CHAPTER III 
Past Shan-Burmese Relations · 
Of all the race·s in Burma, the Shans, the Mons, the Burmese 
(Arakanese included here ) are the most closely associated from the 
earliest historical times"o Chronicles of Burma mention the Shans quite 
earlyo Both the Shan and Burmese chronicles claim the founding of 
Tagaung. From the reign of Anawrahta (1044-1077 A ...D. ) onwards there 
is no doubt about the close association between the two peoples .  
Anawrahta is said to have received homage from several Shan sawbwas. 
On his return from his holy tooth mission in Tali (Nanchao), Anawrahta 
was presented with a princess by the Mau king. This incident is often 
taken to mean that the kingdom of Mangmao was tributary to Pagan•. 
This is doubtful. Giving away one's daughter in the old days did not 
always mean homage; it often meant" . intimate alliance. . Was Queen 
Victoria tributary to Russia or Gemany when she gave her daughters 
to their emperors1 
Of the Shan homage, it is most ·likely that Anawrahta received 
it only from the princelinga of statelets along the eastern foothills. 
Even then the homage was only nominal and the Pagan King had to 
establish the well known forty three outposts along his eastern 
frontier adjoining tho·se hills. 
We read of Alaungsithu"1 s extensive travels in his domains, and 
he was credited with visits to some of the nearer Shan States. 
Yawnghwe and Tawngpeng still have legends to prove that this king 
visited them. The site where his barge stopped is always pointed out 
to one on a visit to the placid Inle - it is a whole valley shaped
like a boat. In Tawngpeng, legends connected the king's name with the 
seed of the first tea trees from which all the present tea bushes are 
supposed to have sprung. 
The Shans were credited with having been instrumental in the 
Mongol invasion of Pagan, and when Narathihapate I s reign came to an 
end, it was not the Chinese who completed the ruin of that kingdom.
The Chinese were all for the continuation of law and order, so long as 
Pagan acknowledged their overlordship"o They gave Kyawswa an appoint­
ment order, but did not reckon with the three Shan Brothers, Asankhya, 
Rajasankrarn and Sihasura (Athinkhaya, Yazathinkyan and Thihathura). 
The two younger brothers absented themselves from the ceremony at 
which the great Khan's edict concerning his recognitio&�Kyawswa was 
read out"o The· .. three later put Kyawswa to death"o These Brothers by 
47 
48 
secret intrigues and "cat-and-mouse tactics"  succeeded in convincing the 
Chinese that they had nothing to do with the death of Kyawswa o When 
the Emperor learned the truth about Kyawswa' s  death from the lips of 
his youngest son, Ktnnarakassappa, he ordered a small army to restore 
this son to the throneg. The Chinese reached Myinzaing on the 25th 
January, 1301. The three Brothers put up a stiff resistanceg. This, to­
gether with their secret negotiations and bribes, plus the hot weather, 
caused the Chinese to retreatgo Thereafter the Brothers made haste to 
stave off further invasion by sending submissive envoys and presents to 
Peking o The Chinese found it convenient, eventually, to accept tribute 
and recognise Sihasu, the surviving youngest brother, as "the King of 
Mien. n  
The Mongols alleged that the Shans at Kyaukse were in league 
with those in Northern Siam against the Emperor's authoritygo If this 
be true , as seems more than likely, then the swearing of friendship 
between Mangrai of Chiengsen and Ngammuang of Phayao and Phra Ruang of 
Sukhothai in 1287 , must have been an alliance pact, as suggested by 
Professor Luce,  �gainst the Chinese who at this period were bent on 
aggression in Southeast Asia generally. Ramakharnheng ' s  j ourney to 
Peking 1292 1 was to buy time and Mangrai was the leader in the resist­
ance to the Chinese in North Siam, says Professor Luceg. The Chinese 
campaigns against Chiengmai, which began in 1292-93, ended in the 
latter raiding Kenghung in 1297". Kenghung was under Chinese protec­
tion theno In their subsequent attempts at again invading Chiengmai 
in the early part of the fourteenth century the Chinese were as un­
successful as they were with the Shans in Central Burma at the same 
time , but eventually recorded in their annals that "the southern 
barbarians of Yunnan crune to submit" in February 1347 . 2 
Were these ntributes" received at Peking actually sent as 
homage from a vassal to an overlord, or as gifts from a friendly but 
smaller monarch to a more powerful one and recorded by Peking officials 
as homage from a feud? After the unsuccessful Chinese invasions of 
1765�69"., the Burmese reopened relations with China and sent �resents 
to Peking, but these  were represent,ed by the courtiers to the Flnperor 
as homage from a people who had just routed his armiesg. 
One of the chief reasons for the successes of the three Shan 
Brothers was 'their control of the rice areas of Kyaukse, which was 
regarded as the granary of Upper B·unna. To reinforce their authority 
after having got rid of the last of Pagan kings, they intermarried 
with the remaining members of the �oyal family, and their descendants 
held Upper Burma for the next two and a half centuries .  This period 
in the history of Burma is often known as the Shan Dominion or Sl1an 
"t)�  er1.• o ct· o
The youngest of the Shan Brothers, Sihasu, survived the other 
twogo When he became king it  became necessary to move the capital from 
l o  Wood, W. A. R o ,  op . cit . ,  P o  55 has the date as 1294. 
2 o  Luce,  G .  H. ,  op . cit . ,  pp . 130, 149, 150, 164, 172 .  
49 
Myinsaing to a more centrally-situated place. Pagan was no longer
suitable now. Ava, at the confluence of the Myitnge and the Irrawaddy, 
was proposed in 1)12, but"· the astrologers were against it. So Sihasu 
moved to Pinya� a little"- south of Ava. Thadominbya, noted as the king 
who ate a meal on the chest of the corpse of a brigand he had just 
killed, is remembered for founding Ava in 1365 which was to remain 
the capital of Burma generally for the next five centuries; hence the 
term ttthe Court of Avatt or ttthe Kingdom of Ava",·  even a.rt·er the capital 
had moved to Amarapura and Mandal83" in the nineteenth century. 
The Shana at Kyaukse were as good Bud"dhists as the Burmese,
and they regarded the northern Shansl as ditthi (heretics) o The 
former left behind dozens of inscription, written not in Shan but in 
Burmese, while the latter left nothing. 2 This would lead one to con­
clude that the present Shan script, which is regarded by some as the 
Lord Buddha 's  own writing, had not yet been invented during the Shan 
Period in Burma. 
The most unproductive period of Ava was between 1385 and 1422,
when there was more or less annual warfare between Av�, headed by
Mingyiswasauke (1368-1401) and later his son Minkhaung (1401-1422), 
and Pegu headed by Rajadarit (1385-1423) a descendent of Wareru, the 
Shan founder of l'egu o Year after year Shan and Burmese levies would 
swarm southward sacking and burning any town or village that opposed 
them". The Mon records often referred to the invaders simply as "the 
Shana" .  Raj adarit  had to ward off some of the invasions by instigat­
ing other Shan States to fight Ava, which, in turn, invoked the help of 
.Arakan and caused the Siamese states of Chiengmai, Kampengpet and 
Ayudhya to keep Rajadarit occupied . At one point the Mong king was so 
successful that he came up the Irrawaddy, as far as Sagaing. Some­
times, Ava was able to control Prome and some of the Delta areas. But 
while princes of both sides gloried in the virtues of war, the 
peasants often had to starve because there was no one to cultivate 
the paddy fields. Prome and Toungoo paid tribute now to the one, now 
to the other, but later they grew into sizeable independent states 
and acted as a buffer between Ava and Pegu. 
Towards the middle of the fifteenth century, the Mao Kingdom 
made war with the Chinese and its king, Songanpha, to·ok asylum with 
his royal cousin at Ava in 1444 . The Chinese fallowed up and demanded 
the surrender of the Mao prince". Ava refused at first to give up its 
political prisoner, but capitulated when the Chir1ese brought up re­
inforcement from Yunnan". On learning about his fate, Songanpha killed 
himself and the Chinese could take away only his dead body, dried in 
the sun, it is said". 
The kings of Ava were often ousted by the neighbouring Shan 
sawbwa:s. In 1527 -ht e Sawbwa or_  Mohnyin occupied· Ava and placed on the 
throne his son Thohanbwa or Sohompha. The only notable event in this 
1. Anything north of Kyaukse or the Koshanpyi in China? 
2 .  Luce, G. H ., op . cit . ,  p .  151. 
50 
prince"7 s reign was his massacring of some 360 Buddhist monks because he 
said they led an idle life and could rebel if they wanted to". He then 
made bonfires".of all the manuscripts he could collect from monasteries. 
This was considered a most barbarous act of vandalism equalled only by
that of Alaungpaya when he sacked Pegu in 17578. Such burning of cities 
has been responsible for the paucity of reliable historical material; 
it was the practice that no victory was complete unless the conquered 
city had been fired"o No conquering race seems to have escaped this 
weakness"1 even in the recent war waged by highly industrialised peoples
who considered themselves more civilised. 
One bright aspect of this period of inces"sant fighting was the 
rise of Burmese literature"Q This leads one to ask: Was this rise a 
subtle expression of Burmese nationalism under Shan domination? How 
Shan was the Shan period? There seems to be little doubt about the 
answer to the first question. Concerning the second, evidence seems to 
show that the ruling circles and the fighting men were Shan. At Ava 
itself sentiments were clearly more Bunnese than Shan, but elsewhere 
the states seemed more Shan in character. Inscriptions of this period 
were all written in beautiful Burmese, the Shan script having not yet
beeh devised o While the indigenous population was mainly Burmese, it 
would be natural for the ruling princes to depend on their own Shans 
for fighting. The number of the fighting men must have been reduced 
by the endless warfare, and although unending migrating waves of the 
Shans must have made up for the human losses, a time must come when no 
replenishment was possible. It seems that this point was reached by 
the end of the fifteenth century, but the senseless slaughter continued 
for nearly two generations and at the end of it the virility and energy 
of the Shans were at their lowest. Warfare, jealousies and lack of 
organisational ability rendered the various sawbwas incapable of con­
solidating into one powerful kingdom which might have changed the 
course of Burma ' s  history. Thus we read of the sawbwas· of Kale, Monyin, 
Mogaung, Yawnghwe, Momeik, Bhamo, Mongnai, Hsipaw and Mongpai continu­
ing to play at war with each other, a pastime so dear to their heart, 
even when a new Burmese power was looming large on the southern 
horizon - viz. Tabinshwehti (1531-50) . 
Ava, as capital of an independent kingdom, fell to Bayinnaung
in 1555 without much fighting. Sawbwas who called each other royal 
brothers and uncles or nephews failed t.o answer Ava ' s  call for help, and it was too late when they realised"what was happening o 
Here is one version of how Ava fell: 
"The Shan records agree with the Burman that their loss 
of Ava was due to mutual jealousies and lack of co-operation. 
Hso-hom-pha (Tho-han-bwa) incurred the hatred of the Burmans 
by his cruelties c He may not, however, have been so impious
as the Burmans make him out to have been. There may have 
been occasion for his hc stility in deali3g with the Buddhist 
,onks, if Burman monks t )Ok part in .�nsu �rections and their 
· 1onasteries were the fav )uri te haunts of conspirators, as was 
sometimes the case at the time of Bri tis_·, occupation o This 
51 
could not justify his expulsion and massacre of so many of 
that religious fraternity, but it does suggest what may 
have been the occasion of his enmity"o The Shans seem to 
have supported Hso-hom-hpa' s  immediate successor, but when 
his son, a prince from the comparatively unimportant state 
of Mongpai, with the title of Mongpai-Narabadi (Mobyemin) , 
ascended the throne of Ava, the northern Shans refused 
tribute or to help him in arry way. The end might have been 
foreseen. Surrounded by Burmans already aggrieved and burst­
ing with race-pride, _and who had never taken kindly to the 
rule of the Shan invaders, he soon found his position un­
tenable"o He fled to Bayin Naung who, according to Shan 
accounts, promised to re-establish him upon his throne. 
