CHAPTER II 
Some Earlier Shana 
And now any reader interested only in modern times must for­
give me a long excursion into the dim past". 
The theory of Shan migration is well known, but no one has 
been able to put his finger on the exact manner how this happened.  
The earlier and better known theory places the movement as from north 
to south and the "cradle of the Tai race"1t variously from western 
Central Asia to the �ater sheds of the Yangtse". The Shans were the 
nelder brothers"  of the Chinese who later either absorbed them or 
drove them southward, according to this theory. 
A later theory places the original home of the Tais in the 
west - northern India or Tibet, and says the Tai peoples migrated
east via the Brahmaputra river, the Hukawng valleys, north Burma and 
thence vi.a the Shweli and the Taping into the Chinese provinces of 
Ywman, Szechuan, Kwai.chow and Kwangsi . The Tai-Chinese affilia­
tion is repudiated by this theory which groups the Tais with the 
Kadais and the Indonesians,"and says that it was the subsequent migra­
tion of the Mon-Khmer peoples (sent out of India by the Aryans) which 
drove a wedge between the Tais and the Kadais on the left and the 
Indonesians on the right. The Indonesians were of course sent to 
their present homes by the Mon-Khmers, while the Tais were later 
ousted by the Chinese from their homes in various parts of south­
west China and came down to their present habitats to drive out the 
very Mon-Khmer peoples who had earlier pushed them north."l 
But we are concerned here not with the Tai migration but with 
the historical Tais, especially the Shans". · 
'!he Shans form only one section of the"- Tai race which is at 
present divided over an area stretching from Assam in India (where
the Ahoms are) ,  through northern and eastern Burma (where are our own 
Shan States ) ,  into China of the Chinese Shan states, and then south­
wards into Laos till the Kingdom of Siam where Siamese or Thais are 
found till Malaya is reached". Together all these Tai peoples number 
about 27 - JO 2 million - enough to establish an average-sized nation 
of southeast Asia, and though this work cannot hope to trace adequately
how they came to be spread over their large area owning allegiance 
1 .  Seidenfaden, E., The Thai Peoples ,  pp . 1-8 . N. B .  The theory
that the Mon-Khmer peoples immigrated into Southeast Asia from 
India is quite untenable . (D.G.E.H . ) 
2 .  Ibid. ,  p .  11. 
16 
to five different countries, at least some aspects of their early 
movements can be touched upon. 
When I reached London I spent some time, perhaps too long, in 
trying to look up what was known to western writers about the old Shan 
kingdoms. Here :)ne reads about the usual southward migration of the 
Tai race, the Pong Kingdom which has puzzled many people as to its true 
identity, the Mao Kingdom, Kawsampi, Koshanpyi and various other king­
doms found in Burmese, Shan and Siamese Chronicles. 
These chronicles are dear to the Shan heart and they cannot be 
dismissed lightly by an average Shan. Although I am not qualified to 
lay- down theories about these, I feel that a brief discussion of the 
subject is called for. If some of the points raised hereinafter are 
are well lmovm to many readers, I may be forgiven for repeating them 
as they are unknown to many Shans to whom any work on any aspect of the 
Shan State is interesting. 
Some scholars are of the opinion that the chronicles can be 
used to a certain extent and that at the height of Nanchao' s  power in 
Yunnan, in about the 8th century, valley kingdoms of various Tai tribes 
were already in existence all over Southeast Asia . In other words, 
these scholars do not believe the theory that the southward exodus of 
the Shans began only with the conquest of Yunnan and Burma by Kublai 
Khan. Long before Kublai Khan'"s exploits the Tais had already settled 
in their valley kingdoms .  'lhe exploits of the Shan general, Samlongpha, 
took place before the conquest in 1253 of Yunnan (Nanchao ) by the 
forces of Kablai Khan. Some scholars in Thailand are working on the 
theory that the first Thai king who liberated Sukhotai from the Khmer 
yoke, Pra Ruang I (King Sri Indaraditya), was a scion of Samlongpha. 
The date of the end of the Pagan Dynasty founded by Anawrahta 
is generally placed at 1287, the year its last king Narathihapate, the 
Tarokpyemin, was murdered by one of his sons, and this was 10 years
after the Burmese retreat from Ngasaunggyan; Mangrai of Chiengsen, 
Pra Ruang of Sukhotai and Ngammuang of Phayao swore eternal friendship 
also in 1287;"1 Samlongpha ' s  conquering hordes were active long before 
1250. The defeat of the Khmers by the Thais in the Upper Menam valley 
around the middle of the 13th century also shows that the Tais were 
active before Nanchao was overrun by the Mongols. 
