The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason Page A

which were rapidly filled by local warlords.
Notable among these usurpers was a warrior named Twet Nga Lu, who became the de
facto ruler of Mongnai. A native of Kengtawng (not to be confused with
Kengtung—at times one wonders if the Shan have named their cities to
confuse the English tongue), a substate of Mongnai, Twet Nga Lu was a defrocked
monk turned local brigand whose violence was notorious throughout the region,
earning him the nickname “the Bandit Chief.” Before the
sawbwa
of Mongnai had retreated to Kengtung, Twet Nga Lu had led several attacks
on Mongnai. These were for the most part unsuccessful, and Twet Nga Lu changed
his tactics from the battlefield to the bed, at last gaining power by marrying
the widow of the
sawbwa’
s brother. When the
sawbwa
fled
to Kengtung, Twet Nga Lu, with the support of Burmese officials, seized Mongnai
completely.
    Twet Nga Lu, along with the other de facto usurpers,
ruled until earlier this year, 1886, when Limbin forces launched an offensive
and reclaimed much of their land. Twet Nga Lu fled back to his native town,
from which he continues a campaign of violence, leaving swaths of burned
villages in the wake of his armies. The feud between him and the Mongnai
sawbwa
represents one of the greatest challenges to the establishment
of peace. While the
sawbwa
commands the respect of his subjects, Twet
Nga Lu is renowned not only for his ferocity but for his reputation as a master
of tattoos and charms; his flesh is said to be embedded with hundreds of
amulets which lend him invincibility, and for which he is feared and revered.
(A short note: Such charms are an important aspect of both Burman and Shan
culture. They can be anything from small gems to shells to sculptures of the
Buddha, and are placed under the skin through a shallow incision. A
particularly shocking variant is found mainly among fishermen: the implantation
of stones and bells beneath the skin of male genitalia, a practice whose
purpose and function continues to elude inquiries of this author.)
    At
the time of this report, the Limbin Confederacy continues to grow in power, and
Twet Nga Lu remains at large, with evidence of his reign of terror visible in
the embers of burned towns and slaughtered villagers. All efforts at
negotiation have proved futile. From my command at the fort at Mae Lwin, I have
been unable to make contact with the Limbin Confederacy, and my attempts to
contact Twet Nga Lu have also failed. To date, there have been few confirmed
British sightings of the warlord, and questions have even been raised as to
whether the man truly exists, or whether he is just a legend, grown out of the
summation of terror from hundreds of unassociated
dacoit
attacks.
Nevertheless, a ransom has been issued for the Bandit Chief, dead or alive, one
of many continuing efforts to bring peace to the Shan Plateau.
     
    Edgar read the full report without stopping. There were
some other short notes by Carroll, and they were all similar, filled with
digressions into ethnography and natural history. On the first page of one, a
survey of trade routes, the Doctor had scrawled at the top of the page,
“Please include to educate the piano tuner as to the geography of the
land.” Inside there were two appendices, one on the accessibility of
certain mountain trails to the passage of artillery, the second a compendium of
edible plants, “in case a party is lost without food,” with
sketches of flower dissections and the name of each plant in five different
tribal languages.
    The contrast of the Doctor’s reports with the
other official military notes he’d read was striking, and Edgar wondered
if perhaps this was the source of some of the military’s enmity. He knew
most of the officers were landed gentry, educated at the finest schools. So he
could imagine their resentment of a man such as the Doctor, who came from a
more modest background, but who seemed vastly more cultured. Perhaps this too
is why I like him already, he