A new take on the Doi Sa Ngo story (In His Majesty's Footsteps)
Posted by John Roberts at Sun, 05 Aug 2007 11:55:00 GMT and is filed under Book Review,Golden Triangle Conservation 
We have long been sending guests to our closest Akha village, Doi Sa Ngo, perched atop a brisk hour's steep climb on the highest point between the Chiang Khong range and Doi Tung, the views from the top stretch from Chiang Saen to Mae Sai - one of my favourite things to do around Christmas time is to 4WD up there in gloaming and watch the sun come up (the picture's by a friend of mine).
To any guests that are interested we have told two legends; one, that the sala on the top with the best view was built for a helicopter visit by the King and Queen, two, that the name of the hill came from the efforts of the Akha settlers to pronounce the name of a mythical elephant headed snake (in Thai Chang-Ngu, in Akha - who have a Chinese language and the same difficulty I do with Thai - Sa Ngo).
I have just finished reading a book by a former commander of the Royal Court Police, Vasit Dejkunjorn, and while it is no great piece of literature (it is obviously transcribed from some very dry, very professional operational diaries with a few personal remembrances thrown in) for a foreigner and for a young Thai it is an excellent chronicle of the days when His Majesty was able to be more active in the provinces and more able to move about amongst his people, a more dangerous (visiting villages effected by the communist insurgencies that continued into the '80's) and yet more innocent (barely drivable roads, no satellite TV, villages with barely any outside influence) time for Thailand.
The major interest for me was finding references to villages I know and small pieces in the jigsaw puzzles of local recent history; a few more gaps filled.
I have learned that Their Majesties did indeed visit Doi Sa Ngo in 1978 and again in 1979 (from other sources we know this was before Khun Sa had been kicked into Burma and when the region was in the grip of the Opium warlords - this is not mentioned in the book) to instigate the King's Royal Project that is still in operation even though the world has changed around it...
...and K. Vasit, very much a scholar of Buddhism and history, gives a fleshed out version of the story of Doi Sa Ngo's name which goes thus:
_____________________________
"The legend had it that the area where now the village was situated was once a place where King Phrom Kuman, son of King Phangkharat, ruler of Nakhon Yonok Nakburi (JR's note - Yonok, the city now beneath the Yonok Wetland) came to capture three white elephants. King Phrom Kuman had dreamed an angel told him of his chance to catch three white elephants. The angel said that if he could catch the first white elephant, he would rule all four continents. According to Thai legend Trai Phumi ('Three Worlds'), the four continents include Chomphu Thaweep, Amornkhoyana Thaweep, Uttarakuru Thaweep and Buphawithela Thaweep. If he could catch the second one, he would conquer the Thai Lanna states and the Black Khmer empire.
While King Phrom Kuman was waiting to catch the white elephants he saw two big snakes swimming. According to the legend, they were the same size as a palmyra tree trunk, but because they were not the elephants, he let them pass by. However, when the third snake swam past, he had an inkling and, along with his servants, jumped into the river to catch the snake. It turned out that what they had seen as snakes were in fact white elephants, only one of which he was able to catch. So the mountain was called Doi Chang Ngo, according to the legend...
...to continue with the legend, after King Phrom Kuman captured all of Lanna, he invaded the Khmer. His plan caused Indra God to send Phra Vetsanukam Dhevabutra to build a stone wall to block King Phrom Kuman from wiping out the Khmer from the face of the earth. The stone wall would then become Kamphaengphet Province (which translates to 'diamond wall'). Later, King Phrom Kuman built Chaiprakan city, where he later died. Chaiprakan is now a district of Chiang Mai."
____________________________
...so there you go a bit of legendary history right here in our own back yard, I think all of this must have happened before Lanna was Lanna but you get the picture. Kampaengphet is where Tawan was hit by his car and Chaiprakarn is actually on the hill road between Thatorn and Chiang Mai, still up on the Burmese border - if my memory serves the name means victory gate or victory pass.
To give you an idea, the book then goes on to relate the King giving out medical supplies to the local people, nineteen sacks of rice to start a rice bank and instigating the Royal Project to persuade the Akha to grow some crops of their own instead of depending on low wage labouring for their entire income.
The book is written by a devoted servant of their majesties and can read a little like propaganda at times but is a good picture of the life of the Royal Household and their public and semi-public face - there are no startling revelations held within but a bearing out of the reverence in which Their Majesties are held and for a newcomer - late to the country - a deeper explanation of why that is; during the country's most difficult times The King was always seen amongst his people and always seen to be working for them.
