Located at Chiang Saen, House of Opium consists of numerous antiques that are related to the Golden Triangle.
One complimentary postcard per person.
Akha Opium Legend
There's an old legend that within the Akha tribe, where a
beautiful young girl was sought after by many suitors. One particular day,
seven young men asked for her hand. Not wanting to disappoint any of them, she
decided she wouldn't choose one to marry but instead would make love with all
of them. (Freaking weird, I know = =”) She did, knowing that this would
probably kill her. When she could endure it no longer, she asked to be killed
and wished to be reincarnated as a beautiful flower. She directed her relatives
to carefully tend her grave, saying that this flower would grow from her heart.
Whoever tasted of the sap from this beautiful flower would experience amazing
pleasure, but also great suffering.
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy. The traditional method
of obtaining the latex is to scratch ("score") the immature seed pods
(fruits) by hand; the latex leaks out and dries to a sticky yellowish residue
that is later scraped off.
The ancient way of smoking opium.
The Lanna Animal Astrology Weight
Other than as measuring tool, opium weight or "Peng", according to the Lanna, was believed to be holy subjects with fetish power that could protect the owner from "Khued", viciousness and misfortune.
Different Sizes of Opium Weight
Opium Measurement
Various Type of Smoking Pipes
Opium Pillows
Opium pillow are usually made of hard leather, wood, and porcelain.
Even though porcelain pillow is very hard, it keeps the smoker's head firm and comfortably cool.
It is said that after a few pipes, the smoker will feel as if his head were resting on a cloud.
Chang Xi Fu, was a Burmese warlord. His nom de guerre was Khun Sa, which
means “Prince Properous”. At the age of 26, he was approached by a military
chief to start a pro-Burmese government. He did, but yet he has also decided to
turn into a true mercenary. He was then arrested by Burmese government in 1969,
but released in 1973 when his second in command kidnapped a couple of Russian
doctors and held them in return for the release of Khun Sa. He was also dubbed
the "Opium King" due to his opium trading in the so-called Golden
Triangle. However, Khun Sa’s army surrendered to Burmese government during
1985-1986.He said “If I can get back to my country, eight million of my people
will rejoice, but if I can stop the narcotic problem, then the whole world will
rejoice.” He spent the rest of his life living
off his wealth in Yangon until year 2007, died
at the age of 73. Unlike other drug lords, he was neither imprisoned nor
killed, yet he was able to walk away from the game.
Hill Tribes in Golden Triangle other than Karen Padaung are Lahu, Lisu and Mein.
My Chiang Mai & Chiang Rai Travelogue:
7 comments:
What an odd story behind opium!
Btw the British commercialised opium (and widely used them in trading) around Asia to keep people weak so the British could rule without any "hassles".
Really? There's lots of opium stories in China too.
Never knew there was an opium legend!
your blog is so informative haha :D thnks
I didn't know the opium legend too. Was researching for this post :P
Thank you :)
the opium has such a rich history
Yes yes. This is only a tiny part of it :)
Yup, like the Opium Wars!
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