Bayin Naung marched northward, conquered Ava (1555) , and 
sat on the throne himself for a short time. Putting his 
brother on the throne of Ava, he returned to his capital 
in Pegu befo!e the rainy season"oll 
Within three years from 1556 to 1559 , the Shan states of 
Hsipaw, Mongmi. t,  Monz in, Mogaung, Mongpai, Samka, Yawnghwe, 
Lawksawk, Nawngwawn, Mongkung, Mongnai and Chiengmai became tribu-
tary to Pegu. In 1562 Bayinnaung set out with a huge army, consist­
ing of divisions from all the vassal states, to conquer the Koshanpyi -
the Chinese Shan States of Mongmau, Hsikwan, Mongna, Sanda, Hosa,
Lasa, Mongwan, Kungma and Monglem. T he first four were the first to 
be reduced, followed by submission of the remaining". In November 
1562, Kengtung sent tributary presents and a daughter, and the 
Peguan king reciprocated with white umbrellas, a crown and the five 
articles of royal regalia. Hsenwi submitted later. 
In al.l his conquests, Bayi.nnaung's tactics had been the 
same. Th&re had been no serious fighting and no town or city
seemed to have bee·n fired o 'the king of kings would appear before 
a waJJed city with a mighty host commanded by various vassal princes, 
including his son, the crown prince, and his brothers, and the 
besieged would submit without offering any resistenceo Then the 
relatives of the ruling prince who had submitted would be sent down 
to Pegu and housed in quarters appropriate to their ranks. Some of 
the ladies would be taken into the royal haremo The oath of"- allegiance
was administered to every prince who became a vassal"o A large number 
of people were al.so deported, partly to populate the Lower Burma and 
partly to serve the royal hostages of the vassal states"o 
Bayinnaung claimed to have refomed Buddhism in many of the 
Shan States o It is also said that he put an end to the funeral 
sacr,ifice in which the favourite elephant, horse and slaves of the 
dead sawbwa"·"were s.laughtered and buried with him."2 
1. Cochrane, W." W.", The Shana, ppo 76-77 . 
2 . Hmannan, PPto Jl6-J6Jto 
52 
Concerning the number of animals and human beings sacrificed 
at the dead ruler"' s  grave, Mr .  Harvey says that at the funeral of a 
big sawbwa, as many as 10 elephants, 100 horses, 100 men and 100 
women might be sacrificed."l It is doubtful whether a Shan state,
however large, could have afforded so many precious animals, even 
if 200 slaves could have been expended. 
The Shan levies, not available to Tabinshwehti, swelled 
Bayinnaung's army and enabled him to conquer Siam with comparative 
ease. In both his campaigns against Ayudhya in 1563-64 and 1568-69, 
each division of the king"1 s army had some Shan contingents"o We learn 
from the (Burmese) Hmanan Yazawi.n that during the 1563-64 invasion,  
the army under the Prince of Ava had Shan contingents commanded by
the Sawbwas of Mongmit and Hsipaw; the Prince of Toungoo had his Shan 
levies commanded by the Sawbwas of Mohnyin and Mogaung; the Prince of 
Prome's army had the Mongnai and Onbaung Sawbwas and their men; the 
Crown Prince ' s  army was served with Shan contingents commanded by the 
Sawbwas of Yawnghwe and Hsenwi. Similarly in the second invasion of 
Siam, Shan contingents served in Bayinnaung"' s armies under the Sawbwas 
of Mogaung, Mongmi t, Moeyi.n, Bhamo, Ohnbaung, Yawnghwe, Mongnai and 
Kengtung, together with the Lao levies from Lannathai (Chiengmai) ."2 
The Shan chronicles also speak of their States' participation in the 
Burmese invasions of .Ayudhya. 
The Hrnannan and other Chronicles are full of instances of 
co-operation between the Shans and the Burmese both in peace and in 
war. Of course the Shans were very much the junior partner, but 
everybody was junior except the king and the point is that the Shana 
were loyal to their suzerains in Pegu and Ava, and whenever a re­
calcitrant Sawbwa gave trouble, other Sawbwas would answer the royal 
summon and put dowr.. the wicked member. No less than during the 
Burmese invasions of Ayudhya in the sixteenth century, the great 
invasion of 1764-67 was also greatly helped by the Shan armies". 
Thus we learned that an army of 20, 000 started from Kengtung to in­
vade Siam in 1764. The Chinese invasions of Burma in 1765-69 could 
not have been s uccessfully driven back, without the Shan participa­
tion on the defender"' s  side."3 
During the first Anglo-Burmese war of 1824-26, in the battle 
before· Prome (November 1825), we have the following contemporary 
account of some of the Shan participation: 
Eight thousand men of his corps d'armee were Shans, who 
had not yet come in contact with our troops, and were ex­
pected to fight with more spirit and resolution than tho"se 
l ,. Harvey, G. E.,  History of Buma, PP o 166, 343. 
For those preferring to read t he English translation , see Relation­
ship with Burm�, Pt.  I ,  being 3elec"ted articles from the JSS,
Vol � v_') pp o 2&,. 55-56 . 
.., .,
') 
_, 0 Harvey , G .  E. , History of Burn�a ,  p .  2 '.) ) .
53 
who had a more intimate acquaintance with"."their enemy"o In 
addition"· to a numerous list of Chobwas and petty princes, 
these levies were accompanied by three young and handsome 
women of high rank"jl who were believed, by their supersti­
tious 'countrymen, to be endowed not only with the gift of 
prophecy and foreknowledge, but to possess the miraculous 
power of turning aside the balls of the English� rendering
them wholly innocent and harmless . These Amazons, dressed 
in warlike •Costume, rode con"stantly among the troops, in­
spiring them with courage and ardent wishes for an early
meeting with their foe, as yet only known to them by the 
deceitful accounts of their Burmese masters. 
In the ensuing battle between human courage and moderr1 arma­
ment, the Burmese and the Shans died side by side for their· sovereign
at Ava, some 400 miles away"" 
The gray-headed Chobwas of the Shans, in particular,
showed a noble example to their men, sword in hand, singly
maintaining the unequal contest, nor could sign.s or gestures 
of good treatment induce them to forbearance - attacking
all who offered to approach them with humane or friendly"· 
feelings, they only sought the death which too many of them 
found. Maha Nemiow himself fell while bravely urging his 
men to stand their gromd, and his faithful attendants 
being likewise killed by the promiscuous fire while in the 
act of carrying hl.m off, his body, with his sword, Wonghee ' s 
chain, an.d other insignia of office, were found among the 
dead. One of the fair Amazons also received a fatal bullet 
in the breast, but the moment she was seenj and her sex was 
recognized, the soldiers bore her from the scene of death to 
a cottage in the rear, where she soon expired"olo o �  
While this was passing in the interior of the stockades,
Sir Archibald Campbell"8 s column, pushing rapidly forward to 
their rear"j met the defeated and panic-struck fugitives in 
the act 0£ emerging from the jur45le, and crossing the Nawine 
river: the horse-artillery was instantly unlimbered, and 
opened a h�avy fire upon the crowded ford. Another of the 
Shan ladies was here observed flying on horseback with the 
defeated remnant of her people; but before she could gain 
the opposite bank of the river, where a friendly forest 
promised safety and protection, a shrapnel exploded above 
her head, and she fell from her horse into the �ater; but 
whether kille,d; or on.ly frightened .1 could not be ascertained, 
as she was immediately borne off by her attendants."l 
The Shans did not encounter the British before t his battle at 
the Prome. The three Shan ladies were f·rom Laikha and the two kil led 
l o  Snodgrass, Major 1 Narrative of the Burmese War, pp" 231=235. 
54 
were the wives of the Sawbwa. 1 From enquiries made, the present-day 
Laikha seems ignorant of these : ·ema.J kable deeds >f its courageous 
daughters. 
No Mons or Shans seem to have participatAd in the Second Anglo­
Burmese War of 18529. By the time the third war of 1885 crune, misrule 
by King Thibaw had•"caused the .whole of the Shan States to revolt openly. 
Active Shan participation of affairs in Mandalay seems to have ceased 
with the death of King Minden, upon which nearly a hundred royal 
children were put to death in the customary succession blood bath. 
The Shans then fell to fighting among themselves. True, the royal 
annals contin.ued to mention events in the Shan States or to record 
tributes received, but the relationship between the court and the Shan 
Saw·bwas was neither as close or cordial as before. 
Before this rift, the Shan sawbwas had a definite place in the 
order of things at the palace. Most sawbwas and some of the more 
important myosas have their titles suffixed with the word raja or 
yaza, while the king suffixed his with rajadhiraja (king of kings). 
Very often the Shan sawbwas were referred to as newin bayin (sun-set 
king) while the king was nedwet bayin (sun-rise king), for obvi.ous 
reasons. 2 Sawbwas would be summoned to attend the coronation of a new 
king and the annual kadaw pwe at the capital. 
The King wore a salwe of 24 strands; the Crown Prince, 21 
strands; Princes of the blood and Shan sawbwagyis, 18 strands ; other 
members of the royal family and Shan myozas, 15 strands; ministers, 
12 strands. When the Kinwun Mingyi visited England in 1872, he took 
with him as Burmese Orders from Mindon a salwe of 21 strands for the 
Prince of Wales and one of 12 strands for Mr. Gladstone the then Prime 
Minister. 3 
At home in their own states, the sawbwas and myosas had their 
royal paraphernalia prescribed for them by the court of Ava as to how 
m�,y tiers or roofs their haws should have, how many white or gold
umbrellas, what types of dress· or crowns or hats, how many articles of 
royal regalia, etc"o Royal words and phrases used at the court were 
addressed to them by their subjects and other Shans and non-official 
Burmans. In his own State, a sawbwa had the power of life and death 
()·;re� his subjects and in this Ava seldom interfered . A sawbwa might 
refer or cause to be referred to himself the Pali title of raj� or 
mahru-aja or any other high sounding terms, but the supreme Burmese 
title Bawashin mintaragyi (Lord of life, the great and just king) was 
always reserved for the king at Ava_, as was the term cherang daw or 
cheyin daw ( literally, royal feet; figuratively, the royal presence) .  
In Burmese language the sawbwas refer to their sons and daughters and 
1 �  See extracts from Dr . Richardson's Journal of the 22nd Feb o ; also 
Yule 1 H.", Mi.3sion to the Court of Ava, p .  JOO. 
2 "  See titles of King T hibaw and those of various Shan Chiefs in 
Appendix III. 
J .  GUBSS, I . 2 . 134 . 
55 
relatives in royal terms, such as thadaw, thamidaw, nyidaw, naungdaw, 
amadaw, nyimadaw, swedaw-myodaw (meaning respectively, royal-son, 
-daughter, -elder-brother� -younger-brother"p -elder-sister, -younger­
sister, -relatives)". In Shan the words are prefixed w.i.th sao, e .g .  
saolook ( son or daughter) j saolan·· (nephew, niece or grandson and 
granddaughter) , �jopi ( elder brother or sister), saonawng (younger brother or sister" ·. For relatives the Western Shans use the Burmese 
swedaw-myodaw. The Khun Shans use direct Pali words, rajaputta, -putti, 
rajanatta, -natti, khattiya ra�awongsa, etc. Several royal words in Western Shan have been borrowe from the Burmese, while Kengtung from 
the Siamese". 
