12
The Regent of the petty State of Teng Keng, situated on the right bank of the Salween, latitude 26° north, had come over to Pien Ma to meet the Taotai and come to
The claims of Teng Keng were investigated.
see me.
At Tsui Ho the Lisu inhabitants told us that they had originally come over from the Salween side of the great Irrawaddy divide, and therefore considered themselves as Teng Keng's men. They paid a small tax in kind, of the value of about 12 annas per house, and if the Teng Keng Chief came to visit them they made a contribution to his travelling expenses. They stated that there were several Lisu hamlets scattered about the hill-sides who were in the same position towards the Teng Keng Chief. These hamlets are hardly to be considered permanent, as after taking a crop or two off the bill-side the Lisu will often remove their bamboo wattle huts to some other fold in the mountains. The Lashi Headman of the Pien Ma, an old man, who began by stating his desire to make submission to the British, the Regent of Teng Keng, and several other natives made statements on the subject of the payment of tribute, which, though they were not in precise agreement with each other, were enough to prove that no one really knows what amount is paid per annum, and also that it differs considerably from year to year. The financial arrangements of Teng Keng are, in short, not such as would meet the approval of the Revenue Secretary to the Government of India. The Regent's statement to me was the vaguest of all, and it is clear that he knows very little of the country which is supposed to belong to him.
It appears that Pien Ma, U Tung, Kang Fang, Ku Lan, P'a Ti, and some other hamlets, all of which are Lashi or Lisu villages near the headwaters of the Ngaw Chang, and comprise in all a little over 200 families, were supposed to have been assigned by the Chinese Government to Teng Keng after the famous campaign in Chia Ching's reign (see above). These villages had previously been, and continued for some time after to be, subject to Lung Pang, on the right bank, further down the Ngaw Chang; but some years after the Chinese campaign a feud broke out between the Pien Ma group of villages and Chi Kaw, near Lung Pang, on account of a cattle theft. Chi Kaw raided and burnt Pien Ma, and Pien Ma replied by engaging the assistance of the Chinese from Teng Keng. They then burnt and looted Chi Kaw, and in com- pensation for Teng Keng's help, and in satisfaction for the previous murder of two members of the Teng Keng Headman's family, they agreed to pay him tribute. present this tribute is paid mostly in kind. The Pien Ma Headman stated that, including scattered households of Lisu immigrants from the Salween, there are now nearly 350 families in this tribute-paying tract, of whom one-half are Lashi and one-half Lisu, but I believe this number to be beyond the mark.
At
The forty households of Pien Ma pay to the annual value of about 10 taels. Besides this a toll on coffin wood brought up from the Ngaw Chang by the Chinese firm mentioned above is levied at Kang Fang, near the left bank of the Upper Ngaw Chang, by Teng Keng. The produce of this toll is never more, and often less, than 100 tacis a-year. On the whole, I think we may say that the annual sum which Teng Keng derives from the Upper Ngaw Chang is probably 300 rupees a-year at the outside.
It is to be noted that, apart from the collection of this uncertain sam, there is no regular administration of Pien via or the adjacent villages by Teng Keng. He has no power or machinery to undertake anything of the kind. The country is very poor, and much disturbed by feuds, which, I expect, if the truth were known, often prevent Teng Keng from "touching" his revenue. The Lung Pang "Duwa" has a vendetta with the Chinese, and shortly before our arrival it appears that he distinctly intimated to Teng Keng that neither Teng Keng nor any other Chinese would be allowed to cross the Ngaw Chang, and it was probably this threat which induced the Taotai to withdraw the claims of Ming Kwang to the Lang Pang group,
Then Pien Ma has a vendetta with Shang Lou, a village of fifty families of Lashi, situated to the west of Pien Ma. It is reported that disorders have recently taken place at U Tung, and it is clear that there is practically no such thing as government in the country.
On the other hand, it must be admitted that Teng Keng has more substantial claims to the consideration of the British Government than Ming Kwang; he has a scintilla juris, and the levy of uncertain sums at irregular intervals is as far as the Chinese have ever gone anywhere in Yunnan towards the administration of frontier tribes.
Before reaching Pien Ma the Taotai had delivered to me further documentary evidence regarding his claims in the shape of a Memorial to the Throne from the Viceroy of Yünnau in the eighteenth century, together with an Instruction issued by the Tengyueh officials, undated, but probably of the same date as the Memorial.