To come back to the assumption that the Tais were in parts of 
Bunna &�d Northern Siam long before the Mongol armies overran Nanchao,
Professor Coedes tells us that the Tais appeared in the history of 
Further India in. .the 11th century when Cham inscriptions mentioned "Syam" slaves or •prisoners of war, by the side of the Chinese, 
Annamites, Cambodians and Burmese. A group of warriors"., dressed dif­
ferently from the Khmers and called "Syam" in two short inscriptions ,  
also figured in the bas reliefs of the Angkor Wat in the t�elfth 
century. Although these "Syams11 of Angkor were referred to as 
l o  Jinakalamalini, p. 1638. 
17 
"savages,"" they had a closely knit social organization, due to their 
living for centuries in close contact with Chinese civilization. As 
they were good assimilatore they were not slow in absorbing the 
civilization of their neighbours and masters. 1 
In histories, the despised savages often became the masters"o 
And so it was that the Tais, having lived as subject people for some 
three hundred years in parts of Northern Burma and Northern and 
Central Siam, themselves became the masters when the Pagan Dynasty 
came to an end and when the Khmers became weak. 
Although this seems to prove the contention that the Tai 
ascendency was the result of the Mongol invasion of Yunnan (Nan­
chao ) and Pagan, it can still be said that such a rise would not have 
been possible if the Tais had not alre·ady been there for some 
centuries. 
It seems, therefore, that when the 13th Century opened the Tai 
"beach-heads•• had already been firmly established among the Burmese 
and Mon-Khmer peoples, and it was from these "beach-heads" that the 
various Tai tribes began to assert themselves over their neighbours 
resulting in what Professor Coed�s calls "a large effervescence" from 
the direction of the southern frontier of Yunnan o During this period 
the Pagan Dynasty of Burma was on its last legs, while in the lower 
Menam valley the Khiner administrative hands were weakened by the 
death of Jayavarman II in 1220. Coedes suggests that the Tai 
effervescence was inspired by the successes of the Mongol arms in 
the North, in China proper"o Another factor which"·contributed in no 
small degree to the rise of the Tais was the earlier rise of the 
Pagan Dynasty. It was the founder of the Dynasty, K ing Anawrahta, 
and his immediate successors who weakened the Mon-Khmer pcwers in the 
Lower Burma and the Lower Menam Valley. Prince Damrong advanced the 
theory that when the chronicles stated that Anawrahta conquered
Thaton, Nakorn Pathom, a few miles southwest of Bangkok, was actually
meant. When Pagan fell, the Tais were ready to step in.  
The situation in Southeast Asia at the close of the thir­
teenth century showed the following dispositions of Tai powers:
In Central Burma, the three Shan Brothers began their reign in  Ava 
(1287); in Lower Burma, the Shan Wareru (a title given to him by his 
old Lord and father-in-law, Ramakhamheng, the Thai King of Sukhotai )2 
made himself master of Martaban and eventually became the King of 
Pegu; in Northern Siam, Mangrai' s  expansion of his dominion from 
Chiengsen-Chiengrai area culminated in the sack of the Mon (?)  King­
dom of Haripunjai (1281) and the founding of Lannathai (Chiengmai ) ;  