It has been stated earlier that al.though the Burmese kings
claimed suzerainty over the Shan States definitely from the time of 
Bayinnaung, Burmese control, and then only of cis-Salween States,
became affective only during the second half of the eighteenth 
century - from the time of ilaungpaj"a or Hsinbyushin". How it was 
brought about and tne exact dates could form a good research project
for diligent Shan scholars; but we have a pretty good idea of what 
the set-up was like during the early part of the nineteenth century .  
' 
However that may be, it is quite indisputable that the 
Kings of Burma received tribute and controlled successions 
in the Southern Shan States long before they had any perma­
nent control in Hsen Wi, where their first exercise of 
authority was no earlier than A.D. 1604 or 1605l1 when the 
Mao Shan Kingdom came to an end . From that time the Tai 
were never free from Burman interference, however little 
the suzerainty may have been acknowledged in the remoter 
St•a tes to be of practical effect. In the Southern States it 
very soon became an active and oppressive reality, dwindling 
graduaJ.ly to the eastward and to the north-east, but for 
many years constantly creeping on, notwithstanding the 
enterprise of the Chinese from the othe� sideo In these 
three centuries at any rate, the power and prosperity of the 
Tai principalities steadily declined. They were worn down 
not only by the aggression and rapacity of the Burmese and 
Chinese, arid"-by the intestine wars, in which there is abundant 
proof that they always indulged, but by the advances of the 
Kachins"o Whether these hillmen·were crushed out by the 
Chinese, or whether over-population forced them to migrate, 
it is certain that for the last two centuries they also have 
passed south-eastwards and have driven the Tai from much 
territory between China Proper and Burma, until Shan names 
of mounta;Lns, streams� and villages are the only remaining 
witnesses of fonner occupation. T he once powerful States 
west of the Irrawaddy now only possess a meagre and much 
Burmanized population, while the border principalities 
to the east from Hsmn Hsai to Yawng Hwe, and in a lesser 
degree even to Mong Nai, have suffered almost as much from 
the deliberate policy of the Burmese Kings and have only 
survived because they had the mass of their fellow-
countrymen behind them". 
56 
No conne�ted history of these two , or two and a half 
centuries can be written because there was no cohesion or con­
nection. What details have survived must be picked out under 
the heads of the various States .  The Burmese policy was not 
by any means directed to maintain peace and quietnessgo The 
sons or brothers of the ruling Sawbwas were always kept at the 
Avan Court, not only as hostages for the good behaviour of the 
Chief of the State , but that they might be reared under Burman 
influence and withdrawn from sympathy with those of their own 
race , so that when they in time came to rule, their loyalty 
to the suzerain might be ensured; moreover, the policy was to 
foster feuds between the different Sawbwas , and rival aspirants 
were left to settle their claims to the succession in a State 
by force of armsg. The victorious claimant might be confirmed 
as Sawbwa by Royal patent, but he would not be , unless he was 
able to pay for it, and when the civil war was over, his forces 
were too exhausted to permit him to resist Burman demandsg. 
If a Chief seemed so prosperous that he might become impatient 
of Burman control, conspiracies were fostered against himg. 
Such troubles were easily managed among a hot-tempered people, 
such as most hillmen are. There was probably never a time 
when the gates of the temple of Janus were closed, when there 
was peace in all the Shan States .  Consequently there were 
permanent bands of marauders or dacoits, collected from all 
partsg, who were always ready to take the opportunity for in­
discriminate plunder which the disturbed condition of some 
State might offer. In this way it was not uncommon for a 
prosperous and populous district to be utterly deserted for a 
time owing to these internal troubles ,  and the State of Hsen 
Wi, which till the middle of the century was the most powerful 
of the States, is the most notable examplego Besides all this, 
or rather in consequence of all this,  there were frequent, 
more or less extensive , rebellions against the royal authority o 
Some of thegse were soon put downg. Some ., like that in  Hsen lJl/i, 
dragged on for years o  The extraordinary thing was , and it was 
pointed tc as the j ustification of the Burman po1..icy, that 
other States always willingly supplied armed contingents to 
suppress the rebel for the time beinggo Such risings were 
always put down in the same way o Towns and villages were 
ruthlessly burnt and everything portable was carried offg, It 
is little wonder, therefore that the greatest of the modern 
Shan capitals would hardly form a bazaar suburb to one of the 
old walled ci.ties o 1 
These conclusions of Sir George Scott must be taker. with a 
sense of perspective o Neither the Shans nor the Burmans readir1g this 
need get alarmedgo They are quoted not to degrade the Shans or to rouse 
feelings against the Burmansg. Nor can we dismiss them as a fabrication 
1 .  GUBSS, I o l . g280-282gc 
57 
of a die-hard foreign imperialist � It is good to."see ourselves in 
other people's eyes. The Shans in North Burma spread out too 
thinly in an". area too large for them to control effectively. Inter­
state warfare, disease and disuni. ty have combined to reduce them to 
the present straits. A Shan normally does not concern himself with 
others"1 danger and when the danger reaches his own home he finds his 
neighbour looking on unconcerned and he is forced to move to the next 
village . 
For a king to bring up his t ributary chiefs I children was 
considered magnanimous ; it was a good insurance against rebellion 
and lawlessness; a Shan sawbwa would ha··;re done the same thing in 
the king 1 s place - in fact some sawbwas are s till bringing up
children .of their favourites". If the king favoured a claimant who 
had his ear first, he was just playing favouritism which was the 
fashion all over the worldo The Shans treated each other in the 
same way in cases of risings by subordinate chiefs. The various 
Burmese princes and chiefs of provinces and states in Burma Proper 
also behaved in much the same way, for it was considered better by 
far to be sovereigns with their own States, no matter, how small, 
than to submit to their neighbours, and at the same time acknowledge 
only Ava as centre of the universe. Burmese kings put down risings 
in Bunna Proper just, as ruthlesslye So did kings of Siam within 
their own domains. The Siamese complain�d of Burmese barbarity when 
.Ayudhya was sacked in" _1767 o The Laos complained of the same thing
against the Siamese when the latter sacked Vientiane in 1827 o The 
Laos of tuangphrabang and those of Wiengchan behaved towards one -
another as  the Siamese did towards both .  These things were taken 
for granted"o The �urmese or Shan chronicles describe without 
jeering or bitterness the ups and downs of the two peoples. 
Frotn the ·tore�oing one is tempted to assume_" that the general conditions in the Shan States, or in Burma Proper for that 
matter, from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries must have 
remained unchanged, and that description of the Shan States as 
given by eye-witnesses Captain McLeod and Doctor Richardson in 
1837 must be fairly close to what they were in the seventeenth 
century, as well as -to what the British saw on their annexation"o 
. .
At thi� time, 18378j the Burmese centre of administration 
in the Shan States was at Mongnai e The head of the Burmese setup,
supported by three to four hundred soldiers or levies from Burma, was 
the bohmu mintha, who resided mostly"- in Mandalay but who would come 
up to see his charge occasionally. The bohmu mintha·1 s deputy was 
the sitkedawgyi or, as normally called, sitkeo Other sitkes were 
stationed in the more :important States and had to report to the 
most senior sitke residing permanently at Mongnai o From here -the 
Burmese controlled ·  al1 the Shan States from their boundary wi.th 
Burma in the west to the trans-Salween States of Kengtung, 
Kenghung and Monglem in the eastj from Mongmit and Hsenwi in the 
north to Mongpai and Mawlonai in the so uth j i.e. up to the Karenni 
border. Whether Chiengmai and Chiengsen were controlled from 
Mongnai when they were within -the Burmese dominion is open to 
, 
58 
doubt, but it is known that Chiengsen had been a Burmese stronghold 
until the Siamese finally expelled the Burmese from there in 1802. 
It is not known when the Burmese headquarters were first 
established in Mongnai, but a". complete list of bohmus and sitkes of 
Mongnai from 1802 to 1882 will be found in the Appendix."l 
The effectiveness of the Burmese administration depended on 
how far a-way·  a stata was from Mongnai and from Ava. In the trans­
Salween States the control was nominal, although the sitkes were 
there, while in the cis-Salween States it was quite firm. How the 
Burmese ga..-rison and the resident and his followers supported them­
selves in Mongnai will be found under Chapter IV. 2 During· the time 
of Mindon, the chief activity of the Burmese political agents was to 
collect the Thathameda tax for the treasury at Mandalay. Earlier, it. 
may be assumed, the sitkes saw to it generally that orders from the 
Central Government were carried out and the annual tributes paid in 
reg-..ilarly. Apart from these and the demands made by the sitke and 
his en·tourage"., including the garrison, the sawbwas were given an 
entirely free hand to deal with their own subjects"o Oppressive
measures by a sawbwa on his own people were rare because they often 
had the effe�t of causing the people to migrate to neighbouring States, 
and this the sawbwa dreaded. 
Succession of sawbwaship was usually hereditary, but appoint­
ment, orders c ame .from Ava which were normally in accord w·i th the 
wishes of the people and of the previous ruler, unless some of his 
relat,ives managed to collect a sizeable following and make himself 
heard at the court". On'"receiving the orders the sawbwa would have a 
�oronation ceremcny � A mahadevi was also appointed by Ava and she 
took her place at the side of her husband at the coronation ceremony,
or a separate ceremony would take place proclaiming her the mahadevi. 
There seems to have been no authentic system of precedence in 
the Burmese times beyond the principle that the sawbwas of bigger states 
were respected more than those of the smaller one�, sawbwas taki.ng
precedence over m.yosas and the latter over ngwegunhmus. Some of the 
ngwegunhm�s were r!ot as well off as the Burmese thugyis o The ru· lers 
of the undivided Hsenwi used to take precedence over other sawbwas, 
followed by Mongnai, in the seating priority before the audience at 
Ava o Kenghung and Kengtung seem to have taken the lead after Hsenwi 
had been plunged into chaotic embroilment by various claimants. Age
and favouritism some"times counted in the seniority of sawbwas"1 places.
At the time when the Mongnai Queen was one of King Mindon's favourite 
wives, the Sawbwa of Mongnai not only sat above all other sawbwas, but 
also had his terr.i-tory much enlarged. 
l . o Appendix IVo 
2. Pp. 
59 
Durbars were held at Mong Nai only very irregularly and 
most often when the ruler of some State had died, though it 
does not appear that this was enforced by qI1y customary
law, or that the opinion of the assembled Chiefs as to the 
succession was asked, or had any weight if given"o The 
assemblages were held in the Lum, the building referred to by 
Dr. Richardsono In this there was a long raised platform 
running east and west in the centre of the audience hall. 
At the western extremity of this the Bo-hmu Min sat on a dais 
facing the east. In front of him sat the Wundauk, who appears 
to have accompanied the Bo-hmu when he paid his visits from 
the capital. Behind the Wundauk sat the Sikke-gyi, then the 
Nakha.ns and other subordinate officials, and at the eastern 
end were ranged the body-guard a To the left of the Bo-hmu 
Min, beiow the platform, was a square enclosure fenced with 
red cords. In this the Sawbwas arranged themselves at their 
pleasure, or acco. rding to mutual agreement , the Mong Nai 
Sawbwa occupying the post of honour, that nearest to the 
Bo-hmu.' The Sawbwas were nearly in a line with the Wundauk, 
that is to say, a little to the left front of the Bo-hmu. 
