[ { "id": 204434, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 66, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "CHIN-SHA R.\n\nMEKONG R.\n\nSALWEEN\n\n104\n\nCHIA\n\n708\n\nZI\n\nTANG TZE\n\nYAO\n\n21:20\n\nYAC\n\nSPOL\n\nPAI\n\n...\n\nTA\n\nY\n\nTA/LARVA\n\nYI\n\nVUA TÂY HÀNH TÀI\n\nAN\n\n#\n\n#.\n\nMUL\n\nMIA\n\nTA\n\nMIAO\n\nY:\n\n...\n\nMIAO\n\nMITAC\n\nMIAO\n\nYIMIAO\n\nMIA\n\nHUL KELAQS\n\nPUAY!\n\nMIAO\n\nSHAMMAD Y40\n\nAMA\n\nMIAO\n\nZKK\n\nTUACHIA\n\nTUNG'AQ\n\n...\n\nYAO\n\nTUNG\n\nMIAO\n\nCHUANG\n\nYAO\n\nHUANG\n\nCHUANO\n\nBURMA\n\n**1\n\nWe are Man barbarians and have nothing to do with Chinese titles\". Actually, these \"barbarians\" were proud enough to bear Chinese titles later, but this statement in the Eighth Century B.C. showed what manner of people occupied the Yangtze valley at this date.\n\n1 Friedrich Hirth, The ancient history of China to the end of the Chou dynasty, New York, 1908, 120-123.\n\nBURMA\n\nTHAILAND\n\n\"NAM\n\nSHANGHAI\n\nSHA\n\n971\n\nSHONGKONG\n\nCHINA'S 35 MILLION NON-CHINESE\n\nTAIWAN\n\nISLAND\n\nKAO-3\n\nNYNHVH)\n\n...\n\nI\n\nISLAND\n\nDISTRIBUTION OF NON-HAN ETHNIC GROUPS\n\nIN SOUTH CHINA\n\n500\n\n17\n\nKMS.\n\nK. WIENS\n\n55", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204448, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 80, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "CHINA'S 35 MILLION NON-CHINESE\n\n69\n\nTable II lists the numbers of people in each ethnic group distributed by provinces in south and central China. In brief, the T'ai-related groups lead with some 10 million people at present. They are followed by the Tibeto-Burman related group with some 8.4 million, followed by the Miao-Yao related group with about 3.4 million. The greatest concentration of minorities in any one group is among the Chuang in the Tai group. The Chuang live in a compact body numbering some seven million in Kwangsi. The Miao, however, are the most widely distributed of all ethnic groups, being found in significant numbers in every province of south and central China except Kiangsi, although their chief strength is in Kweichow. Yunnan, by all odds, is the most complex province ethnically. Of the 30 national minorities listed by the Census for 1953, some twenty-four are found in Yunnan. This Census apparently may need considerable revision when the minorities are scrutinized more closely. Thus, it listed only 90,000 so-called T'u-chia, which was proclaimed to be a newly discovered ethnic group hitherto confused with Han Chinese and Miao because of their degrees of acculturation. A personal check by Fang Jen revealed over 300,000, and a still more detailed check in subsequent years disclosed that actually these were 549,000 that should be so classified and, from their original cultural traits, they belonged in the Yi-related group. They occupy an area in northwest Hunan.\n\n44\n\nThe Yi comprise so many sub-groups under different names (there are 40 sub-tribes in Yunnan alone) that confusion is understandable. In northwest Yunnan such sub-groups of the Yi as the Na-khi or Na-hsi and Li-su live in the region between the great bends of the Chin-sha river and the Burma border. In the western part of this region are the Nu, Tu-lung, and Ching-p'o, occupying parts of the Salween and Mekong drainage of north Yunnan. Farther south in the drainages of these rivers are the related La-hu and A-ch'ang. The Pai people, in a solid bloc on the plain of Erh Hai (Lake Erh), have been thought by some writers, including this one, to be a T'ai-related people, but are listed by Bruk as a Yi sub-group. In the west bank region of the Red river of Yunnan are the sub-group known as the Han-yi. The Yi proper are scattered over the three southwestern provinces,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204652, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "NAVIGATION ON THE YANGTSE \n\n119 \n\nThe restriction about navigation beyond Ichang was abolished after the Sino-Japanese War by the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, and three years later the indefatigable Little had the satisfaction of taking his Leechuan from Ichang up to Chungking, the first steamer to navigate the Upper Yangtse. The Leechuan was a twin screw, wooden, steam launch only fifty-five feet long, and too small to carry any cargo. Little acted as his own captain and chief engineer, and the Leechuan had to be pulled up the strongest of the rapids by trackers. Two years later, however, a larger paddle steamer Pioneer, built by Little and a group of associates, made the first commercial passage to Chungking. The Pioneer was built by Denny of Dumbarton, and was 180 feet long, 60 feet beam over the paddle boxes, and had a draft of 6 feet. She carried 150 tons of cargo and many deck passengers, and took seven days between Ichang and Chungking on her first trip. There is a photograph of her in Gleanings from Fifty Years in China by Archibald Little (Philadelphia, 1908), p. 141. Shortly afterwards the Pioneer was commandeered by the British government to bring British subjects down the Yangtse during the Boxer troubles, and she finished her career as H.M.S. Kinshi, the headquarters ship of the Senior British Naval Officer on the Yangtse.