The Haws
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Their progress could be traced
by the ashes of villages, and by temples and pagodas of which
the ground had been dug up. The temples and pagodas were rifled
for treasure, and so clever had the thieves become at knowing
in what places to look for it, that in many of the temples (wats),
only the few places where treasure was likely to be found were
dug up, the rest being left strictly untouched. Most temples
had the original sitting figure of Gautama, some of brick and
mortar heavily gilded, others of copper, while others again were
of a composition of gold and copper.
It is the custom of Buddhists
when building wats and pagodas to make offerings of jewelry and
money to propitiate the deity. These offerings were placed usually
under the sitting figure of Buddha, in its breast, and in the
floors of the wat, exactly where the line of sight of the figure
strikes the floor. The places were dug up by the unfortunate
inhabitants, the Haw meanwhile standing by, sword in hand, directing
the proceedings.
Near Wieng Chan is a very interesting
pagoda called Wat Luang. Religion and war are there combined;
the lower part is a perfect fortress riddled with loop-holes.
The Haw took possession of it without any opposition, and by
means of ropes pulled off the spire in the search for treasure.
It is built of blocks of laterite rudely squared. They then
marched on the defenceless people of Wieng Chan and had a good
time of it at the miserable natives expense. At this period there
was a Siamese Commissioner, Phaya Mahamat, at Ubon. Hearing of
the doings of the Haw, on his own responsibility he came up, got
the people together, and fought the Haw, who were about eight
hundred strong, totatlly defeating them. The last of the party
took refuge in a wat, and were not long in barricading it and
making a few loop-holes in the walls. They were captured and
executed. This band in their lust for murder and loot had gone
out of their depth, and were completely cut off from their communications.
The Commissioner beheaded the
unfortunate chief official of Wieng Chan for surrendering to the
Haw. Siam awoke to the gravity of the occassion and equipped
an army to drive out the Haw neck and crop. They had entrenched
themselves at Tung Chieng Kumm, from whence they were quickly
dislodged and nearly all slain by Phya Ratanarakun. Here Phya
Rat
lost a great opportunity. He had recourse to the practice
of primitive times, receiving orders from the Minister of the
Interior to drive away the population, thus laying the country
waste and bare, and as they thought, making it difficult for the
Haw to re-settle, should they return in great numbers. When the
old Governor of Pichai heard the orders, he knelt at the feet
of the Minister of the Interior who came as far as Paklai on the
Nam Kawng, and begged that the people should not be banished;
but, as in other countries that boast a superior morality, the
good of a small and necessarily weak portion of a community is
not considered, and they have to suffer on account of political
exigencies, so here the people had to go. The nemesis that must
sooner or later overtake these actions in great countries shows
itself in small ones more quickly; it came on Siam. The Haw returned
in great force and established control over M. Puann, denuded
as it was of its population. Many of the people who escaped the
exodus attached themselves to the Haw. Others, including the
best of the men, took to the mountains. Nothing could induce
them to leave their beautiful country, nor would they consent
to acknowledge the Haw.
Continued
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