Beyond them and facing the Nakhans were the Myozas, also in a 
red-fenced enclosure, like that of the Sawbwas"o Behind these 
enclosures were others, in which were gathered the .Amats, and 
ttozaye� - the officials of the Sawbwas behind the Sawbwas and 
t ose of the Myozas behind their masters. The Ngwekunhmus, if 
any were present, took rank with the Amatgyis of a Sawbwa"o 
At the Palace in Mandalay the Shan chiefs sat straight in 
front of the throne behind the Princes of the blood and the 
Ministers of State, who took station left and right of the 
throne, otherwise the arrangement seems to have corresponded 
with that in the Mong Nai assemblages. It is stated that the· 
Sawbwa ot Mong Nai in· King Mindon"• s  time (father of Hkun Kyi, 
the first s·awbwa under British rule) in right of being one of 
His Majesty's  fathers-in-law, sat occasionally with the 
Princes of the blood, but only by special orders and not as of 
right. l 
Conditions of the Shan States and the Burmese influence therein 
in 1837 were vividly described by McLeod and :Richardson, whose writings
will now be quoted at considerable length, and readers not interested 
in these details may turn to the next chapter straight away. 
Captain W. C. McLeod and Dr o D .  Richardson wer·e sent in 
December 1836 by Mr. E. A. Blundell, the Commissioner of the British 
Tenasserim, to open 11the gold and silver road of trade" between 
Moulmein and the Shan States through Chiengmai o Richardson had made 
three trips previously to Chiengmai· and Ka.renni"o On this occasion 
McLeod and Richardson set out together on the 13th December, 1836 
from Moul.main. They parted company near Mainglongyi on the 26th 
December. McLeod reached Chiengmai on the 12th January, 1837 but was 
1. GUESS, I . 1.289-90. 
60 
considerably delayed there because the authorities were most reluctant 
to let him proceed to Kengtung, as relations between the two States were 
at their worst, cuL�inating in the Siamese invasions of Kengtung in 
1852-54 . McLeod. persevered and managed to leave Chiengmai on the 29th 
January and arrived at Kengtung on the 20th February"o The following 
extracts are from his journal: 
20th February o o • •• • o o • •  As I was anxious to be introduced 
to the Tsobua with as little delay as possible, I requested 
that some officer might be sent to settle this point. In the 
evening the Minister, Puniah (or Paya as it was pronounced) 
Wang, called on me, attended by a train of officers and other 
followers, and brought several trays of fruit, &c. ,  as presents . 
He is the factotum here"o His wife was a sister of the Tsobua ' s  
late wife, and his daughter is married to the Tsobua 's  eldest 
son; so he may be supposed to have cons"iderable i.nfluence"o He 
tried to impress on me the honour done me by his visit; that 
he had come at the Tsobua"• s  express order, who had long been 
most anxious to establish a friendly connection with the 
English, and had endeavoured to open a communication with 
them, that he had never before called on any other officer, 
however high his rank"o He was very angry and sore about the 
reply from Zim.me to their propositions about the road, which 
was not even couched in civil terms, as well as the detention 
of the officer there. This person had been set on to Ava 
with the presents (four elephants), all given by the Tsobua ' s 
own relations at that place, none by the Government. 
The Tsobua"' s eldest son, Chou Maha Phom, has b· een appointed 
from Ava Aing She Meng (Lord of the Eastern House) or Crown 
Prince, a title or appointment which confers on him certain 
privileges and power only little short of those enjoyed by the 
Tsobua himself. 
The Tsobua has three sons, the eldest abcnt 25 years of 
age, the second, Chow P�tta Wun, about 18 years of age,_ and a 
younger one ., at present in a monastery, of :!.2 o He has two or
three daugh�ers, one of whom is married to his nephew, and 
cne engaged to the late Kiang Hung Tsobua"' s  son"o Unlike most 
chiefs the Tsobua is content with one wife ; all his children 
are by this one o • • ·  
22nd February . o o .  o • n • o ..  Agreeably to the arrar1gement
made yesterday, I was int�oduced to Tsobua to-day"o At about 
12 o ' "clock some officers came to escort me"o On arriving at the 
gate of the palace inclosure, the officer with me asked me 
whether I would dismount, as no person ever entered it on 
horseback; knowing their customs, I immediately complied with 
his request"o 
On entering the gate I could not help observing the total 
3bsence of care and nea·�_ ness in the �omt= ,· tmd. It was overgrom 
61 
with grassj and the out-houses in a dilapidated state � and 
the whole surrounded by a brick and mud wall of 8 feet high.
The .Palace itself1 a shabby-looking pile of wood, raised 
about 15 feet from the ground, on high pillars. After 
ascending the steps, and on reaching the door of the hall, 
the Tsobua"9 s two sons came forward and led me to a seat in 
front of the Tsobua, where carpets had been spread for me and 
rrry followers"o The interior of the building was very richly
gilt , forming a strong contrast with its exterior"o The 
throne stood at one end within a railing� very elegantly 
curved and gilt, with two white umbrellas on each side of 
it, and folding doors leading to it from the back"1 as in the 
p alace at Ava"o 
The Tsobua, however, was seated on a handsome low gilt
couch in front of the throne, surrounded by a number of men 
holding swords in gold scabbards at a respectful distance"o 
His two eldest sons and nephew were seated on the ground on 
his right, and the officers ranged in lines on each side in 
front o 
I was much struck with the grandeur of everythin.g com­
pared with what I had seen at  Zinune ., Though many Tsobuas 
are permitted to have thrones, white umbrellas, and other 
emblems of royalty, yet they c·annot make use of them per­
sonally. The Tsobua when he goes out has eight gold chuttas 
carried ro\llld him (the number allowed to the Ts�kia Meng 
King v s  eldest son at Ava )"1 but he dare not use a white one"o 
The hall was crowdedJ the officers well dressed after the 
Bunnese fashion, but the rest of the people with Shan jackets 
and blue trousers". 
The Tsobua is a remarkably fine tall man of about 55,
but blind, which I d id not know till afterwards, for when 
speaking to"-me he looked directly at me o He evidently thinks 
and acts for himself o He spoke in Shan, but understaz1ds 
Burmese· perfectly"o He addressed me immediately when I was 
seated, saying that he was truly glad to find the English were 
willing to establish a friendly intercourse with himj that 
he had long wished it , and had been disappointed that no 
officer had ever ·before visited him">' as we had been in the 
habit of going to Zimme for a long time"j that he had attempted 
to communicate with us, as I might have heard" 1., but the jealousy
of the Zimme people would not permit it, that they did not 
wish us at all t.o have any communicat.ion wit:t-1 them_, tr1at f'ea..:r. 
alone had induced them to permit me to pass through tr1ei:r 
country at present"o He asked about". the Dak1.i.:long road.l'l as he 
had understood it was intended that I should travel by ito 
The offi"cer f"rom Zi.mme who was with me 1 related the whole 
affair perfectly correctl"T.ro Toe T sobua said that he r .�. d  
sent to Ava� and with the Kin.1 ; v s  permission int,ended i o make 
ano·ther effor·t to have ·the ro3d tl'n"own op. en, that matters o.f ., 
62 
commerce and of war were distinct, the merchants passing through 
could do no harm"o I made an excuse for the conduct of the 
Zimme people_j and told him I hoped the Chou Hona, on his return 
from Bankok., would comply with our wishes and permit all. mer­
chant,s a f'ree passage o 
The Commissioner"8 s letter was then read by a Burman writer, 
and the Tsobua listened attentively to its contents o He said 
his wishes we�e precisely the same as those conveyed in the 
letter; he was an advocate for a free communication with all 
the surrounding countries, and would joyfully render every 
assistance in his power to bring about so desirable an object"o 
He prayed for a continuation of that peace he had so long
enjoyed with the Siamese through our means, tho·ugh he now 
regretted to see symptoms of a breach on their part"o That 
he had repeopled many of the deserted towns, and would con­
tinue to do so ., but he feared the Siamese would not long remain 
quiet, except we interfered"o 
23rd February , 0 0 0 • • · • • 0  In the evening I paid Paya Wang 
a visit , he resides immediately at the back of the Tsobua ' s  
palace in a good large wooden house, built like those of the 
chiefs of Zimme, but not kept particularly clean o He said it 
was necessary, that I should attend their consultation about 
my proceedin.g to China, or if I would visit the T sobua the 
next day, he had no doubt the point would be then decided"o 
He informed me, that the Burmese Tseitke, who has been with­
drawn lat-ely.1 is at Mone, or Monae, as the Shans call it; that 
the Meng myat bo, o� Bo wun meng tha, as he is also called, 
a half brother of the King of Ava, who has the government of 
all the Shan States tributary to Ava, has his Yum dau or 
royal court at that place, where a Burmese Tseitke is sta­
tioned; that all the Shan States are obliged +..o report to and 
r€=!ceive orders from him, and that intelligence of my arrival 
and the object cf rrry mission has already 'been sent to hi.m"o 
25th February o o o o o o o � o o I should think that the town con­
:.ains about 6CO houses. The palace stands in the centre of 
the town; to -f..he southward and westward of it are low hills 
and swamps; this portion is totally uninhabited"o The roads to 
the north are narrow
9 and the houses, which are very poor, 
are widely separated from each other o In some places near the 
fort and some new monasteries� as if the road were not narrow 
enough, people were digging pits in it, and with the mud m.aking
bricks o It is a miserable place, and I could never have 
fan�ied an inhabited place, the residence of a T sobua, in such 
a wretched st.ate� The pomegranate and the custard apple are 
the only �ru::.t trees in the place o Peas., beans, &c o grow
here in ab1L"'ldan�e. o 
There a.re scme good kyo-:.mgs or monasteries, and pla... � es 
of worsh:ip i de�o::"ateri with gi.lt ornament,s, and the walls painted; 
63 
they are in every way superior to similar buildings at Zimme. 
This is partly accounted for by the work having been done by 
Chinamen. Th_e priests, too, are stricter in the discharge of 
their religious duties, and do not parade the streets for 
amusement; the only point in which they are said to be rather 
lax is eating after mid-day. 
The fort stands on high ground at the foot of the range
of hills passed by us on the march, and which run to the north 
and north-east_. On the north-western side are field·s extend­
ing from three\"to ·eight miles, bounded by high mountains; 
on the other sides are swamps and low hills"o The wall on 
the southern face· has been lately extended, in consequence 
of an order from Ava, directing that all Tsobuas shall 
surround their capitals with walls 6,000 cubits in circum­
ference. The wall, which is about 15 feet high inclu· ding
the parapet, consists of a double wall of brick and mud of 
about two feet thick, with the space between them filled up 
with earth"o In many places the weight of the earth during
the rains has brought down portions of the wall, and parties 
of Chinamen are at work repairing these breaches"., the in­
habitants paying them fer their labour"o This industrious race 
furnishes the only artisans in the place"" Many of them come 
in search of work, be it what it may, during the dry season, 
and after collecting a little money together they return to 
their homes � ". But to r�turn to the fortj it has 12 gates, four 
or five of which are on the eastern face, but it has no 
bastions or embrasures for cannono The wall"1 following the 
conformation of the ground, presents a most irregular forti­
fication6 I did not see a single piece of ordnance in the 
place. Swamps supply' the place of a ditch, and where these 
do not exist, a cutting has been made in some places to the 
depth of JO feet from the foot of the wall through the hilly 
ground to a level with the swamps"9 but no water enters ito 
Finally, its position is not stro11g_, having the hills to the 
southward equally high , if not higher. 
