountains to the northeast show up, hawking hill crops, deerskins, split-bamboo baskets and other items.  A few De’ang women may also turn up, recognizable by their bright, multi-colored jackets and headscarves, woolen tassel earrings, striped sarong and perhaps, like some Jingpo women, rattan rings around the hips.

rural Dai temple, Longchuan County

       From the Mon-Khmer linguistic group, the De’ang population is only half that of the Achang,.  A few scattered De’ang villages lie in the hills near the Myanmar border, but most of Dehong’s De’ang live in Santaishan district, especially in the hills south of the main road om the way up to the Buddhist cave temple at Sanjiaoyan.  They live in stilted wooden and bamboo houses with thatched roofs and, like their Dai neighbors, practice Theravada Buddhism.

       The last of western Dehong’s cities is Ruili, 37 km south of Zhangfeng, the largest of the four.  From the 8^th-12^th centuries it was the capital of Mengmao, the most powerful  kingdom in the immediate region.  The Mongols conquered it in the 13^th century and the Ming Dynasty reasserted Chinese suzerainty in the 14^th century.  It retained a measure of local autonomy until the 20^th century and in recent decades has become important because of its commercial ties to neighboring Myanmar.

Dai women cycling home from the fields west of Ruili

       Ruili has all the hallmarks of a prosperous border town, with skyscrapers and expensive hotels towering above the rows of royal palm trees on the main streets.  It rises late, with few shops open before 10 a.m., and stays active late, with most people having dinner after dark and the warren of shops and stalls inside and outside the covered central market busy until midnight.  Many Burmese wander through town, including individual jade merchants hawking ornaments to Chinese tourists who came to Ruili specifically to buy jade.

       The other Ruili feature drawing Chinese tourists two decades ago was its proximity to the Myanmar border.  They could take a short trip from Ruili to Jiehao, step across the border to the other side and be able to say they’d been to a foreign country, even if but a few hours.  The main road, Highway 320, ran another 34 km southwest from Ruili to Nongdao, at the extreme end of the prefecture.

       The road ran more or less parallel to the Ruili River, a branch of the Nu River that, after crossing the boundary, becomes the Salween River.  The road runs in a straight line, but the river is somewhat winding, so that pieces of Myanmar territory lie between the river and the boundary line.  And at Jiehao, a chunk of Chinese territory lies south of the river.

the Snake Tree near Mengling

       The land is relatively flat on this route, featuring a succession of Dai towns, villages and farmlands, a rural relief after the bustle of Ruili.  Every Dai village has a temple, usually a modest wooden one, but occasionally grander, with multi-tiered pagodas in the Burmese style, flanked by tall bamboo poles with long, narrow cloth banners fluttering from the top and great banyan trees in the courtyards.  Hansha Temple, a few km from Ruili, and Leizhuangxiang, on a hill north of the highway and further down towards Nongdao, are two fine examples.

       The most famous is Dadenghan Temple, 20 km southwest of Ruili, near Jiexiang.  On stilts, with red wooden walls and silver-colored roofs and pagoda spires, with a covered entrance corridor, it is typical of the Dehong Dai Buddhist style.  It was built in the 18^th century and is supposed to house bone relics of the Buddha.  According to local legend, the Buddha stopped for a night here on his mission to preach the religion throughout Asia.

Jiele Pagoda, Dehong's finest

       East of Ruili, Highway 320 runs 25 km to Wanding, the last major town before the boundary of Luxi County.  It’s not much to look at today, but from the hill behind it, especially from the Thousand Buddhas Temple on top, one has a commanding view of the city and Myanmar beyond the bridge.  Wanding had a brief flare of importance in the Second World War as the terminus of the Burma Road, established after the Japanese seized eastern China and the government removed to Chongqing.  Tons of supplies, food and weaponry crossed into Yunnan from the British colony of Burma, until the Japanese conquered Burma and closed the road.

       Returning to Ruili, I made two last stops at Mengling and Jiele.  The former town hosts a patch of old banyan trees, with multiple roots descending from their lower branches.  One is called the Snake Tree, similar to the Single Tree That Makes a Forest in another park in SE Yingjiang County, as well as the one of the same name in Daluo, Xishuangbanna. 

       Jiele’s attraction is its pagoda, the finest in Dehong, originally erected in 1500 and restored ten times since, most recently in the 1980s.  The central spire, rising above several subsidiary golden spires, stands on a white base with the top part covered in dark orange tiles, unique in the prefecture.  With views of Dai farmers riding their buffaloes on the way back to Ruili, it was a fitting way to close my exploration of Dehong, a day of history, culture and everyday rural Dai life.

Dadenghan Monastery

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