in Sukhotai Ramakhamheng (Pra Ruang II) consolidated his Kingdom and 
erected his famous stone inscription (1292)9; in Mongmao, Sokhanpha"8 s 
successors appeared to be consolidating what Samlongpha had won for 
l o Coedes, G., Les Etats Hindouises d 1 Indochine et d 1 Indonesie,
pp ., 317-3210 
2. Thai" = Chaofa Rua o Wood, W. Ao R �, A History of Siam, p �  55. 
them duri�g the second quarter of the century, and nothing of note was 
r·ecorded except for the move of the capital to the present Mongmau dur­
in.g the reign of S01,ral(!)ha who died in 131.5 ; in Hsenwi nothing of note 
was recorded throughout the century; in Kengtung scions of Ma.ngrai were 
:·-aling . 1 
How these 11 beach-head States" were established can be seen from 
the way the Shans from I'1ongnai, Mawkmai and Mongpa.n settled in 
M2haimgsawn, Mongmau"., Mesakun, Mongton, Monghang, etc. in the middle 
of the last century. 2 If a more warlike example of such trusts is 
needed, we may cite the Shan Rising in the rainy season of 1902 3 in 
Lao Provinces of North Siam. Either thro ugh discontent with local 
Siamese officials (British and Shan version) or through a desire for 
loot (Siamese version) , or, what was more likely, both, the Shans who 
had settled in the Lampang-Pre-Phayao area suddenly rose against the 
local Siamese authorities. It was said that they only went after the 
Bangkok Thais, as distinct from the Laos, and that about 20 heads were 
collected. Most of the rebels were Shan petty traders and precious
stone miners, and it all started at Phayao and spread southward rapidly. 
At t hat time the Lao Provinces were also dissatisfied with the Central 
Government at Bangkok. The rebels numbered several hundred and soon 
captured Pre and made its chaoluang (sawbwa) agree to support their 
cause while the Siamese Governor there was summarily executed". The 
Chaoluang o f  Lampang refused to give in and ordered his police to fight
it out and a reward 0£ Tics 500 was offered for each Shan or Ngio head 
brought in. Fighting was widespread but the rising soon petered out 
partly because the British vice counsul at Nan, Mr. T. H. Lyle, came 
to Pre and ordered the Shans there to lay down their arms before a 
junction was affected with another ban coming from the Lampang area; 
and partly because a force of modern troops was sent up from Bangkok in 
time. The rebels no doubt took advantage of the fact that British 
subjects in Siam could not be touched by Siamese laws without lmowledge 
of the British consulate representatives. When the rising had been put 
down, 2 British subjects, a Bunnan, an employee of the Bombay Burma 
Trading Company, and a Shan called Pu Phiu were given a summary trial 
and shot by the Siamese. The British protested violently and this 
resulted in a Siamese officer, Phya Daskornpalat, being tried and 
sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, though he was released after 2 years 
i• n ti J" al.· 1 • "
When the Sawbwa of Kengtung, Saomom Kawn Kiao Intaleng, was 
passing through Bangkok in 1903 on his way from the Delhi Durbar to 
his own State, he had an audience with King Chulalongkorn, and after 
this audience he called on the Minister of Interior, Prince Damrong • . 
On both occasions he was accompanied by Mr. W. A.  R .  Wood, the British 
Consul. The Sawbwa expressed the hope to the prince that the recent 
1 .  Wood and Yonek History suggest that Kengtung, then known as Khemarat, 
was part of Lannathai. 
2 o  See Chapter IX. 
3 o Le May, R., An Asian Arcady, p. 57 . 
19 
rising would not cause the Siamese Government to bar the Shans from 
trading and settling in the country, and that the Shans would not give 
trouble again. The prince replied that all would be well if only 
Mr. Wood would not register them as British subjects."I 
If there had been no British vice consul at Nan, and if it 
had succeeded, the Shan rising in North Siam in 1902 would probably 
have repeated what the ancestors of the Laos had done a thousand 
years earlier e For, as Professor Hall says, what happened in those 
dim days ttwas n<:>t a mass displacement of population in the areas 
affected but the seizure of power by a T 1 ai governing class." 2 In 
our own times, in the past decade in fact, there has been an influx 
of Chinese Shans from China into north and northeastern Burma; as 
well as movements by the Shans of Burma across the southeastern 
borders of the Shan States into Thailand. In both cases the cause of 
the move has been the unsettled conditions in their own homeland. 
So much for Tai migrations. 
A reference has already been made to the Nanchao kingdom of 
Yunnan. '!his has, up to very recently, been regarded as a great Shan 
kingdom, the greatest that the Tai race had set up in southeast 
Asia . Now a theory is being advanced that the rulers of N anchao 
were in fact not Shans but Lolos, a .people of the same nbeto-Burman 
stock as the Burmese are believed to have stemmed from. This is a 
theory which I see reasons ·to favour, but as the reputation of 
Nanchao as ·a great and powerful Shan kingdom is still so widespread
I offer some information about it to those of my country-men who are 
bound to be interested in its civilisation and its standing vis-a-vis 
China. 
. The first person to circulate the story of the Nanchao King­
dom seems to have been E. H. Parker, who came in 1891 from the 
British Consulate at Kiungchow to act as Adviser on Chinese Affairs 
to the Government of Burma. Parker stated that this history of 
Nanchao was extracted from the Annals of the Chinese Dynasty of 
T'ang � To him, the words Ailao and Shan were synonymous. 