\n\nIn that same year of 1900 the British river gunboat Woodlark, which was 145 feet long, by 23 feet beam, but had a draft of only 3 feet, also reached Chungking, and in the following year Woodlark and her sister ship Woodcock reached Sui Fu, 100 miles beyond Chungking. It was in the December of that year that the first of many serious accidents occurred on the Upper Yangtse, when the German steamer Suichsiang went on the rocks at the Tungling Rapids, 36 miles above Ichang, and was a total loss.\n\nThe Yangtse has its source in Tibet, not far from the headwaters of the Yellow, Mekong, Salween, and Irawaddy Rivers. When this became known to Europeans it became the ambition of many travellers to go up the Yangtse as far as possible, and then to cross over the Himalayas into Burma or India. This journey had a fascination for Europeans very similar to that exercised by the Nile and Niger over their fathers and grandfathers. The naval expedition of 1861, which went up the river as far as Yochow, landed three Englishmen there who intended to follow the river to its source in Tibet, and then cross over the Himalayas into India. Captain Blakiston, Lieutenant Saral, and Doctor Barton of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204676, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n141\n\nNumber 2 contains nineteen papers presented at the Tenth Pacific Science Congress held in Hawaii from August to September 1961. Most of these articles are of interest to the specialist rather than the general reader, such as the section headed \"Geo-chronology: Methods and Results\" which is concerned with methods of dating. The article by Roger Green on \"The Application of Matrix Index Systems to Archaeological Materials\" is, I imagine, of special significance to archaeologists.\n\nFor the general reader the section entitled \"Trade Porcelain and Stoneware in Southeast Asia” is of considerable interest, in particular the article by Kamer Aga-Oglu on \"Ming Porcelain from sites in the Philippines\" with five plates in black and white. This should appeal to those interested in Chinese porcelain in general.\n\nThese two numbers are finely produced, and include illustrations, maps and charts,\n\nJ. L. C-B.\n\nTHE INTERNATIONAL RIVER BASIN. Edited by J. D. Chapman. Hong Kong University Press, 1963. Paper Covers. 53 pages. HK$2.00.\n\nThis booklet contains an account of the proceedings of a Seminar on the development and administration of the International River Basin held under the auspices of the Regional Training Centre for United Nations Fellows at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in September 1961. The main question posed by the organizers of the Seminar was \"What are the specific difficulties of international river basin development?” This report contains the consensus of the seminar on a number of questions. The short sections on the Indus and on the Mekong will be of special interest to inhabitants of East Asia. The book contains a useful selected bibliography.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205052, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 8, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "May 24\n\nJune 21\n\nSeptember 27\n\nOctober 25\n\nNovember 22\n\nProfessor C. D. Cowan\n\nA Chronicler of Traditional Malay Society: the unpublished journals of Sir Frank Swettenham 1874-76\n\nColour Films\n\n\"Mekong\" (by courtesy of Shell Company of Hong Kong Ltd.)\n\n\"Mount Kinabalu\" (North Borneo)\n\n(by courtesy of the British Council)\n\nMr. leuan Hughes\n\nLL\n\nRecent Visit to China\n\nDr. J. R. Jones\n\n++\n\nW\n\nGiuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) Italian Artist and Architect in the Court of Ch'ien-lung\n\nSir Lindsay Ride\n\nAn Introduction to Macau\"\n\nDecember 5 Macau Tour\n\nThe Journal continues to maintain its high standard both of interest and scholarship. Our thanks are due to Mr. Uhalley and his Editorial Board for their good work in bringing out Volume V after it had been delayed owing to the editorial changes last year. Volume VI is well under way and may be expected by the autumn.