The Story of Raja (Be)Siong (The Fanged King)

A 26 years old newly elected head of village(Phuyaiban) which now have to take the office straight a way until the retirement at the age of 60 is a very important person during  this expedition including the headman(kamnan). The new head village was elected by the people of the first village  3 months ago when the former head village was gun down in 2009 in the conflict situation, the office of head village was vacant for 2 years because no one dare to contest in new election. The present democratic government had resolved  the term of elected head of village to the retirement at the age  of sixty years old instead of 4 years elected term introduced by the former prime minister General Chauvalit Yongjaiyuth in 1990s

Kamnan and Phuyaiban  leading us  to the first village and the second village  respectively, in order to inquire the information about the site that we had roughly made a ground survey in the morning, the  first  village is more interesting than the second one because of the old woman that we meet at  her house, after a brief introduction we started talking about the place where we visited this morning. Minoh or Aminah is 93 years old with excellence and healthy body and mind, she told us that she simply ate a lot of local vegetable with rice, working in the garden, walking , sleep and wake up early. The following is the conclusion that we made from the conversation with Minoh, his son, head man, head village and our team of expedition.

Sketching Map1:Tebing Raja with No scale according to story telling by the villagers

Tebing Raja(King’s River Bank)

Tebing Raja is the name of the place on the Patani river bank that the king used for  training his horses and doing sports in the evening together with his ministers, Tebing raja was  a beautiful white sandy beach next to the up hill wall to  the west direction,  the  beautiful sandy beach now become Laha (pond or lagoon) because of the Patani river diversion course to further west, she said that the king palace must be some where on the hill to the west of the wall in the northern end of the hill “ the older people say that Tebing raja is the place where the king run his horses  with his  ministers  in the afternoon as recreation program one or twice a week, it is a beautiful white sand and people at that time call Pata or Pantai mean sea beach,  to day Pata become lagoon  and  the river bank go further, between the bank     and      river water is many meters deep, the  river bank in this context calls Tebing in local Patani Malay language or the Royal cliff, Tebing Raja or the Royal cliff later known by the people  here in this village”.

Patani River Piers(Kalae Prahu or Pengkalan Perahu)

The Patani river course is about 220 kilometers  from the southern sources in Betong district, Yala province flowing north end to Patani estuary in the Patani city, “ Patani river is known for long time  in the history, it was very important route of communication and transportation between the  Malay kingdom in the northern end of  Malay peninsula - from Patani to the south passes Jala to Reman and to Perak before moving to the west direction by another Sungai Patani or Patani river route now in the state of Kedah Malaysia, the distance between Kedah and Patani from this mountainous ancient route is approximately 600 kilometers. The kingdom of Kedah  is on the western coast of Malay peninsula. When I was young I went to Yala by bamboo raft, we collected bamboo from the jungle and made a simple raft at the pier of Tebing Raja, we started journey from our pier and reached the Nibong or Yala  city on the east of Patani river bank, we sold the bamboo raft and jungle products out to the merchants before they carry and move further north to the  Patani city estuary, people using bamboo for sea fishing and  house construction purpose, there were  several piers  from our home to Yala and to Patani, sometime we go as far as Patani estuary by boat, we bought sea products in exchange beside the modern tools, we come home by foot and some time by boat if the current is normal” said 74 years old Maming or Mod. Amin son of Minoh who is as healthy as his old mother. The important of  Patani river route of communication and transportation  was mentioned in late 19^th century  by JAMES McCARTHY, F.E.G.S., DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE SIAMESE GOVERNMENT SURVEYS DEPARTMENT (BRITISH MAN) , IN HIS BOOK : SURVEYING AND EXPLORING IN SIAM(THAILAND). SAID “For a period of twelve years (1881-93) I was engaged in collecting material for the compilation of a map of Siam(Thailand)”. In 1881 after James came back from Metun Valley in northern Siam, in June 18, He and his man anchoring a long distance from the shore of Patani, and proceeded in shallow canoes up the Patani river to the Chinese town, consists of a number of houses packed within high brick walls, enclosing an area of about 600 feet long and 200 feet broad. The rajah's house was about a mile and a half further up the Patani river. The rajah, a youth of about twenty years of age, was in Kelantan for his marriage to the daughter of the Rajah of that state. He and his companion took a small boat, and went upstream to the south against the swift current of the Patani river aiming at Siam and British-Malaya border. They reached Ta-Sap, the revenue collecting-station for the Raja of Yala. There some excellent houses had been built, he and his companion took up in quarters in one of them. On July 4 they moved over to Kotabaru,   a four hours' walk, to the residence of the Rajah of Raman, who had the reputation of being a good sportsman….. James memoirs talking more about the expedition to the border of Reman  and  Perak before he was cough  up by Malaria in Perak border work, he went to Penang , Singapore and Back to Bangkok by sea route. See more in at http://books/.google. com/ .  Thanks google books.

Sketching Map 2: Tebing Raja according to ground survey

Stone Inscriptions

Laha or lagoon become the fishing place for the villagers and swimming pool for children in surrounding  area “ the water was run deep and cold with a lot of fresh water fish, prawn and fresh water shell attract the villagers to come for fishing and netting, older people tell that under the water in the lagoon was concealed the stone inscription, many stone inscriptions written in Jawi scripts(Jawi  script is the local Patani Malay written language)sink under the water, beside the rumor of huge ancient treasures lay down under the deep water”  said Kamnan or headman, “probably the lagoon is not the old river course because it was very near to the wall, it must be something related to the ‘pata’or river sand beach where Raja run the horses with his ministers, it must be the wall, the cliff, the Patani river sand beach and the Patani river course respectively run east to west”. Said Minoh

The Hidden Treasures

On the Patani river sand beach where Raja and his ministers run the horses  must consist of a number of buildings which constructed  close to the stone wall for recreational purpose, to day is at the lagoon point, the plates and dishes were met close to the  way  uphill  to wall possibly some house hold tools like plates, dish, knives and many more are sink under the deep water and become the sources of rumor  about a huge quantity of  ancient treasures under the deep lagoon which no one ever touch and see, except in their sweet dreams.

Next: final conclusion of survey and the story of  Fanged King or Raja (Be)Siong