Some body told us about the ancient wall in the jungle on the Patani river bank some where which they don’t want to disclose the location for the reason they told us that this wall is located in his friend’s plantation if they disclose to the public, surely the Thai authority will possess his land as stated by Thai law regarding the archaeological site, he then will lost the land with out some things in hand and planned that it is better to proof that if it’s really the archaeological site, he then will disclose to the public when that time is come. He made a ‘gentlemen agreement’ with us that never to disclose this site to any body before getting the permission from him, we love to do as he wishes and appointed him and his friend as navigators for this expedition.
Friday 4, 2011 at 7.00 am. our team of expedition move by car for nearly 2 hours to the wall location. We reached and changed our dresses at the foot of the hill, started walking quickly uphill to the west, after 30 minutes walk we reached at the location which our guider said that the wall was not far away from this rest point, every one feel very much tired to climb up hill all the times but feel fresh enough to make a survey to this precious site.
Start surveying
We have 20 minutes rest and talking about our plan of surveying the place, since hill is full of tress, creeping plants, wild animals big or small, fallen woods, hole and anything else that can hurt you, the priority instruction is safety first.
The Cemetery
After drinking fresh water and have a bit rest, we start surveying the area by walking east-west climb up and down the hills reached the cemetery area, the cemetery area is quite big compare to the population of the 2 villages near by which situated about 2 kilometers to the north and 3 kilometers to the south, we saw many rocks laid down on the leveled earth after examining thoroughly we found that the rocks were placed in pairs north-south scattered far and wide. We walk further west across the cemetery area and discovered that the grave rocks stop some where 500 meters before we reached at sedimentary rocks placed one upon the others, now we stand at the top of the rock’s wall and jumping down to the other side of the rock wall measured about 1.7 meters high which is our primary target in this expedition.
The Wall
We started surveying at the highest point of the wall which run north-south about 1.75 meters high and approximately 750 meters long. The wall are made of rocks placed one above the others, the rocks were not of the same size some big and some small, some long and some short; there’s no standard size of rock. most of the wall covered with difference kind of creeping plants, trees and jungle weed, we cut and clean these plants out of the wall with big knife after which we can see more clearly, after a short period of observation we come to conclusion that the wall is made from a kind of sedimentary rock call “laterite”, the rock is red-purple in color of 80-100 centimeters thick with no standard shape, no polishing technique, no cutting edge, it shape and color look like a natural rock leaning upon one another run straight away from north–south direction, of 750 meters long at some point the wall are covered with soil and jungle leaves, shown only the top of the wall about 20-30 centimeters high above the surface of the earth and at some point the wall is down under the surface of the earth and appear again at another point above the surface of the fertile soil.
The hill, the lagoon and the river bank
From hill where the wall are standing, sloping down to the west at the deep of about 250 meters is the foot of the hill, next is lagoon of about 950 sq. kilometers extended from north to south, from the foot of the hill across the lagoon to the west of about 600 meters distance is the Patani river bank, the bank had another extended area of about 700 meters wide to the west which reach at Patani river water, the river bank is about one and a half kilometers long from north to south while the Patani river itself flow north-south about 800 meters wide from east to west, Patani river is the longest river in the south of now Thailand, the river source is in the southern most district of Betong in Yala province while the river estuary is in Muang district of Patani province, from river source in Betong district to Muang Patani district river estuary is about 214 kilometers long. Patani river was very important route of communication between eastern and western cost of the Malay peninsula in the ancient history of Patani and kedah Kingdom
Tebing Raja or King’s River Bank
“The white clean sandy beach is come from the formation of the Patani river water which flow south to north, in the flood season of every year the water brought sand, pebble and cobblestone to this Tebing Raja which in turn push the river course further west created a beautiful sandy beach far and wide.” Said our navigators about this Tebing Raja in the old time, he try to explain about its attraction in the past while we standing at the point where some part of the wall is collapse down to the lagoon below. Tebing Raja of today is nothing remain of its beauty and attraction as in the past because in due time, Patani river had change it course to furthest west, we can’t even see Patani river at the point where we stand on the hill near the wall. Tebing Raja is full of trees and creeping plants grown naturally far and wide.
The End of the First Ground Survey
We turn our back to the Patani river and the Tebing Raja, walking to the east cross the stone wall at the lowest point reach the cemetery area again, before going down hill to the east for the main road targeting at the 2 villages near by of difference direction, we agree to make another 30 minutes surveying looking for the inscriptions which inscribe on the stone graves and the artifacts if any, after 30 minutes of roaming we found nothing and decided to end the survey before heading straight to the villages one after the others to talk and seeking the information from young and old people who may know about Tebing Raja, the wall, , the cemetery, the hills, villages, people and many more on the Patani river bank. The incoming article will talk about these all things and the legend of fanged king or Raja (Be)Siong as told by the old and young in the near by village, if there is any connection between them?
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