\n\nOur library continues to grow. Mr. F. A. Nixon was generous again and presented two rare and valuable books, and soon we shall have the books for which The Asia Foundation made a grant of $2,850 last year. It is unfortunate that we do not yet have a room of our own in which we can house our accumulation of books and where they can be consulted and studied. Our library is at present housed in the Hong Kong University in the care of our Hon. Librarian Mr. H. A. Rydings.\n\nDuring the last six years the Council has undergone few changes. Last year we lost Dr. W. C. G. Knowles who with Mrs. Knowles had been one of the Society's firmest and most loyal supporters from the outset. When he retired last July his place on the Council was filled by Mr. Kenneth W. Robinson who", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206976, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG\n\n41\n\nhowever, he was attempting to start a company with the professed intention of working his new-found country, we thought it our duty to let Hong Kong know both sides of the story of his adventures. Even supposing the adventurer's conduct to have been straight, we can scarcely conceive how any speculators in Hong Kong could be induced to embark in such an enterprise. Meantime for a\n\nHong Kong Company to think of opening up trade with such an inaccessible country as the Sedangs is the most Quixotic project that has ever been mooted in Hong Kong.\"37\n\nThe next day the vitriolic but loyal Fraser-Smith dashed into print to defend the departed King in a long diatribe against the Mail. The article, as a good specimen of Hong Kong journalism at the time, should be quoted from in extenso:\n\nThe article in last night's China Mail regarding M. de Mayréna the King of the Sedangs, is like the former attacks made by this religious journal on that gentleman, a tissue of barefaced falsehoods, published out of sheer malice. “Another King\" has not gone into exile, as the gutter scribe of the China Mail gleefully records. M. de Mayréna has gone to Paris to assert his rights, and where he will have some chance of obtaining fair play and justice. With his influential connections in the French capital, there seems no reason to doubt that his position and claims will be fully vindicated. And when he does return to this colony, which will probably be in about four months' time, the cowardly libeller of the China Mail will summarily be called to account. We should do it with a strong horsewhip; M. de Mayréna will take criminal proceedings for defamatory libel. As we have already indicated, our contemporary's latest attack on the King of the Sedangs—prudently made after that gentleman had left the colony—bristles with inaccuracies and ignorance. The writer is as weak in his geography as he is reckless in his alleged facts. He does not even know where the Sedangs country is. The \"one reader\" of the China Mail is assured that if the cruiser Filipinas had been purchased by the King \"it could never have even reached the country unless it was transported overland.\" The Mekong, by far the largest and most important river in Indo-China, runs right through the Sedangs country, dividing it from Siam, and is navigable beyond Stung Treg, the chief town in Sedangs. It is further untrue, as affirmed by the China Mail, that M. de Mayréna attempted \"to start a company in this co-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207037, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "102\n\nMICHAEL SMITHIES\n\nFrench, advancing up the Mekong from Saigon, over-anticipating its value as a trade route to China and claiming suzerainty over Annamese vassals, slowly filled.\n\nThe explorer Mouhot was at Luang Prabang in 1861 and Doudart de Lagrée and Francis Garnier shortly thereafter. The Kha rebellion of 1885 gave the French an excuse for intervention and stopping further extension of Siamese power in Laos; in 1886 a provisional Franco-Siamese convention was signed giving the French the right to establish a vice-consulate at Luang Prabang. The first mission by Pavie to Luang Prabang took place early in 1887, but French expansionism was effectively held in check for three years by the devastation caused by Deo Van Tri and the Black Flags (the Ho 'pirates' operating from Yunnan and Tonkin). Incidents increased between Siam and France and culminated with the French naval demonstration at Bangkok in 1893; the Siamese gave way and ceded the left bank of the Mekong to France. The Franco-Siamese treaty of 1907 gave the right-bank province of Sayaboury and those right bank parts of Champassak to France, but recognised Siamese authority over the rest of the right bank. The present frontiers of Laos were effectively decided by the French, from whom the Lao gained independence in 1949 under King Sisavong Vong. Prince Boun Oum of Champassak having in a secret protocol of 1946 renounced his right to the kingdom. More recent events have been well chronicled and the agreement of the three major political princes of left, right and centre in 1974 to form a joint government offers hope that the troubled post-war history of Laos might enter a more peaceful phase.