The extent of the Kiang Tung territory is at present 
consideral?le, reaching from the Salween to the Combddia river, 
and embracing many states formerly governed by different 
Tsobuas, many of whom with their followers are now at Zimme 
and other Siamese places o Of these, the principal are the 
Tsobuas of Muang Nio�, Kiang Then or Tsen, Muang Lem"j Muang
Lap, &c. To the eastward it is bour1ded by the Me Khong and 
the territory of the Kiang Khieng Tsobua; to the north-east, 
by the Kiang Hung territories; to the northward, by Muang 
Lem; to the westward, by the Sal¥een; to the south-west, by
some· towns belonging to Mone; and to the southward, by Zimrne, 
&c . The town stands in 210.  17 ' 48tt north latitude";) and about 
99° 40 1 east longitude o �late::."' boiled here at 208½ 
Fahrenheit"o 
64 
The average range of the thermometer during my stay here, 
was at -
In the House - In th6 A.M. 42° - - -
e Sun 
9 rr 64° - - - 80° 
12 " 74° - - - 98° 
3 P.M. 82° - - 110° 
6 ° It - 76 - - - -
I always fir1d a fire at night necessary. 
Kiang Tung is a great thoroughfare for the Chinese, who 
pass through it and spread themselves over its territories, or 
proceed to Mone and other Shan states on the western bank of 
the Salween. 
They import the same articles as they do to Zimme, with 
the addition of woollen cloths, carpets, thick cotton cloth, 
warm and fur jackets, and salt. For this last article, the in­
habitants are entirely dependent on them 
Their axports consist chiefly of cotton and some tea from 
this and other districts to the north". Many of the traders 
who do not proceed further than this, are well lmown here, and 
have agents to prepare cotton for them before they arrive; this 
is sent off, the head merchant remaining behind to make his 
arrangements for a second supply, and his mules return from 
China ·bringing nothing but salt. Even some of those who go to 
Mone make two trips in the season� Those, however, who only 
come from the towns on the border of China, make three or four 
trips. 
The merchants, during the first or second journey, fre­
quently sell their cottori on the road_, but. never during the 
last trip; some must be taken home to be worked up during the 
monsoon, when all communication with these states cut off"o 
They likewise export to the frontier towns of China. coarse 
cloth, which they purchase from the Ka Kuis and other hill 
tribes; this is entirely carried ·by coolies. . . . .  
It is stated here that the last war between China. and Ava 
originated in a quarrel amongst some boys, which ended in an 
affray, in which a Chinaman lost his life; the Chinese would 
have life for life, the Burmans or Shans declined to satisfy
them in that manner, but offered the price of blood, which was 
refused by the Chinese, and an army was in conseq_"uence sent to­
wards Ava by them o The peace was brought about by the intrigues 
of the commanders on both sides, by which the kings of each 
nation considered either that he had conquered the other, o:r 
t�at the other aclmowledged his saperiori-ty, and ir. sur1;.is 31 on 
s �r. t, tributary 1f£' er· ings.•  � 
65 
The men here are not tall, generally rather dark, with 
broad faces, and small noses, though not flat; the chiefs,
however, are fine tall men, fair and appear a distinct race 
altogether, one might almost say Chinese o They dress in the 
glazed dark blue Shan jackets, and wide blue trowsers ; the 
Chinese jacket, both of cloth and fur, is common amongst them. 
They preserve their hair long, and wear a turban like the 
Burmans, and in the day-time when going about, a Chinese hat. 
The only ornament worn by the Chiefs is a gold bangle"o The 
betel utensils are here of gold or silver, according to the 
person's rank, c_arried in a Shan box as in Burmah o They do 
not chew the betel. _  leaf_ and areca nut to the same excess as the Siamese, perhaps because it is not a produce"· of the 
country; they have, nevertheless, succeeded pretty well in 
getting black teeth". There is not an areca nut tree in the 
whole territory, and they are entirely dependent upon the 
Zimme and Labong people for it o The price is here four ticals 
for a bundle of nuts, which contains 288 nuts cut up, and 
strung on strips of the bark of a"·"certain jungle tree". A 
cocoa-nut sells for half a tical; it is also brought from the 
lower provinces. 
The women are looked upon here in an inferior light to 
what they are in Burmah. Many of those whq brought trays on 
their heads to me were the daughters of the first officers of 
the place, and were hardly noticed by the men o They are 
rather a short race, not fair, and broad featured; they ."wear 
a petty coat like the Siamese Shans, both in texture and 
make; a jack et is a part of their dress, and on their heads 
the young women carry a loosely-folded cotton·handkerchief, 
having the appearance of a turban; and tr1e elder women, when 
moving about in the sun, a small neat hat, made of b amboos 
delicately cut, which they place on the knot of hair at the 
back of their heado Amongst those who travel leggings are 
common. 
There are a good many Burmans here; those belonging to 
the Ava Government at present consist but of six men"o The 
others are traders from Mone and Ava,, whence they ·bring
English piece-goods, which are in demand here o 
28th February o o o e o o • o • • He regretted that the depriva­
tion of sight prevented his looking at an English officer". 
He told me that his blindness first commenced in the beginning 
of 1824, at Ava. He had been under the treatment of many 
Chinese doctors; one had couched one eye, and he saw dis­
tinctly with it for 20 days, when he consented to have the 
other eye operated upon; but"., instead of _finding the same 
relief as on the former occasion, he was seized with a violent 
pain in his head, became sick � and totally blind o He entreated 
me to inquire if he could be cured, and, if soa, to ask the 
Commissioner to send a doctor up, whom he wo·uld reward 
handsomely"., 
66 
McLeod left Kengtung on the 1st March for Kenghung , much against 
the sawbwa' s inclination. He reached his destination on the ?th to 
find that the state had just had a civil war to determine who should 
succeed the late Sawbwa Maha Wang. He had intended to proceed to 
Yunnan but the Chinese were suspicious and told him to return whence he 
came, stating that the proper trade route to China was Via Canton 
"where British ships were constantly arriving."  Also, messages arrived 
from Kengtung requiring his return there, as ordered by the Sitke at 
Mongnai. He therefore left Kenghung on the 26th and reached Kengtung 
on the 31st March. 
31st March o • o o "• • • • • ·  In the evening an old Burmese 
woman, who is a favourite in the place, came to tell me that 
Dr. Richardson was detained at Mone for orders from Ava, ai.id 
appeared mysterious respecting some communication rece:i.":·ed 
cor1cerning myself, which she said I would hear in due :/: me ., 
This old woman, when I was here before, appeared to take g:teat, 
interest in the success of my mission, and in the impressi.cn 
made by me on the people here; she frequently brought me the 
news from the palace, and was anxious I should not call on any
officers of Government. Hearing that I had paid the minister 
a visit ,  she came and entreated that I would not demean rny­
self by calling on any of the others; that I must keep HiJ my 
dignity ; that I was only to go to the Tsobua, for though. 
P uniah Wang never called on any officers deputed here by other 
states, that he had on me, to show how highly they thought of 
me; that by making myself too common the Tsobua"' s  son would 
not visit me. 
A criminal was sentenced to be executed, having committed 
numerous thefts and cruelties; the priests, headed by Tsobua's 
youngest son, rescued him at the gate, though not wi.thout gi., ,_ 
ing many hard blows; the young prince's presence prevented the 
jai lors and their gang exerting themselves : the c ul· .I)ri t was 
taken to a monastery, his head shaved, and he hirnseli' adnli."tted 
into the priesthood, so that he is now exempt f�om aJ l 
punishment. 
2nd April · · ·""· • • o • • ·  Received a letter from Dr"o Richardson 
at r1one, dated 6th of March; it was hrought by some of the 
Tseitke • s people. At about nine o'clock at night the Puniah, 
who had recognised me on my arrival, came to me with a message
from tc1e Tsobua, saying he wished to see rne that nigh-L private­
ly, as he had something particular to communicate; I accord­
ingly proceeded to the palace accompanied by my writer and 
interpreter. lve were taken to the back of the building, where 
all was still; after passing through many dark passages and 
rooms, we fom1d ourselves at the back of the hall of audience"o 
Here were the Tsobua, his eldest son, and P,1:1iah \Jang". 
The apartment was only lighted up by one wretched oil light , 
67 
The object of this secret interview was to renew the proposi­
tions of the morning in more distinct terms, he being fearful 
·then of being too explicit . He was anxious to form an 
alliance, both offensive and defensive, that we should assist 
him when called upon, and we were to consider his country as 
ours, and he would bind himself faithfully to obey us in  all 
matters. What I have mentioned will suffice to show the 
drift of the conference, which lasted a considerable time. 
He was quite prepared to place himself under our protection,
but I did not countenance the proposal, and was cautious not 
to give him any encouragement or to commit myself in a:ny 
way. He spoke in the warmest terms of gratitude of the 
King, but he has a strong dislike to Mengthagyi and others 
at Ava"o Before my departure the Tsobua called Puniah Wang,
and whispered something to him, and then walked to a large 
chest, and taking from i·t a sword with a golden scabbard, 
gave it into his son •s  hands to present to me. The Tsobua, 
addressing me, said that it was a Shan custom, when a 
friendship, such as had been formed between us existed, to 
exchange arms in testimony of the sincerity of each party; 
he hoped, therefore, that I would accept the sword and keep
secret what had passed between us. The only thing I could 
offer in return was a double�barrel pistol of curious 
workmanship, and which I knew he was anxious to obtain; I 
accordingly told him that I would deliver it to Puniah 
Wang". On my way home I observed to the Puniah that the 
Tsobua appeared to be greatly attached to the Burmans; he 
replied that he was much so to the King, but that his 
Majesty is now considered as not taking any interest in 
the Shan States, and the consequence is ., that the Burmese 
Tseitkes lord •it over them. 
McLeod left Kengtung on the 4th April,  arrived in Chiengmai 
15 days later, on the 18thj and started on the 11th May his return 
journey to Moulmein which was reached in 17 days on the 27th. 1 
Meanwhile, on parting company with Captain McLeod, 
Dr. Richardson had headed nor·th and reached Mainglongyi on New 
Year ' s  day of 1837 0 The route was familiar to him, as he had been 
through it in 1835 on a mission to see Papawgyi at the latter ' s  
request"o On this trip Richardson"'s  passage through Karenni was 
uneventful; he stopped at "Dwam Tulwee" for a few days to see his 
old friend, the Karenni Chief., Papawgyi, with some presents which 
he thoughtfully brought with him. He left the Karenni territory 
on the 13th February and after a halt of one day at Kandu reached 
Mawkmai via Banhat on the 17th o From here on we  will quote his 
journal liberally: 
1 .  Parliamentary accounts and Papers, C, vol. 50, 1807, pp. 14-
104 - Journal ·of Captain McLeod. 
' 0
bv 
20th February ::r-ronday) Mok-mai . o ., . . . .. . .  , \:Jent into +.,;1e
town to wait �- :1 the Tsoboa :.his morning, and was reques"t.ed :o  
dismount at the gate ; T was not asked to "take off -:i:r c�1c e 3 ,  
The Tsob oa i s  & man about 26 Jrear's of age ; he succeejc:d !-:i"·� 
father (who was killed durin.g the lat,e war) abcut, fi-ve ye a:,."' ;: 
ago, but h.a.s only within tbe last few months rec.:ei ved the ro;y al 
order for his invest·i.�e, arid authorising hi..m i.o Rssume the 
ensigns of royalty. The father- of one of l1is wi,res ( the 
thoogyee of Ban-heat ·, told me that the debt s he incur·red in 
making presents to p,::op.!.E? of irLfluence about t:-,6 co�trt. , , '.J 
procure it pre·verrt h:is taking advantage of it , 1ar1c . the only 
mark of royalty abou-:. his house, which is r,atner a good one of 
wood and mats, is the frame of a window, wr:i�h opens behind 
where he sits into an inn'3r room, being gilt; there wer e t0 •: ·c 
small chairs and a small cot,ton Bengal sitringee in his rccm. 
