by Jim Goodman
One of the consequences of the European
conquest of most of southern Asia was an insatiable interest in the region’s
geography. European-made maps at the
time were full of blank spots or, at best, rough guesses of the exact location
and height of certain mountains and the sources and accurate courses of major
rivers. Ambitious individuals in the
academic world sought to make their reputations by answering important
geographical questions.
By the late 1880s Great Britain had
already taken over northern Burma and France had seized northern Vietnam and
Laos. That put both countries’
possessions on the border of Yunnan, at a time when Chinese central authority
was in the throes of collapse. Both
wanted to open Yunnan up to trade, so information on the province was at a
premium. The only serious Western
attempt so far to explore Yunnan was the French Mekong Expedition in 1868.
Looking for a river route to China, the
expedition found that way blocked by the impassable Mekong Falls in southern
Laos. The group continued anyway on foot
and eventually entered Yunnan through Xishuangbanna. From Jinghong they carried on to Kunming and
wanted to turn towards Dali and reach the Mekong again west of Dali. But Yunnan was engulfed by a brutal civil war
and the explorers could not get permission to go west, which terminated their
tour of the province.
A generation later, at the beginning of
1895, another French expedition set out to explore Yunnan, planning to enter
from Vietnam, head west for the Mekong River (called Lancangjiang in China) and
follow it north to Tibet. The organizer
of this journey was Prince Henri d’Orléans, a veteran traveler already familiar
with Madagascar, parts of western China and Cambodia. He originally intended to explore Vietnam’s
Central Highlands, but discovered others already had. He preferred somewhere that was as yet unknown. In Yunnan he would deliberately take a
different route than his countrymen followed in 1868.
Joining the Prince were Émile Roux, a
navy acquaintance, and Pierre Briffaut, a French colonist from Hanoi. The trio and their entourage sailed up the
Red River from Hanoi to Lào Cai, crossed Yunnan in early February and sailed
for three days to Manhao, which was as far as boats could go. They then headed for Mengzi, site of a French
Consulate, where they organized their supplies and needs for the next part of
the journey.
From Mengzi they returned to the Red
River, marched as far as Honghe and then turned south into the hills. A landscape they had never seen before
awaited them, of irrigated rice terraces up and down the slopes of the
hills. As this was late winter, the
terraces were at their most picturesque, filled with water that reflected the
sky. The inhabitants were Hani, an
ethnic group unfamiliar to the party, who believed them to be the area’s
aboriginals.
Both the Prince and Roux took copious
notes everywhere. Briffaud did not. He was basically along for the adventure. But he was assuredly a welcome companion
around the campfires, especially when the going got rougher later on. A devoted geographical statistician, Roux
took down all the numbers for the latitudes, longitudes and altitudes, made
short descriptions in a journal and later wrote up a fuller account in
France. This included other observations,
like his description of how the Hani bowed deeply to them when encountered on
the trail and carried on their backs loaded baskets using head-straps. He described the entry gate to a Hani
village, with its carved figures designed to keep out evil spirits, a custom
still in practice in many Hani villages.
The Prince specialized in natural
studies and so recorded all the species of birds, insects, mammals and flowers
he discovered on the way. Linguistics
was another major interest and he collected rudimentary vocabulary lists for
over thirty languages and dialects. Long
before Joseph Rock, he discovered the Naxi dongba pictograph books and
collected several of them, along with samples of the Yi language script.
From the southwest corner of Honghe
County the expedition turned west for Simao (now called Pu’er), the first town
of any size since Mengzi, for a brief rest, more supplies and more information
on what lay ahead. Heading west towards
the Lancangjiang, they enjoyed the scenery, especially when passing the white
boulders jutting out of land and water at Cuiyun. When they reached the river they turned north
to follow its course however far they could.
Actually, they rarely marched alongside
the river and mostly kept a little to the west of it. The group stopped for a break in Lincang, a
small town of 5000 inhabitants, half the size of Simao, then continued to
Yunxian and Fengqing. Just past this
town they crossed the Lancangjiang again and struck for Dali.
In Dali they stayed with a French
mission, where the explorers could speak French again for the first time since
Mengzi. They arrived the last week of
May and made this a major stopover, staying over two weeks, especially enjoying
the scenery of the lake, eating beef for the first time in many weeks, sampling
the Lijiang wine known as
yinjiu, and organizing the next phase of the
trip. Dali was still affected by the
Muslim Revolt and supplies, including thirty mules, had to be procured in
Xiaguan. They also recruited nine
Chinese, including one called Joseph, a Christian who had learned Latin. The Prince had also studied Latin as a
schoolboy and could remember enough to converse, more with use, and so Joseph
wound up becoming their interpreter, remaining with the explorers the entire
journey.
Finally on the move again, the group
trekked past Erhai lake to Dengchuan and then turned west towards the
Lancangjiang, via Yunlong. When they
reached the river they only followed it north a short distance before being
seized with a new goal—to cross the Biluo Mountains to Liiuku for a look at the
Nu River. This was the name of the
Salween River in China and virtually nothing was known about it. Local people advised against it claiming the
valley was full of dangerous vapors and the mountains inhabited by warlike
Lisu.