A hundred years before the Christian era, �peror Wu Ti of 
the Han Dynasty sent an expedition against the Ailao country in the 
present-day";Junnan .. This country was called Tien with its capital 
Peh-ngai.. The king of Tien became an ally of the Chinese and to­
gether they suppressed the Kunming tribes. 
.
About 50 A.D., Hienlih, King of the Ailaos, had a clash 
with the Chinese but was worsted and made to pay tribute o After 
this, numerous other .Ailao tribes submitted, and all the Ai.la.cs 
1 .. Main · trend of the story told to the writer by Mr. Wood and 
Prince.a Phoon, Prince Damrong"1 s daughter. 
2. Hall, D. G. E., J. History of Southeast Asia, p. 146 . 
20 
numbering over half a million, were placed under the prefecture of 
Yungchang. 
The Ailoas used to pierce their noses and distend their ears -
the higher the rank the greater the distension, in some cases the ear 
touching the shoulder. 
Later governors of Yungchang were less successful in treating 
with the Ailaos and frontier clashes with the Chinese occurred from 
time to time. During this period the Pyus of Burma came under the in­
fluence of the Ailaos. 
In 220 A oD .  China was split into three empires and the Ailaos 
seem to have dropped out of the picture for some centuries. By 650 
A.D �  the kingdom had come to be known as Nanchao, meaning • Southern 
�rince"' if we take Nan in Chinese meaning ' south"' and Chao in Tai 
meaning ' prince."' As early as 70 A.D. in fact, six Chaos were listed,
of whom the most powerful was the Chao of Mengshe in the south from 
whom all the Nanchao kings descended. '!his Nanchao Kingdom was very
extensive, touching Magadha in the West, Tibet in the North-west, China 
in the North, "Female Prince State •t ( a term then applied to Cambodia 
whose queen married an Indian adventurer) in the South, Annam in the 
South-east and the Pyu Kingdom in the South-west. T· here seems to have
been two capitals - one not far from modern Talifu and the other near 
Yungchang. 
The Nan-chao Empire seems to have been highly organized. 
There were ministers of State, censors or examiners, generals, 
record officers, chamberlains, judges, treasurers, aediles,
ministers of commerce, &c., and the native word for each de­
partment is given as shwang. It is for Shan scholars to 
exercise their wits upon this word. Minor officers managed 
the granaries, stables, taxes, &c., and the military organisa­
tion was by tens, centurions, chiliarchs, deca-chiliarchs, and 
so on. Military service was compulsory for all able-bodied 
men, who drew lots for each levy. Each soldier was supplied
w· ith a leather coat and pair of trousers". There were four 
distinct army corps or divisions, each having its own stand­
ard. The King 's  body-guard was called chu-nu katsa, and we 
are told that katsa or katsu meant "leather belt,"  - perhaps
the Siamese khat-eu or the Burmese khatsi. The men wore 
chuti helmets and carried shields of rhinoceros hide. The 
centurions 1..rere called lo-tsa�tsz . All these words are de­
serving of the attention of shan scholars. Land was appor­
tioned out to each family according to rank: superior
officials received forty shwang or acres (the tone of this 
word being unlike the tone of the first-mentioned word 
shwang). Some of the best cavalry soldiers were of the 
Wang-tsa tribe, west of the Mekong, - possibly the modern 
\-la. The women of this tribe fought too, and the helmets of 
the wang-t.sa were studded with cowries. 'Th.ere were six 
metropolitan departments and six provincial Viceroys in 
21 
Nan-chao". The barbarian word for "department" was Kien, -
undoubtedly the Keng of modern Keng-ma, and the Kiang of 
modern Kiang-tung". The King of Ching-mai, Tzimme, or 
Z:i.mme is perhaps the same word locally pronounced . 
It is unnecessary to enumerate all the Nan-chao depart­
ments : but it is interesting to note :- Peh-ngai, once the 
capital of the King of Tien; Yunnan; Meng-she, the ancient 
seat of the Meng family of Nan-chao rulers; Ta-li; and Tai­
ho (Tali Fu). 