\n\nThe buildings in Vientiane then are either restorations or totally modern and, as always in mainland southeast Asia, the monuments of note are almost exclusively religious. The most attractive shrine is the That Luang slightly outside the city. This solid tapering square tower was built in the 16th century by King Settathirat and is said to contain Buddhist relics. It was badly destroyed by the Red Flags in 1873 and its reconstruction was completed in 1929. It is an impressive pile set in a large open square fringed with trees. A vast fair takes place here every November and assumes a national importance.\n\nVat Pra Keo was also built originally by King Settathirat to house the Emerald Buddha on its arrival from Chiengmai; the statue", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207038, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 109, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "The monuments of Vientiane and Luang Prabang\n\n103\n\nwent to Bangkok and the temple in Vientiane lost its importance. It has been restored many times and is technically no longer a temple but a 'haw' or hall since services are not held and the building has been converted into a museum. At the entrance is a fine Dvaravati Buddha and there are several good examples of bronze Lao Buddhas with characteristic sharp, pointed noses both outside and inside the building. Among those inside is an elegant and extremely attenuated standing Buddha and two walking Buddhas. The restored pediments of the building are good examples of Lao woodcarving and so are the carved window panels.\n\nNearby is Vat Srisaket which is a quiet spot without having any particular artistic merit, though its galleries of Lao-style Buddhas, the carved ceiling of vihara and its naive frescoes of animals are worth seeing. The only other temple of note is Vat Ong Tu, near the market with good carving on the portal only in the Chiengmai style. The primitive wall paintings at Vat Oup Muong are a modern interpretation of the Ramayana but the temple is otherwise without interest; Vat Xieng Yuen and Vat Chantaburi, by the river Mekong, have peaceful and shady courtyards, and the temple of the Sankaraj, or Lao Supreme Patriarch, Vat Dong Mieng is remarkable mostly for its carving and hideous modern paintings.\n\nVientiane boasts the usual ministries of an administrative capital and a small modern royal palace for the occasions when the king comes from Luang Prabang. Modern Vientiane is largely without interest, the only building of note being the Monument to the Dead on the broad avenue leading to the That Luang; it is a top-heavy and as yet still incomplete miniature of the Arc de Triomphe. The teak-lined boulevards running parallel to the Mekong have a tranquillity which few capital cities can boast.\n\nThe difference between Vientiane and Luang Prabang is striking; the former has on occasions something approaching a bustle of modernity. Luang Prabang, a half-an-hour away by plane, is a century away in time. There are virtually no modern buildings, there is no traffic, and the ring of mountains around seems to keep the world away. The morning market is peopled by Lao villagers and Meo tribesmen, the latter heavy with silver and bright with colour; three soldiers look after a pig and half-a-dozen people watch a kettle boil on the side of the road. Local silk is offered at very low prices and the silverware is unusual. Luang Prabang is the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207039, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "104\n\nMICHAEL SMITHIES\n\nhome of the Lao royal family and the small royal palace at the foot of the Phu Si or central hill sets the modest tone of the town. Its temples are so numerous that it would be impossible to detail each one, and unrewarding, for many are extremely simple, testimonies to the faith of an unaffected and devout people.