He was married to the dau.ght,er of Mona�.r Tsotoa about. four 
months ago, arid has eight other wives and four children., the 
eldest about 10 years of ageo He spoke very litt-le1 and 
nearly all the cor1versation that passed in a ..T isit of an hour 
was with the tsetkeyo His jurisdiction is bounded west by
Thataung (which pays a tax in silire� to the king of Ava, a.'1d 
has also for some yea.rs paid to th:3 Kareans), T,:ie Salween to 
the east, the Karean-nee south, and l\fonay to the 11orthward, 
and is said to cor1t.a:i.n JO, 000 houses., which must be ver·y m.uch 
above the number; judging from the size of the three valleys
of Kundoo, Ban hoat and this, which are the only level parts of 
his territory we have seen, there m�, perhaps, be 2,  000; his 
contingent is 500 meno Many of r.1is people have gor1e to live 
altogether amongst the Kareans for safet:y� ai1d quiet., a.i-id a 
majority of those left pay them ·trib:1t.e. I learned here for 
the first time that the tsoboas are quite independent of each 
other; but as the town of Monay is the largest and most central 
of the Shan towns in t.his directior1 altogether· under the con­
trol of Ava, the Burm&..'1S ha·v8 fixed the l:1ead quarters of the 
force they have in 'the Shan. countries at that. town o The Bohmoo 
meng tha Meng myat boo ( General Prince Meng myat boo, a half 
brother of the king 's so11 of a Shan princess) , the general who 
commanded at Melaun during the late war, is, and has been since 
the peace, governor of all the Shan countries from Mobie 
nominally, but really from Mok-maij south, to the Chinese 
frontier, north, and from Nat tike, the top of the pass from 
the valley of the Irrawaddee up to the Sl1an country, west, to 
three days beyond the May Koong (Broad River), or Great 
Cambodia River, easto He himself generally resides in Ava, 
but visits his government occasionally, in one of which visits 
he rode from Mcnay to Ava in three days., His deputy, who con­
stantly resides in Monay, leaving, as usual9 his family as 
pledges in Ava, is the Tsetkay daughee, who has several 
officers under..  him; and t.here are at the court of each of 
the other tsoboas two tsetkays, also appointed from Avao 
These tsetkays, particularly the chief one, lords it over the 
tsoboas; to him the c hief authority helo�1gs, and all the 
69 
external relation of the country is committed; and the royal 
orders are sent to Monay, from whence they are forwarded by 
the tsetkay; but the Monay Tsoboa has no authority to call 
any of the others. The lesser tsoboas have no tsetkays, and 
are looked upon as merely myo tsas o • • o  
Richardson reached Mongnai on the 22nd� 
22nd February (Wednesday) Mcnay • • o o o • o o o o  In the- evening
a seray, or secretary, came out to my tent; he mentioned to 
the people outside, though not to me, that he had been sent by 
the Tsetkay. He was dressed in a handsome and heavy fur 
jacket, with the ·hairy side in, though the thermometer in the 
tent was about 86 ° . I discovered afterwards that this was a 
sort of official dress with all the Government officers here , 
though I should think anything but pleasant in these latitudes"o 
He questioned me as to what I wanted here, and wished to know 
why I had not brought letters to the Tsetkay, &c. I told him 
my visit was a disinterested one, for I wanted nothing but to 
open the gold and silver road, that the people here might ex­
change what they did not at present want with our people for 
what they did, to get the protection of the Government here 
for our people, who might hereafter come on _ the same errand,
to assure them of the good feeling towards them at Maulmein, 
and to promise protection and facilities for traders to their 
people visiting it, &c. I explained again the reason of my
coming unprovided with letters to the Tsetkay by the fact of 
the Commissioner at Maulmain not being aware of the existence 
of such an officer,  &c o My visitor had served in the late 
war; he had been a sort of aide-de-camp to the old general of 
the Shans, Maha nay myo, &c .- ; had ·taken part in the affair at 
Wattigam, and bore a part at Zimbike, when the old general 
was killed, with several of the Shan Tsoboas and two of the 
three wives of the Laygea Tsoboa who_, dressed in male attire , 
were, for some superstitious cause"_., expected to t1ave done good 
servi.ce against our troops at the seven stockades near 
Rangoon"o The Bunnans suffered most severely here, the Shans, 
who had not engaged us bef'ore, were not prepared to run away
soon enougho He gave a sad descriptior1 of their sufferings 
from cholera and starvation for many days after the storming 
of their stockades o His visit lasted about an hour and a 
half o We parted great friends , and he continued du:ring my 
stay most attentive and friendly"o I explained to him before 
leaving that it would be inconvenient to wai·t on the tsoboa 
to-morrow .. 
25th Febr'uary (Saturday) Mcnay o . o o o . o o o o On arriving 
at the yeum1 I proceeded upstairs without any notice being 
taken of my shoes, but was stopped outside the plank about a 
foot high (coon-tsen) which surTounds the cer1tr•e pi.llars of 
the yemn, and requested to seat myself there". Close to me 
were all my own people and the people of the town; inside the 
plar1k before mentioned were the T setkay daughee.9 Meng myat 
70 
boo 1 .s repre'3. entati ve ( and governor in his absen:;e of all the 
Shan S ta·tes) ; the royal Tsetkay, an old man whom I took {·or
the Tso boa, two NakfnS, and two Bo-dha-ghees � Me!l�-nay-.n�, > ,  
seated rj_mself by me e I beg now personally to explain �. o tl.e 
assembled :;hiefs that my cringing a letter directly t o  t�i�: 
Tsoboa 1nus t ba attributed entirely to the ch.ie.:. at Maulmair;. 
not being aware that any authority higher than the tsoboa 
i1as resident in. the -:;ountry, though perfectly aware t.hat r e  
was a vassal of the King of Ava, and hope t.hat a rnis t.ake so 
trivial as tne rnere wrong address wo·�ld have nc weight
against our good intention, that of increasing and st.rengthfJn­
ing trt'3 friendship which has existed between t.he English and 
the King of Ava for so many years, by joining with the ruler 
in the Shan countries, whoever he might be, to open the . ·o.ld 
and silver road by the r.ea.rest �oute, between this place and 
our pcsse3sion. on the coast. I then expressed a wish to 
deliver the J.etter to .its address, and held it out towards th:) 
second tsetkay, a little fat old man I had mistake:1 fer the 
tsoboa, when the Tsetkay ciaughee took it from my h-sr1d_., -LC' ld 
me tbe Tscboa was not present, and commenced conv·er- sation 1.n 
a most insulting and o,rerbearing strain, which he kept up dtir­
ing the whole interviewo He told me I had trespassed in 
coming here vTithout an order· · from r1eng myat boo; and the king, 
through Barriey ( the Resident) ,  asked sneeringly and incredu­
lously if the Maul.main Woonghee did not know the constitution 
of the force here; told me I know nothing of Burman customs , 
or I would have n.ot corae here without authority. I told him 
he had deceived me with the promise of the tsoboa being at 
the yeum, otherwise I sb.ould not have come there o As for my
righ·t to come here J I referred to the treaties of Ya.ndaboo 
and Ava, the latter particularly stipulating that traders, on 
whose behalf I was come here, should be allowed to enter the 
Burman dominions at any part, and proceed in any direction 
without let or hindrance . I explained to him that it was 
always a custom with us to send an officer with traders open­
ing a new route, to ensure them protection, and as a surety 
to the people of the countries passed through or traded with, 
that they were fair traders and responsible people, coming
with the knowledge and sanction of the British Government, 
not to mention the long friendship of the two countries, and 
the kind reception of their people on visiting Maulmain. He 
said he had never promised that I should see the tsoboa to­
day; pretended he knew nothin_g of the Ava treaty, and said 
that of Yandaboo n1ade no provision for my coming here o After 
a good deal more in this strain, I asked him, as he had re­
ceived the Tsoboa"1 s letter, whether I should be allowed, and 
when to proceed, as therein requested"o". He denied the Conunis­
sioner ' s  letter contained such a request; when I begged him 
to show me the letter, and pointed out the paragraph, he said, 
"Ori, you may go; you may go. n I said I was sorry that my 
reception had led me to think they did not wish to see me,
and that the sooner I started for Ava the bettero The senior 
71 
nakan, who was seated opposite, now addressed me with much 
civility, and asked me whether I did not wish to see the 
Tsoboa. I said, most certainly, but that it depended on the 
Tsetkay datighee, ·"to whom the king had given the chief author­
ity here, and he did not appear to wish me +,o do so ; this 
he seemed to take as flattery, for he said, "Ah, these are 
proper words"o " The nakan again said, ''Why, you have just 
come here, and are already talking of leaving us; you must 
stay a little amongst us ; it will be  proper to get permission 
from Ava before you proceed. n I replied, "it was my wish, 
and the intention of the Conimissioner, that I should cultivate 
the fr·iendship of the chiefs here ; that, had there appeared 
any wish to make rrry reception more pleasant, I should have had 
no wish to leave so soon, but I had as yet no reason to 
suppose I was welcome, though it was impossible for me to 
wait for permission from Ava., wnich, considering the friend­
ship of the two countries, I could not see the nece.ssi ty. I 
was, besides , afraid my people might suffer at the setting in 
of the rains , as they had no cover at night o n The Tsetkay,
laughing insultingly, said, "Oh, he calls himself Tsia woon 
(physician) , and yet he is afraid of dying . "  . . • •  
27th February (Monday) Mcnay- o u • • o • u o • o  I have sent the 
Shan interpreter to-day to the tsetkay to say I object to 
being seated outside the coon-teen, with my own coolies and 
the people of the town within half a foot of me, convinced 
that with the disposition evinced by him, nothing is to be 
gained by concessions, indeed no Burman can have an idea even 
of a perfectly independent gentlemanly compliment". I desired 
him in the first instance to go to Meng-nay-myo, as he has 
been the channel of communication hitherto, to sa::, I was 
sure he was anxious to promote the objects of my mission as 
I was ; but as in the matter of the tsoboa v s presence at the 
yeum, and bringing the presen_ ts there at once, the Tsetkay 
denied that s�ch a promise and request had been made with 
his knowledge, I thought it better that I should communicate 
direct with himself". His reception was civil, both by the 
Meng-nay-myo and the tsetkay1 who paid me some compliments , 
and told him that as they were situated here , a very few 
Burmans amongst a conquered and distinct people, the cus"toms 
were necessarily different from what they were in Ava; that 
the tsoboa, whom I should meet to-day, was never allowed to 
come inside the coon-tsen; he told the man to say that he 
would send to let me know when they were ready; as the 
tsoboa was to sit outside, of course I could make no further 
objections o At half-past nirie t.he person came to intimate 
that the military officers were assembled, and I startedo 
Meng-Nay-Myo joined me on the road, and we rode together to 
the yeurn, where I found the same chiefs I had met on my 
former visit, and seated mysel.f as before after about half 
an hour"9 s conversation, during which the tsetkay told me they
heard of my int.ended visit here., a month. ago, through some
72  
Shans who had seen me at Mein-lun-ghee. 1he Tsoboa came with 
fo·ur gold er.tat tahs, and about 50 or 60 men armed w.ith muskets, 
dhas, and spe�s, arid a number carrying thar1leats. 1\Then the 
old gentlema11 came in :i: bowed to him., which he returned, and 
seated himself close beside me. The morning was cold, and, 
eithe� from t.hat cause or agitation, he trembled considerably. 
I again. explained the mistake of the letr,er ( which had been. 