The explorers didn’t believe any of
that. Throughout the journey people had
frequently told them to beware of the next destination, which always turned how
to be a great exaggeration. The crossing
wasn’t easy and they had to spend a night in the forest, but descending to
Liuku they did find the weather sultry and hotter, though they did not suffer
any new health problems. They turned
north up the Nu River halfway to Chenggan, then crossed over the mountains to
return to the valley of the Lancangjiang at Biaocun. From here they could hike right along the
river all the way to Deqing.
Heading north again, they soon came to
their first rope-bridge. They’d never
seen this unique way to cross the river, but the guides instructed them how to
use it. Not only the travelers, the
mules and all the baggage had to be moved to the other side the same way, which
took the entire day. They would use more
of these in months to come and the only mishap occurred below Deqing, when Roux’
pet dog, seeing its master swinging over the river, tried to follow him by swimming
across, but the rapids swept it away.
While the route got more rugged the
scenery grew ever more impressive, with views of distant, snow-capped mountains
in view. They stopped briefly at the
French Lazarist mission in Xiaoweixi, again meeting old priests who hadn’t had
a chance to speak French for ages. They
continued to the Naxi settlement of Yezhi and then on to the Tibetan lamasery
at Kanpu. By chance, they arrived in
time for Huobajie, the summer Fire Festival celebrated by most ethnic
minorities in the northwest.
Three days later they reached Cikou,
also a Lazarist mission with two old very welcoming priests. Less harassed by Chinese officials, this was
a more successful mission than Xiaoweixi, with a large number of Tibetan
converts. Upon arrival, though, the
Prince fell ill with bronchitis and fever, requiring rest and medication for a
few days. Roux took the opportunity to
satisfy his geographical curiosity with a trip to Deqing, taking along Joseph
and one other. He became familiar with
Tibetan chortens made of slabs of rocks inscribed with prayer, barley flour (
tsampa),
bettered tea and the highest mountains in the province, but found the town
itself unfriendly and without interest.
The
Prince had recuperated upon Roux’ return and by now, with the Tibetans having
made it clear the group could not enter Tibet, the explorers conceived an
alternate ambition. They would try to
locate the sources of the Ayeyarwady River, which would be a new contribution
to geographical knowledge of Southeast Asia.
Britain had seized northern Burma a decade earlier, but their maps had
designated most of the extreme north as ‘unexplored territory’.
The expedition marched up to Yanjing and
then crossed the Biluo Mountains to their west, reaching the Nu River via
Dimaluo, crossing by dugout canoes at a rare calm stretch of the river and
stopping for a few days at Gongshan for rest and resupply. At this stop they sent their mules back to
Cikou with a few of the crew, for animals were becoming an impediment to
progress the rougher the trail became.
They hired 24 Tibetans as porters, as well as a Dulong guide who also
spoke the Nu and Lisu languages.
To get to the ‘unexplored territory’
they had to go west from Gongshan over what decades later became the caravan
route to Dulongjiang. It was not much
used back then and sometimes they had to reconstruct part of the trail or make
dangerous detours along very narrow mountain paths, propped up by logs and
boulders along steep cliffs. For the
first part of the journey they stayed in Nu villages, finding the people very
polite, almost subservient in their desire to please, very poor materially, but
healthy and strong, with several octogenarians each village, something rarely
found elsewhere back then.
More discoveries ensued when they
climbed over the Gaoligongshan range and descended to the Dulong River
Valley. Many of the plant and tree
species were different from those in Nujiang.
The river was blue-green and cold.
They learned that it began at the north end of Dulongjiang district, so
was not a tributary of the Nu, but could be one of the sources of the Ayeyarwady. By following it through northern Burma they
would find out.
The Dulong people were even poorer than
the Nu, but also very hardy and strong.
They were shorter than Nu or Lisu and were apparently related to the Nu,
for their language was similar and unlike Lisu.
Many, though not all, of the women had tattooed faces, a custom
allegedly adopted to discourage marauding outsiders from kidnapping their
women. They lived in hamlets of less
than ten thatched roof houses.
Several Dulong men joined the
expedition, replacing Tibetan porters who did not want to travel to Burma. Some were familiar with part of what lay
ahead and either knew which routes were the less strenuous or how to quickly
clear a new trail to replace one washed out by a flood or blocked by a
landslide or construct a new bamboo bridge.
When food supplies ran perilously low a few Dulong took their crossbows
to the jungle and returned with a few big birds.
The trail was the worst yet taken, full
of various obstacles, with signs of human habitation rare. After crossing the Telo River, a major
tributary of the Dulong River, they marched six days without meeting
anyone. Finally they arrived at Putao,
run by a Khamti chieftain, whom they had to persuade/bribe that they were not
British spies. At least they could eat
decent meals again but had to surrender almost all personal belongings, except
their boots and rifles, to pay for supplies.
They left Putao for India, but Roux
suddenly got very sick and had to stay in a village while the Prince continued
to India and arranged relief. Roux
recovered and the group carried on to Assam, India, reached Sadiya and from
there could go by boat all the way to Calcutta.
Back in France, the Prince d’Orléans and Roux both wrote up their
adventures and became academic celebrities for having proven that Yunnan’s
Dulong River was indeed a major source of the Ayeyarwadi River.
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