\n\nThe most splendid is undoubtedly Vat Xieng Tong, originally approached from the Mekong river up a broad stairway. It is the largest temple in area and the compound has a number of interesting buildings; the vihara has high curving roofs coming down very low to the sides and surmounted by an elegant dort xoi fa (flowers pointing to heaven), the many-pronged symbol of the universe, each point tipped with a tiered parasol, that is to be found on nearly every Lao temple roof. The carved portico is striking and the inside of sober simplicity; the altar has a large antique Lao Buddha statue and the ceiling is coffered and painted. The runnels with decorative dragon-head spouts used in ordination ceremonies are kept in many temples in Luang Prabang and there is a good example in Vat Xieng Tong. At the back of the altar, on the outside wall, is a mosaic representing the tree of life, and nearby a small chapel to a Lao hero, Sri Sawai, is entirely covered with charming mosaics on a red background. There are a number of other chapels in the grounds, as well as a small building for a prayer drum. The most opulent of these is undoubtedly the building containing the royal funeral carriages; the carving and gilding is almost overwhelming on the outside, and if the inside of the building is simple, the objects it contains are not; the royal funeral carriages are masterpieces of carving which, until the present king changed the tradition of burning them after the cremation of the monarch they had borne, used to disappear without trace.\n\nAlong the main street going towards the Phu Si is Vat Sene, with a three-tiered roof in the Lao style. The entrance is elegant and raised on octagonal columns and the walls are decorated gold on a red background. Nearby is Vat Pak Khe, one of the most unusual temples in Luang Prabang, with Siamese style frescoes inside and on one of the entrances are supposed to be represented Dutchmen and on a window Venetians. Certainly the objects of the panel carver's attention are European and the style of the dress dates from two to three centuries before the founding of the temple in 1861. Father de Leria visited Vientiane between 1642 and 1647 and his information is recorded in Father Filippo de Marini's book", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207041, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 112, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "106\n\nMICHAEL SMITHIES\n\nrepresenting the age of the person who placed the offering in the temple, and also long metal forks offered to priests indicating their age. In the grounds of Vat Vixun is the melon-shaped stupa in memory of a Lao queen, the That Mang Mo and another vihara, unrestored, lies nearby. Vat That Luang is raised on a mound overlooking a sports field and is very sober. The vihara has a two-tiered roof and rises from an ornamental stucco band with medallions on the walls. There is an excellent and large carving of a scene from the Ramayana at the back of the altar, and the temple possesses a number of fine palm-leaf manuscripts which are copied by novices. At each end of the vihara is a chedi; the square one to the south is topped by bronze metal plates and is impressive.\n\nThis is by no means an exhaustive list of the temples of the city; temple building still continues, and Vat Monnorom, which used to consist of nothing except a large torso of an antique Buddha statue, is now being rebuilt around the statue. The energetic may climb to the top of the Phu Si less to visit the shrine, which is without interest, but to admire the magnificent view over the Mekong valley and that of its tributary, the Nam Kam. The Vietnamese temple is in hideous taste but again has fine views over the river. The small modern royal palace may not be visited and the residence of the crown prince is a modest French-style colonial building. A number of side streets are worth strolling down, if only for their tranquility; they are unpaved, the houses are of bamboo matting and atap, the gardens bright with bougainvillias and children look with amazement at westerners.\n\nSome thirty kilometres up the Mekong river are the Pak Ou caves. The scenery becomes ever wilder, the mountains more dramatic and the rapids stronger. Pak Ou consists of a limestone block straddling a bend in the river at the point where the Nam Hu joins it. There are two caves; the first, Tham Tong, contains numerous statues of the Buddha left there by the faithful (and some of which have recently been removed by the unfaithful, which is why it is necessary to report to the police on arrival and to be watched throughout the visit); through the frangipanni trees a path leads upwards to a second cave which goes further into the rock. The entrance to this is of carved wood and it is guarded by a jovial Buddha of Chinese inspiration; remnants of carved and decorated posts are to be found inside, leading one to suppose that there might have been a kind of baldachino.