!'eturned to me by the tsetkay), and delivered it to him. The 
list of the presents was read over, and they were laid before 
him. He said the contents of the letter were already known to 
him, that they were good, and he was glad to see me here; but 
it would be best� he thought, for all parties that the presents 
and a copy of the letter should be sent to Ava, with a request
for instructions from the king to allow me to proceed, to 
which an answer would be returned in about 20  days ; in the 
meantime I must, :-emain here. He was the king of Ava"� s slave,
and afraid of rendering himself liable to punishment ( yazawot) 
if he allowed me to proc-.eed � I remonstrated _, with all the 
argumen·ts I could think of, against such delay, but in ,i-ain; 
there was a good deal of conversation on general subjects, 
particularly on geography (on which subject they are the most 
curiou s, and as ignorant as it is possible to be on any subject, 
believ:i ng in the Mee Mho Hill (Mount Meroo), and four large 
islands, &:c. ) , in which the Tsob oa took a part. The whole 
conversation to-day was conducted in a mild and gentlemanly 
style, and so indeed were all the remarks of the tsetkay, 
whom it was difficult to believe the same person whom I had 
conversed with here only tivo days before o The Tso boa is a 
man of 9_" perha�s, 68 years of age, of the common height of 
Burmans, fair even for a Shan, though those on this side of 
the Salween a.re much darker than to the eastward, not.,wi th­
standing they are a few degrees further north; his manners a.re 
mild and ge1�tle:.na-11ly; his son and son-in-law_, the son of the 
Laygea Tsoboa, bo-th fair and rather stout young mer:, were 
seated ·behind him; neit. her of them took acy part in -the con­
versation" I was !'equested to furnish a list of the people 
with me 9 to be sent to Ava tomorrow, before I left"u The 
tsetkay had the let�er to Ava, which was to accompany the 
Commissioner· 1 s letter and presents, read to me; near the end 
of it the tsoboa ' s  name and mine occurred in juxtaposition, 
and the term "the slave of the King of Avau followed"j so that 
there was some doubt as to which it applied"o I stopped the 
person reading, and had the passage read again, much to the 
amusement of the tsetkay, who at once saw the am·biguity, and 
laughed heartily at my suspiciono By the message who took 
the C-.overnme11t letters I wrote also to the Resident at Ava. 
From now on the relati.ons between Richardson and the s itke were 
very friendly"r While waiting for orders from Ava, he spent some of 
his time visiting the sitke and ·tlarious members of his staff, all on 
a friendly basis"o The objection of the sawbwa and the sitke to 
Richardson pro�eed:i.ng to Ava without instructions from the capit. .9.l 
73 
was understandable o Government was absolute and highly centralized 
in these matters, and little responsibility and initiative were left 
to local officers"o Some of Richardson's entries tell us about con­
ditions in Mongnai in"·"those days. 
5th March (Sunday) Mcnay · · • � o • o • • u  Called to-day on 
Meng-nay-myo, and met at his house the Kien-toung Tsetkay, a 
Burman of course, Panya Pan, and another Shan chief, who went 
from Kien-toung last year to Zimmay, with an intention, it 
is said, of coming to Maulmain; they did not, however, to­
day allude to such an inten·tion, and as the authorities here 
are said to disapprove of his having gone to Z.immay, I did 
not mention the repor·t. Captain McLeod arrived at Kien­
taung on the 18th u1t imo, and saw the tsoboa on the 20th. It 
does not clearly appear whether he has been detained there or 
not, but letters were dispatched by the tsetkay early this 
morning, with orders to detain him till the return of the 
messenger who is sent to Ava to report his arrival, and to 
furnish him with everything that he may want in the meantime. 
The messenger to Kien-taung was ordered to travel night and 
day o The distance of Kier1-hun-ghee from Kien-taung is only
nine days for an unencumbered man, and"·"about 15 for elephants.
The officers I met to-d ay expressed themselves in the most 
friendly terms, rejoiced in the prospect of a free and 
friendly intercourse, and spoke in the wannest terms of 
approv"al of the spirit that prompted the mission of Captain 
McLeod and myself to this part of the country. The _"house of 
the officer I visited to-day, which is just rebuilt after a 
ver. y extensive fire which consumed most of the town last April, is the largest in the town, consisting of five dif­
ferent roofs, three parallel to each other, and two across 
these ends, with an open platform between the end and centre 
ranges, and also between the northermost centre range and 
the other two; these ranges are all on the same floor, which 
cannot be less than 100 feet square; the materials and the 
workmanship as good as the Burman carpenters' work generally 
is"o The houses in general are small, low, and mean; and the 
whole town, which is long ar1d narrow, and so crowded with 
bamboos that only a very smali portion. of the houses can 
be seen at one time, may co11tai.n about 8,000 or 10,000 in­
habitants; about 2, 000 of these are Bunnans . The tsoboa sent 
out people to-day to build tays (temporary houses) for myself
and the people, but as there is little chance of rain for the 
month I am likely to be here j and delightful shade from the 
magnificant large bamboos, I preferred remaining in my tent, 
and the people have been comfortably halted in three houses, 
at each side and behind it o I have tied my chattah to the 
corner of my tent, and though I have made a considerable 
advance in the estimation of the people since my arrival, 
this has much increased my consequence; they are not - "et 
accustomed tc consider th =mselves at all an inferior Deople
to ·us., either in power or civilisation"o Before the war:- they 
co11sidered thamselv es as infinitely superior to all the world;
they have not lately sought to engage the Chinese, but the;y.. 
are all aware ·"·:.hat they have always come off conquerors when 
:.hey di ci sr1gage ttere. 
8ti'; Mar1.::h (w·ectnesday) ..  � • . . . . .  o Called on the first nakan 
today; he is a mar1 of' aboat 50 years of age ; he went to Ava 
wi th his father, who was of the ro;ral family of Charidaporee 
or ·wint.ian, the zenzen of the Burmans ,' when he was a child, 
ai:1.d remained about the palace till six or seven years ago, 
w.hen he got his present appointment. Nearly the whole of his 
farnily wa.s d.es"+:,:royed by the Siamese when they took the. town of 
Wintian, eight or- nine years ago. He expressed himself as 
much pleased with my mission here., T�ell disposed towards us, 
and anxious to facili ;:,ate the intercourse between Maul.main and 
this place"o He congratulated himself on not having been 
amplcyed dur'ing the war, which he says was of little advantage 
to anyone. Fr'om his house I went to that of the second naka.n; 
hE: had just come fro1n the yeum, where a royal order for the 
ir.stalmen1: cf t.he Loye Lung Tsoboa, or myotsa, had been read; 
he was engaged at chess w"i. th some of his children and people"o 
His house is small and mean, little better than a thooghee's 
of one of our .small villages, and himself and everything in it 
in the same s-ty·le, and miserably dirty o He had very little 
to say for tlimself; my ,.. isit was therefore short; he", however, 
"tclci me the force of Burmans in the Shan states is abou·t 
10, 000 rr1en. Ir1 my wa· y home I called on Meng-nay-myo; and in 
the e�.;-ening he returned my visit, bringing two of his li t.tle 
childrer1 vrit}1 him" He mentioned that on the day before our 
attack on Wet-yea.--kan (o� Wattigam) a large reinforcement of 
Shans rrere f;en1, ·to , t, who lost their way, and at nightfall 
biv·ouacked in tr..e jungle close to the stcckade, without being 
aware of i.ts vicinity, &"'1d came up in the morning as un­
expectedly �o their own as our people. A report is current 
here to-day •jl'1at a messenger arrived last night, in six days 
from A·va., wi-r_,h a royal order telling the tsekay 11ct to be
al.armed, but keep the country quiet; and in.timating at the 
same tirne that the Sarawattee Prince had quarrelled with the 
Queen, and left, Ava for"·"Maukt.3obo with 500 or 600 meno 
10th March (Friday) · · · · · · • • o •  Passed the day at home, but 
was visited by some people from the tsoboas, the only Shans 
I have yet been able to communicate with; they all spoke 
Burmese, as do most of the Shans in large towns here; they 
complain much of the oppression and insolence of their Burman 
r1Jlers ; th.e members of the tso boas' family are frequently
insulted in tt1e streets if they go out without their gold 
chattahe or attendants. 
The B-:.:rrnans, who are very numerous here, live entirely 
on the natives 1 contribute nothin.g to the expenses of the 
co,m.try ., or to the occ"asional royal exact.ions of money, the
75 
levying of which is the province of the tsoboa; many of them, 
styled keun.-dau-myo, not even c_alled soldiers, have no means 
of subsistence but preying on the natives, and many acts are 
committed with impunity by them, which are severely punished 
by the Shans, who complain they are looked on as little better 
than dogs o Much alarm is said to have been excited by the 
Prince of Sarawattee having left Ava, of which there is no 
doubt amongst the people, though the chiefs still endeavour 
to conceal the fact from me. 
14th March (Tuesday) · · · • • o • • ·"·  The tsetkay 1 s son came 
out again to-day, and mentioned the fact of the disturbances 
at Ava, which are now talked of with less reserve. Report
says that the Bohmoo meng had taken a part with the Prince. 
A report also had been brought by some merchants that the 
tsoboa of Thienee had been beaten to death with clubs by his 
Shan subjects at a poe, to which he had gone with a few 
followers"o He was the_ son of the last tsoboa (a perfect
savage) by a Burman woman he saw only for a few days at 
Neaung Eue. After his birth the woman married a Rangoon 
man, where the boy followed her, and was loose in the conntry 
for some years; he then came to Ava, and entered himself 
amongst the young Prince's followers; his father dying without 
other known children, he wa.s raised to the tsoboaship about 
six years agoo He was a confirmed bad character, and living 
about the Palace in Ava had learned, with the vices of the 
capital, drinking and opium-smoking, to consider himself 
more as a Bunnan than a Shan., and had imbibed the Bunnan 
contempt for the latter, by his oppression of whom he had 
succeeded in making himself so detested that his death as 
related was the consequence. It·  is not at all known here 
who will succeed hi."1 o One of the family is said to be 
amongst the Kakchens ( the wild tribes between the Shan country, 
Ava, and China, so called) , of whom many are subject to 
Thienee"o 
27th March 1837 (Monday) ,  Mcnay o • o o • O O • • O  Waited on the 
tsoboa to-day, my reception was most friendly; his hoa or 
palace has a gilded roof of five stories, the pyathat or 
royal spire, surmounted by a tr·ee (chat tah) , or gilded iron 
ornament so called; the haJ..11 in which I was received, about 
40 feet square exclusive of a large verandah, which surrounds 
it; the centre portion, a square of 30  feet, is raised about 
18 inches, with four rows of pillars, which support the high
roof, three in each row, and 10 feet apart; the innermost 
four of the two centre rows are gilded, and the yazabolen 
(throne) ,  which is a very handsome one"j is lower and better 
proportions than those of the Siamese Shan tsoboas, I have 
seen; ·the gold appears burnished at the distance at which I 
sat, though the art of burnishing is not known to the Burmans; 
at each side of the throne stood a large white muslin 
umbrella, furled, with two rows of gold plates attached to 
,.... /'
/ 0  
fringes near the cuter edge, on it \,ere a small gold crown 
scspt;re, a chowree, an attar daun, and the royal red Yel vet 
s:!.i.ppers, f0rrriing t!'le five ensigns of royal 't-jy (meng-hmeauk 
tasa gr..a. ba; ;  the onl;r other furniture in the roorr1 was a 
gilded 2:r1air , a.nd & comn1on -::lumsy Blil'man bedstead; there 
1night be abo:it. 100 rrL1skets rar.ged in different pa=ts of the 
:i.all. The tsoooa sa.t on the raised paT't of the floor, en a 
corrJI"n011 China carpet; his son Chow Kin Mouang (lord eater- of 
the town, pronounced by the Bum.ans Kea.myTie) on his left, a.nd 
riis son-1. .n-law, the son of the Laygea T soboa, on his right 
belcw, arid I l1ad a mat irr.mediatel;f in the front· on the same 
le'.Te::;.; his t.setka;rs; two officers plaa::ed here ·by tt1e Burman 
Governmer1t, his o�� officers and people_, a li·ttle behind me; 
he expressed himself glad to see me here, and .hoped I was 
ple.;sed 1rJi th rny· visit , but evidently wished to avoid all 
conversation on rn;y- mi 3sicn to himself; he introduced me to 
his s0ns � :u"'ld soon changed the ccnversation to subjects 
entirely ur.L:·"o.!.'mected ,nth Burmal1 ; nat·ural history and geo­
gr:a:ph3r :Jf Eur. ope"., and thr.1t part of Ben.gal mentioned in their 
sae;rE:d books, the 16 -: ountJries of Thela. On taking leave he 
gave 1ne a pair of grey poriies ., one of which is a fine large 
ha11dsome &.'1:i.m�; he agr1:!eS w-:i. th ei.'"elryone alse in advising me 
to wai '!., a day c::- two fer the trib11te party from Mien-len-ghee, 
which i .s  said to ha,re (;rossed the Salween seven days fron1 
t.his , S8mE: days ago"o The pcverty here is very great and 
gi:-:nc:::-·al , t hef·t., common robbery, and n1urde.r not unfrequent ir1 
-r.Jhis town.; the 0soboa alone takes what he wants frorn ttie 
market peop :.e, ir� the baza:r in Mok mai. ; ther'e are five who 
ha�,e t.hat pr� vilege , .:"e:r in the next seat in the bazar there 
was cne of our p8opla; a poor devil sat down with five eggs 
to se."�1;  b.e had no cu.st,om.ers for some tiJne, when the tsoboa"' s 
pecple or ser·\rant came and took one cf his eggs,  tl1e four 
o-c,t1ei:<S followad ir1 :,he same way, and the poor creature rose 
up 1rJi. thout ha"ving spoken a word and went away" 
No orde:'.' co:icerning Ri:hardson could now corne fr·om Ava which 
had been pl·urle;ed :ir1t o cor..f�sion by t:he coup d 1 etat of Prince Tharawadi. 