The people were acquainted - with the arts of weaving 
cotton and rearing silkworms : in some parts - the west -
of the country there was considerable malaria, and the salt 
wells of K 'un-ming or modern Yunnan Fu were free to the 
people . West of Yung-ch"1 ang a mulberry grew , the wood of 
1ihich was suitable for making bows, and gold was found in 
many parts, both in the sands and in the mountains". West of 
modern Momein the race of horses was particularly good. 
When the King sallied forth, eight white-scallopped 
standards of greyish purple were carried before him; two 
feather fans, a chowry, an ax, · and a parasol of king­
fishers"' feather having a red bag. The queen-mother ' s  
standards were scallopped with brown instead of white. 
She was called sin-mo" ( ?  sheng-ma ) or kiu-mo, and the queen­
wife was called tsin-wu.-
As a special mark of honour, the chief dignitaries wore 
a k:i.mpolo or tiger-skin, - an article still worn by the 
northern Burmese in winter. The women ' s  hair w as gathered 
into two locks and plaited into a chignon : their ears were • 
ornamented 'With pearls, green-stone, and amber". Female 
morals were easy previous to marriage, but after marriage 
death was the penalty for adultery. If I am not mistaken, 
the same thing may now be said of some of the Shan States, 
according to recent official reports. 
One peculiar article of food called ngo-k"1 uch is men­
tioned. This was fish, hashed up with gherkins, pepper, and 
ginger. The first syllable suggests the word nga, and k"1 uch 
may be misprint for a very similar charcter p1 ih, the 
Burmese ngapi o 
It took three Nan-chao men to drive an ox-plough : one 
led it, another drove it, and the third poked up the animal: 
all ranks, even the nobles, engaged in this leisurely 
agricultural work. There w ere no corvees, but each man paid
a tax of two measures of rice a year. 
As stated the line of Nanchao Kings belonged to the Meng 
Dynasty and there was a complete list of them after about 600 A.D .  
As a rule, the last syllable of a King's name became the first of  that 
of his son. Thus among the first Nanchao Kings we have the following 
name-s :  
1 ..  She-lung
2 .  Ka-tuh-mang
J .  Tuh-lo (alias Sinulo) 
4 .  Lo-sheng-yen
5 · Yen-koh ) 
6. Sheng-lo-p"'i) brothers
7 .  Koh-lo-feng, adopted by 5 
8 .  P ' "i-lo-koh, son of 6 and nephew of 5 .  
We may now trace some important happenings in the Nanchao or Meng 
Empire in chronological order. 
In 748 A.D.  Kohlofeng succeeded his father and made T 1 aiho 
(Talifu) 1 his capital. He threw in his lot with the Tibetans and made 
war on China, on account of the imprudent behaviour of a neighbouring
Chinese Governor, and named his Kingdoms the Great Meng Elnpire. China 
was in difficulties with the Turks at this period. Kohlofeng set up
a stone inscription telling the world why he severed relations with the 
Chinese, and this stone was said by the author of the History of Yunnan, 
M c  Emik Rocher, to be still in existence in the suburb of Ta-li-fu. 2 
Kohlofeng"' s  son, Feng Ka-i, having died before his father, 
Imousun (son of Feng Ka-i) succeeded to the throne after the farmer's 
death. The Ailaos and the Tibetans combined to attack China during 
Imousun ' s  reign, but were worsted. Imousun later broke away from the 
Tibetans who became oppressive to his people because they established 
garrisons at all important points, levied men to fight their wars and 
collected taxes ruthlessly. Due to the machinations of a Chinese 
mandarin, Imousun made peace with the Chinese. 
794 A.D.. , April, Imoustm fought against the Tibetans in a 
great and bloody battle at the "Iron Bridge" ( ?  on the upper Y angtse 
in i:?est Ywman) and defeated them. The Chinese Emperor recognised 
Imoustm as the King of Nanchao and Chinese envoys were received with 
great pomp. "Soldiers lined the roads, and the horses"• harness was 
ablaze with gold and cowries. Imousun wore a coat of gold mail and 
tiger skin, and had twelve elephants drawn in front of him."" From now 
on, the Nanchao King entered upon a career of conquests, welded the six 
Shan principalities into one, and annexed a number of neighbouring
tribese Imousun sent his sons to be educated in China and maintained 
good relations with that country. To break the Tibetans, ImousW1 made 
war upon them again, and was again victorious. 