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207790, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 178, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "LAND AND RIVER ROUTES TO WEST CHINA\n\n163\n\nValley. A tea committee was formed whose findings were favourable, and experimental tea gardens were opened at Jaipur in Upper Assam. By 1859 over 4,000 acres were under cultivation, and the industry was assured of a bright future. Ample British capital was available for expansion, the British public's appetite for tea seemed inexhaustible; but scarcity of labour was a serious handicap. Assam was thinly populated, and the planters were dependent on Bengalis, who took a long time to get acclimatised. The idea of importing Chinese labour by the overland route was suggested, as at this time Chinese labour was considered indispensable to economic development in the tropics, and the Indian government was sympathetic. There were several possible land routes between India and West China, some passing through Burma, and Article 9 of the 1862 Commercial Treaty between Britain and Burma allowed entry into British territory from the Burmese side. The tea planters, however, failed to recruit Chinese workers, and blamed their lack of success upon the difficulties and hardships of the overland routes. This led to pressure on the government to improve the major land routes, and to several expeditions across the debatable borderlands between India, Burma, and China.\n\nFrom the 1860s until near the end of the century, therefore, there was rivalry between British commercial circles in India and those in China, over access to West China. In addition to these two approaches, from India and from the Yangtze, there were others from the south; by the Mekong or Red River from Indo-China, and by the West River from Canton and Hong Kong. Anglo-French colonial rivalry was acute during the second half of the nineteenth century, especially in the Far East. The French were keen to find and exploit a trade route to West China; and while Britain was investigating routes from Burma, the Yangtze, and the West River, France was investigating possible routes from the Mekong and Red Rivers.\n\nAs became widely known by the end of the century, and suspected by realists before then, West China and its borderlands comprise some of the most difficult regions of the world in which to build roads or railways, or in which to improve river navigation. There are high mountain ranges divided by deep valleys, densely forested in many places; and all the great rivers—the Yangtze, Irrawaddy, Mekong, Red River, and Salween—are seriously impeded by rapids", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207795, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "168\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nMeanwhile exploration continued from the south. Between 1866 and 1868 the French under Doudart de Lagrée and Francis Garnier made their famous expedition from Saigon by the Mekong River through Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos to Talifu and Kunming in Yunnan. The Panthay Rebellion was then at its height, and the Chinese authorities refused them permission to proceed further up the Mekong. Garnier, who had succeeded to the leadership after Lagrée's death, had to abandon his plan to explore the sources of the Mekong, and turned east across Yunnan to the Upper Yangtze at Iping. Here boats were obtained to take them on the four weeks journey to Hankow. Garnier saw enough of the Mekong to realise that it could never rival the Irawaddy, let alone the Yangtze, as a trade route to West China, and French interest shifted to the Red River route from Haiphong through Tongking. During an enforced delay on the Siamese border, Garnier made the first thorough survey of the ruins of Angkor, and his expedition is important in that it encouraged French ambitions for an Indo-Chinese Empire.\n\nThere was no clear policy on the part of the various British parties concerned with developing trade with West China, nor over the best way to reach this region of supposed inexhaustible wealth. Lack of accurate information is also a constant theme in the history of British relations with West China. However, penetration and exploitation from the West, that is from India and Burma, attracted greater public and official support in Britain than that from the Yangtze by the China traders, though by 1874, a combination of circumstances led to a co-operative effort being made from both East and West, the aforementioned Dual Mission of 1874-75, which I shall now describe.\n\nThe Panthay Rebellion finally came to an end in May 1873 when the Imperial troops captured Momein, this completing the reconquest of Yunnan after eighteen years of civil war. During the ensuing period of rehabilitation the provincial authorities tried to revive the Burma-Yunnan overland route, and caravans reappeared after nearly twenty years' absence, undeterred by disbanded soldiers and lawless hillmen. By May 1874 the British Political Agent at Bhamo reported that more caravans were passing between Burma and Yunnan than for many years, and that British and Chinese merchants were sending such large consignments of goods", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 } ]