Guo Ming Dang army in Northern Thailand Part 2

Akha women cultural dance.

(Introduction: Northern Thailand Experience)
(Part 1: As the story unfolds)

Part 2: Guo Ming Dang army in Northern Thailand

I watched the senior pastor of the Church. He is from Yunan. He is a chubby, cheerful and nice looking chap.

He married an Akha girl and they have a son of a few years old. This guy is pretty amazing. He does everything from being a handyman to an electrician, a soundman to care taker, a rubbish collector to a master of ceremony, a gardener to a shop keeper and of course a preacher.

How Christianity grew in this area was fascinating. A lot was done the Christian missions. Also a lot was done by the remnants of the former soldiers of the Chinese Guo Ming Dang.

As the story went, after the Guo Ming Dang army was defeated by Mao Tze Dung’s army, they split up into two groups.

One withdrew south into Northern Thailand. They lived in the hills and among the hill tribes. One withdrew to Formosa (Taiwan today). They were supposed to regroup to wrest back China from Mao Tse Dung.

And this never happened. As time went by the group that was left stranded in Northern Thailand began to assimilate with the local tribes marrying their women.

Unfortunately many of them too succumbed to drug addictions and alcoholisms.
But there were some who are commendable. I felt they are worth mentioning as their works I think had a tremendous impact on the Christian communities today.

Our group felt blessed to be able to meet with a number of them. Thanks to Pastor Ng and his wife Mdm Liim who made it possible. They brought us around (they consider themselves our tour guide) for the next few days.

1. Hello little girl 2. Akha woman 3. Akha women 4. Surmon in 3 languages

Pastor Ng who is a Malaysian is in his mid sixties. He graduated from Singapore Nanyang University. In the last 14 years he has given his love, time and efforts to Christ and contributed significantly to the communities in Northern Thailand.

He now coordinates 23 churches in Northern Thailand. His wife also Malaysian a few years younger followed him wherever he went. What a handsome couple. They are also the parents of one of our team member Weiwei.

We met Khaw Da Die (Elder Khaw) who is in his late seventies. He was one of the soldiers of the Guo Ming Dang army.

He was a drug addict long time ago. He was saved by the missionaries. He went into a drug rehabilitation centre. He was cured of drug addictions and alcoholisms. He became a Christian.

He decided to preach the Gospel. He walked literally walked from door to door. But you must understand that from one door to another door is not like our door to door close to each other. Theirs is more like from one hill to another hill.

With a bible in one hand a walking stick on the other, he trod across the highlands and lowlands preaching to whoever wants to listen.

He walked from one hill to another. His faith was rewarded. Through him he had built seven churches. Wow what a man.

Now he may look frail but his passion for Christ remained as strong as ever. He and his wife, Khaw Dama, they together have three sons.

His third son, Ja Guo was the one who was driving us around at Northern Thailand.
The story to continue at part 3 … The Death Camp of Khun sa.


1. Jessica at Xa Fang 2. Pat & Jess visit Rehab 3. Children 4. Pat & Jess

Introduction: Northern Thailand Experience

Northern Thailand Experience

Now my view of Northern Thailand has changed and never will be the same again.

Previously before coming here Northern Thailand was a ‘hard’ country. Its still is if you are referring to the mountains but it is not as notorious as I once thought it was.

As far as I can remember many years ago Northern Thailand especially in the areas at the border between Myanmar and Thailand lived a band of notorious bandit led by a man known as ‘Khun Sa’ aka Drug Lord or Drug King. He literally controlled the mountains in Northern Thailand with his well trained army. To his people he was like a hero. To both the Thai and Myanmar governments he was a wanted criminal. Khun Sa had his own killing field where his enemies once enter will never be out alive. I was told he never use bullets for executions. He said was a waste of money. He used big hammers to execute the prisoners.

Then, there was this area known as the Golden Triangle, where the three countries meet, only to be divided by the Mekong River, i.e. Myanmar on the West, Laos on the East and Thailand in the south (China at the far North). It was like a no man’s land without law and order smugglings and drugs trafficking were the main livelihood of the people there. Poppy grew in abundance.


At the same time, there was the story of a group of old soldiers, the remnants of the former Chinese Guo Ming Dang army who retreated into Northern Thailand after they were defeated by Mao Tse Dung during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The story went on that they were supposed to reunite with the other Guo Ming Dang army who fled to Taiwan - to retake China from Mao Tse Dung. It never did. While those in Taiwan prospered, these soldiers in Northern Thailand were abandoned and had to live among the hill tribes in the mountains as farmers. They are stateless.

The reason I went to Northern Thailand was because it sounded exciting. At the time I (and my wife Jessica) was coming back from Inner Mongolia in July 2008, one of our team members mentioned that her father was doing mission works at Northern Thailand and invited people who are interested to come over to Northern Thailand in December. I didn’t hesitate. I put Northern Thailand in my bucket list.

No regrets. It was a complete eye opener for me. I supposed it is the same for my wife Jessica and my team members, all eleven of us. The mountains were beautiful. It was quite cold as it was December. Day time the temperature was bearable (comfortable 20 degree) but the night can be a bit ‘freezing’ for us, although the night temperature was something like 10 degree Centigrade.

After arriving at Chiang Rai from a connecting flight at Bangkok the first night we spent at small mountain village called Wawee. This village is also known as Liu Xia Chun. It was a village founded by a former Guo Ming Dang soldier. It started with a few families hurdled together and now grown into a small town.

There the story began to unfold..... see Part 1