13
439
These documents profess to assign a number of “barbarian" villages, of which the names are given, among the respective jurisdictions of Tengyuch, Pao Shan, Yün Lung, and Li Chiang, all in West Yünnan. Most of these villages are in the Salween Valley, and therefore not now in question; but Pien Ma, U Tung, Tzu Chu, Hparè, &c., are mentioned in the list as being subject to Tengyueh and Pao Shan. As I have already pointed out, there is no evidence that the arrangements set forth in these documents ever represented the real state of affairs. I fail to see that the Government of India is compelled to pay any more attention to these papers than the President of the United States would pay to the Papal Bulls of the sixteenth century, which assigned the whole of the New World to Spain and Portugal. If you accept the premises that the New World belonged to the Pope to assign, the Bulls are excellent titles; so if we follow the Taotai, and accept as true beyond contradiction any statement set down in a document scaled by the Chinese Government, then the Memorial would be a good title to the villages in question. But as in fact the premises are absurd, the conclusion cannot be supported.
On the 19th April we broke up our camp at Pien Ma, and, in view of the lateness of the season and the continued bad weather, divided our forces; while the Taotai and myself proceeded east to the Salween, Mr. Leveson and Surveyor Natha Singh proceeded down to the Ngaw Chang. A Chinese deputy was detailed to go with them, but he thought that discretion was the better part of valour, and returned to Ming Kwang.
Mr. Leveson gives the following particulars, which fully confirm our previous information respecting the condition of the Kachins on the Ngaw Chang, and his visit
to them :---
"I spent three days on the Upper Ngaw Chang, and most of the Headmen came to see me, including Gaw Yawm (in Chinese, Shang Lon), and Shi Jang (in Chinese, Hsieh Chiang), Chi Kaw, and others. They were all friendly and accepted presents. The surveyors fixed all the villages, and went down the other side (right bank) of the Ngaw Chang as far as Pa Le, below Lung Pang. I then returned to Pien Ma.
"Teng Keng left a nasty reputation behind him at Pien Ma by beating a Lashi Headman for not providing supplies for the Chinese.
"The statement of the Headman from the Lower Kau Shang is to the same effect as that of Hparè----namely, that they are in no way subordinate to any Chinese, and have never paid tribute.
"The Shi Jang (Hsieh Chiang) Headman makes the same statement, but adds that he occasionally exchanges presents of 'huang lien' (a medicine) for salt with the Ming Kwang Fu Yi
"The trans-Ngaw Chang, or Lung Pang, group of villages comprises some 120 families at Lang Pang, Pa Le, Kan Kawn (Kan K'un), Hpien Law (Kwan Chai), &c. Their Headmen have no dealings whatever with the Chinese Chiefs, and, in fact, threatened this year to do for them if they crossed the Ngaw Chang.
(This is the group of villages to which the Taotai has withdrawn his claims.) "The Gaw Yawm (Chinese, Shang Lon) group on the Shang Tawn River, which joins the Ngaw Chang between the Pien Ma and Kan Sheng Rivers, bas some forty or fifty households of Lashi.
"They state that they are in subordinate alliance with Ta Tang; every third year he gives them a buffalo, and they give him 50 viss of 'huang lien' (165 lb.). He exercises no jurisdiction beyond this, but he did actually visit Gaw Yawm while we were at Pien Ma.
"The Upper Ngaw Chang, or Pien Ma, group includes five villages of over 25 households and some nine hamlets, in all probably 240 households, of which some 180 are Lisu, mostly immigrants from the Salween, and the rest Lashi.
"The Lashi are supposed to pay about one-tenth of a tael per house per year to Teng Keng. The total tribute thus collected is not over 25 taels a-year, and is paid in kind, usually very miscellaneous kind. These villages describe themselves as in sub- ordinate alliance with Teng Keng,
"The hamlet of Kang Fang (house of toll) is primarily the head-quarters of the Chinese coffin-wood firm. It used to be further down the Ngaw Chang, near the junction of the Pien Ma affluent. It was moved further up when wood became scarce in that locality. Tang Tung, or U Tung, is the first stage of the wood coolies en route to Ming Kwang; hence the two Chinese houses there.
54
Kang Fang is, secondarily, Teng Keng's toll and tribute collecting centre. Lisu, who extract coffin-wood ou their own account apart from the Chinese firm, pay one set of boards in twenty-five."
[2167 -1]
E
I
47
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.