Mcngnai had been o:r·"dered to send to the capital a contingent of 1000 
men"o T l1e son of  the Ye-t.Ju11. of Ra11goon arri1red to hasten the despatch 
of the Mongna.i levies � The sitke &dvised that Richardson should 
accompa:..y the conti. r1gent which the sawbwa now decided to command in 
person". The whole party started off on the 6tri April o Everywhere were 
signs of insecurity ar1d impending disastei·. Robbers and briga. nds 
roamed the countr;yside and preyed on helpless villages. When the party
&rriv ed at Mcngpawr1 on tl1e 10th April, the sawbwa there had just been 
atabbed to death wlt.le fishing, by his own brother. Mongpawn village 
itself cor1tained about 80 to 100 r10usea and Richardson stated it was 
under the Sa1r-rbw·a of Mongnai who proceeded to appoint a myoolc to look 
after the place ,  Contingents from Mongsit, Mongpawn and Laikha joined 
the par·t-y En1 route. Before they reached Yawnghwe"} orders were received 
or.1 the J.hth April at "Say-lay" �ounterrnanding the sawbwa ' s move. Ava 
had fal:i.e:: i:e: Tharaw&.di"" The sa\ovt,wa however insisted on going forward 
77 
a little more to ascertain the situation himself". But on the 16th it 
was certain that the sawbwa was returning to Mongnai and he tried to 
persuade Richardson to return with him saying that the unsafe condi­
tions of the country made it unwise fo1• liim to proceed"o ·Richardson 
insisted on going forward and said goodbye to the s awbwa in the 
latter' a camp in the evening. The next day, the 17th April, 
Richardson and his own party"·arrived at Yawnghwe . The monsoon had 
already started - it rained heavily that night. 
19th April (Wednesday) • • o • o • o o • o  Shifted our berth last 
night into the town, or more properly village, for there are 
not above 150 or 200 houses of the same miserable appearance
as those of Monay, or perhaps a little more so. There is not 
one good house in the town, and the country villages are 
worse; they are all very low, and from the walls of many of 
them being made of thatch, much of it old and discoloured, 
have a said ruinous appearance. Many here, and indeed 
throughout the country, have the same low end as the houses 
of the Red Kareanso The site of the town is a dead level, 
and, as conjectured, was formerly the bed of the lake, which 
extended several miles up the valley to the northward of 
this; it has now shrunk away about three miles to the south­
ward, and fills the end of the vall.ey about 12 or 14 miles 
north and south, and reaching to the foot of the hills east· 
and west, perhaps, an average of 2½ or 3t miles; it is fed by 
the Bora-that , which falls into its northern end , and a few 
small rivulets from the hills ;  the only stream it gives rise 
to is the Mobie River, from its so·uth end, which after pene­
trating the hills, and flowing underground for some miles, 
appears again a short way from Taung=ngoo, and then flows 
into the sea by the Setaung River, the waters east of this 
all fal.ling into the Salween. Our encamping ground is a 
vacant space to N .. W o  of the han; between that and the houses 
of the tsoboa' s lesser wives, of wl1om there are about 20 or 
30 living in the houses of their parents, distinguished by the 
privilege of attaching planks in the shape of buffaloes' horns , 
to the end of the ridge pool"o He is said to add two to the 
number annually, but unless they have children they receive 
absolutely nothing from him, and then only a bare subsistence". 
Ever1 some who live in his house are said to _have their food 
carried to them by their friends". About 11 o 'clock I visited 
the tsoboa, and remained abot1t an hour; his house, enclosed in 
an old wooden fence, is mere bamboo, the floor, which is also 
of bam'boos, covered in part wl th m.is-shapen boards". '.Ihough
of the same rank as the Mcnay Tsoboa, he has none of the 
in.signia of royalty, except the gilded frame to the window 
behind his couch; even his betel apparat·us is the same as the 
commonalty; he is about 4.5 years of age , very stout with rather 
a want of intelligence in his countenance , His three brothers 
were present, and three or four of his sons":.i of whom he told 
me he had 20 about 11 years o j' age and under � I explained
the friendly n.ature of 1ny ·\.'i. s; t t.o Monay, and begged him to 
cons:ider the same sentiments 1 owa.i"ds himself existed with the 
....f  8'  
Commissioner at Maulmain as I had been commissioned to 
communicate r.c the !· fcnay Tsoboa, I solicited his protection 
a:..d cour.ter;.ance to our traders who might come here, and 
promising the same to h�s people at Maulmain, gave him a 
musket, carpet, and three or four finger-glasses} apologised
for the smallness of my present, as I had not anticipated
seeing him_,. &c. &c. &c. ; he has little to say, but was as 
friendly �s I had re�son to expect f�om the strong recornmenda­
tio:1 of ·the ki.nd and gentlemanly old Tso boa of Monay. 
20th. April (Thursda.y) : 21st (Friday). Neaung Eue . . •. . .  0 • • •  
Visited the tsoboa ' s  brother to-day, who seems a man of more 
intelligence and energy than the tsoboa. He was formerly ex­
ceedingly dissipated"J a drunkard and opium smoker, but has for 
some years quite reformed. He gave some account of the feud 
between tne Tsoboa and his uncle, who seized the throne on his 
father 's  death about 14 or 15 years ago . The war ( for there 
were some pitched battles) lasted about two years, in which 
contest this brother was the principal supporter of the 
present �soboa, but the principality has never recovered the 
waste and destruction, and though it was one of the four at 
cne time embracing the whole of Cambosa-tyne, it is now said 
only to contain in all 500 houses in the district. They are 
so weak that the Kareans infest their marches all the dry 
weather, and ca:rry off all unprotected persons into slavery, 
unless ranaomed by their friends. This year they have been 
freer from their inroads than usual, which they attributed to 
my having passed through the Karean country. A more legitimate
cause may be found in the vicinity of the British possessions 
on the coast, where runaway slaves from the Shan countries are 
of course free, and finding their way thence, or remaining in 
Maulmai.n, are lost to their masters, this havirig gone on for 
seven or eight years". The Zimmay Shans, who are the chief 
pur�hasers, will only buy children, and that at a reduced rate, 
as cattle, when I first penetrated to Zimmay, which sold at 
two rupees and a-half, are now selling for 10 or 12; this 
rendering the slave trade much less certainly profitable, will 
probably ultimately put an end to it, though it is said there 
are still nearly JOO persons annually sold into the Siamese 
territory o Many of the people of this district have volun­
tarily gone to reside in the Karean territory, which at its 
nearest point is not more than 30  miles from this, to avoid the 
grinding oppression of the Bunnan Goverrunento Since the 
troubles at the capital they have had a short respite, but 
there are generally from 80 to 100 Burmans here living on the 
nati·ves. 
22nd April (Saturday)": 23rd (Sunday). Neaung Eue 
· • • o • • · · · ·  Called to-day on Chow Shoe-nee (Lord Red Gold), the 
second brother of the tsoboa, and remained about an hour, be­
ing the market day here ) which is held as at Monay once in five 
d :.t:vs ;  a crowd of 1 00 or 200 people follciwed me to this h.ouse, 
79 
which was fortunately, however, at no great distance. My re­
ception was friendly; his whole family were present . Saw a 
good many of the Tavoyers to-day, who form the principal part 
of the inhabitants of En-lay, Eruna, four villages of the lake 
(though they are not now confined to four); their dialect is 
so similar to that spoken at Tavoy at this day, that I could 
immediately detect a Tavoyer, though they must have been 
here about 662 years, if the tradition be correct that they 
accompanied Narapadi Say Thoo, or Shoo, King of Pagan, as he 
reigned there about the year 536 of the Burman, era (1175 A.D. ) 
Many of the traditions of this town are connected with him, in 
Burman history he is said to have defeated an immense Chinese 
army which attacked the old city of Kau-tham-bee, formerly the 
capital of this valley, the extensive ruins of whose walls are 
still visible two or three miles north of this. It must at 
that time have stood just on the borders of the lake, and the 
wooden pillars of his palace are said still to be visible in a 
calm day at the bottom of the lake, with the chains and posts
for fastening his elephants". Five days south-east of this is 
.another considerable town, Thataung, inhabited by people from 
the old town of Thataung, one of the first capitals"- of the 
Pegu kingdom, situated about one day north-east of Martaban,
and brought here by Norata meng tsoe, King of Pagan, at a 
still earlier period, vi-z o ,  379 of the Burman era. It is 
close on the borders of the Karean-nee country, to the chief 
of which people they are now tributary, as well as to Ava. 
A messenger from Ava yesterday states the town still to be 
surrounded by the Prince"' s  army, the country dreadfully dis­
turbed, all the Burman chiefs of the Shan country turned out, 
a new Bohmoo and Tsetkays appointed. 
While at Yawnghwee Richardson gathered much information about 
the Inle Lake and country to the south of it, including Karenni. On 
the 16th Mq, after one month 's  enforced stay, he received the order to 
proceed to Ava"o He did not find Yawnghwe as friendly as Mongnai, but 
there was nothing that he could really complain about"o He left 
Yawnghve on the 18th May for Ava via rtNay gea 11 , (Negga ?), Pwehla, 
Yengan, and reached his destination on the 24th May. 1 
1. Parliamentary 4ccounts and Papers, C, volume 50, 1867, pp. 104-
147 - Journal of Dr. Richardso:n.,