One other scene apparently sums up the attitude of the King towards all his people:
During a visit to Isaan, on the edge of the insurgency an impertinent foreign reporter asks His Majesty whether he really believed his presence and work in that village would result in fewer communists, to which the King apparently replied "I don't know if it will reduce the number of communists but I hope that I am making them less hungry".
To any guests that are interested we have told two legends; one, that the sala on the top with the best view was built for a helicopter visit by the King and Queen, two, that the name of the hill came from the efforts of the Akha settlers to pronounce the name of a mythical elephant headed snake (in Thai Chang-Ngu, in Akha - who have a Chinese language and the same difficulty I do with Thai - Sa Ngo).
I have just finished reading a book by a former commander of the Royal Court Police, Vasit Dejkunjorn, and while it is no great piece of literature (it is obviously transcribed from some very dry, very professional operational diaries with a few personal remembrances thrown in) for a foreigner and for a young Thai it is an excellent chronicle of the days when His Majesty was able to be more active in the provinces and more able to move about amongst his people, a more dangerous (visiting villages effected by the communist insurgencies that continued into the '80's) and yet more innocent (barely drivable roads, no satellite TV, villages with barely any outside influence) time for Thailand.
The major interest for me was finding references to villages I know and small pieces in the jigsaw puzzles of local recent history; a few more gaps filled.
I have learned that Their Majesties did indeed visit Doi Sa Ngo in 1978 and again in 1979 (from other sources we know this was before Khun Sa had been kicked into Burma and when the region was in the grip of the Opium warlords - this is not mentioned in the book) to instigate the King's Royal Project that is still in operation even though the world has changed around it...
...and K. Vasit, very much a scholar of Buddhism and history, gives a fleshed out version of the story of Doi Sa Ngo's name which goes thus:
_____________________________
"The legend had it that the area where now the village was situated was once a place where King Phrom Kuman, son of King Phangkharat, ruler of Nakhon Yonok Nakburi (JR's note - Yonok, the city now beneath the Yonok Wetland) came to capture three white elephants. King Phrom Kuman had dreamed an angel told him of his chance to catch three white elephants. The angel said that if he could catch the first white elephant, he would rule all four continents. According to Thai legend Trai Phumi ('Three Worlds'), the four continents include Chomphu Thaweep, Amornkhoyana Thaweep, Uttarakuru Thaweep and Buphawithela Thaweep. If he could catch the second one, he would conquer the Thai Lanna states and the Black Khmer empire.
While King Phrom Kuman was waiting to catch the white elephants he saw two big snakes swimming. According to the legend, they were the same size as a palmyra tree trunk, but because they were not the elephants, he let them pass by. However, when the third snake swam past, he had an inkling and, along with his servants, jumped into the river to catch the snake. It turned out that what they had seen as snakes were in fact white elephants, only one of which he was able to catch. So the mountain was called Doi Chang Ngo, according to the legend...
...to continue with the legend, after King Phrom Kuman captured all of Lanna, he invaded the Khmer. His plan caused Indra God to send Phra Vetsanukam Dhevabutra to build a stone wall to block King Phrom Kuman from wiping out the Khmer from the face of the earth. The stone wall would then become Kamphaengphet Province (which translates to 'diamond wall'). Later, King Phrom Kuman built Chaiprakan city, where he later died. Chaiprakan is now a district of Chiang Mai."
____________________________
...so there you go a bit of legendary history right here in our own back yard, I think all of this must have happened before Lanna was Lanna but you get the picture. Kampaengphet is where Tawan was hit by his car and Chaiprakarn is actually on the hill road between Thatorn and Chiang Mai, still up on the Burmese border - if my memory serves the name means victory gate or victory pass.
To give you an idea, the book then goes on to relate the King giving out medical supplies to the local people, nineteen sacks of rice to start a rice bank and instigating the Royal Project to persuade the Akha to grow some crops of their own instead of depending on low wage labouring for their entire income.
The book is written by a devoted servant of their majesties and can read a little like propaganda at times but is a good picture of the life of the Royal Household and their public and semi-public face - there are no startling revelations held within but a bearing out of the reverence in which Their Majesties are held and for a newcomer - late to the country - a deeper explanation of why that is; during the country's most difficult times The King was always seen amongst his people and always seen to be working for them.
One other scene apparently sums up the attitude of the King towards all his people:
During a visit to Isaan, on the edge of the insurgency an impertinent foreign reporter asks His Majesty whether he really believed his presence and work in that village would result in fewer communists, to which the King apparently replied "I don't know if it will reduce the number of communists but I hope that I am making them less hungry".
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