1 .  T Y aiho means 11great peace" in Chinese and it is said that the Shan 
word for peace is "Shan-po-t"' o "  and that the name was adopted after 
a successful war. "Shan-po-t ' o "  conveys no meaning in the present­
day Shan. 
2 o At the time Mr. Parker submitted his story in June 1892. 
23 
808 A.D. Imousun died and was succeeded by his son, Sunkohkuan, 
alias M ·eng Tsou, 1 who s tyled himself Piausin, 1 but he ruled only for 
one year and was succeeded by his son, Kuanlungsheng, who was in turn 
murdered by one of his generals. Another son, K 1 uanli succeeded and 
was followed by his brother, Fengyu, who out of modesty declined to 
take a syllable from his father ' s  name. The general who murdered 
Kuanlungsheng, in a raid on Changtu, kidnapped a number of Chinese 
boys and girls and skilled artisans"o This exploit was said to have 
resulted in Nanchao being placed on a par with China in costs,
literature and weaving. 
In .B59 A.D., one "Shan grandeen named Tsiulung, not of the 
direct line but thought to be a grandson of Imousun, became king, and 
taking offence at certain Chinese diplomatic omissions broke off 
relations with China and declared himself F.mperor of Nanchao. Still 
retaining the title of piausin, he made war on China and occupied the 
capital of Annam, Topgkin, but he was driven off by the celebrated 
Chinese general Kaopien; and after years of fighting he was obliged
to submit. The Chinese then allied themselves with Nanchao"• s  old 
enemy the Tibetans. Meanwhile Tsiulung died in 874 of a carbuncle 
''brought on by excessive mental worry."" 
Mengfah2 succeeded Tsiulung and adopted a hostile policy to­
wards the Chinese but his ambitions were th·warted by the latter ' s  
strategem. Mengfah was followed by his son, Shunh,va, in 8858. The 
Chinese ignored friendly overtures from Nanchao throughout Shunhwa ' s  
reign, but soon the Chinese &npire itself was engulfed by civil wars, 
and relations with Nanchao ceased entirelyo In any case, Shunhwa had 
no sons and when he died in 889 the Meng Ruling House, which had its 
beginning at Mengshe and had been ruling for over 800 years, came to 
an end. 
After the death of Shunhwa, complete anarchy reigned in 
Nanchao and adventurous generals tried to outmanoeuver one another. 
In 936 A.D. an adventurous Chinese satrap named Twan Sz-ping 
established himself as the King of Tali."3 The Twans continued to 
rule from this date until the advent of the Mongols in the middle of 
the 13th century. They somet:iJTles styled themselves as Emperors. 
During the rule of the Twans,"Central Burma and the Shan States often 
had contacts with the "Chinese Emperor" variously called U Di Bwa, 
Sao Wong, Fa v-long, Phya Wong, Sao Wongti, Wongtifang, etc". Probably
the appellation did not refer to any one higher than one of the Twans 
of Tali. 
1. cf. Burmese ttMinsgaw•• and ''Pyushin."" 
2 • Mongpha (Muangfa )  ? 
3 o According to J .  G. Scott ' s  Burma, po 46 , Twan accomplished this 
by massacring 800 members of the Ruling House. 
24 
It was during the reign of one Twan Shianghing in 1236 that the 
Mongols, who had by no1-1 conquered the Ki tans, Nuchens and parts of · 
China, came down the �aJi way threatening war. Tali by then was only
one of the numerous principalities or States into which Yunnan had 
been divided. Emperor Mangu Khan sent Iublai himself to subdue 
Yunnan. Two of Twan's ministers were foolish enough to murder his 
envoys; but the Mongol conqueror was satisfied with executing the 
culprits without putting the whole populace to the sword as he had done 
elsewhere. Kublai khan appointed one of the King's ministers as 
suanfushi, or "pacific"ator, '  whose duty it was to advise and help the 
King .i.6S tate affairs. n This seems to have been the origin of the 
kindred appellations now bestowed upon the Shan tsawbwas."11 
When Kublai became Emperor, the aged Tali King, Twan 
Shianghing, set out on a journey to China to tender ·"the submission 
of his Kingdom, but he died on the way and was succeeded by his son, 
Twan Sinchajih. Kublai recognised this person only as a Governor 
instead of king. He later became a general and then a suanfushi. 
It was Twan Sinchajih who helped the Mongols to invade Burma towards 
the close of the century. 
In 1298 Kublai 's  son, the Prince of Liang, was appointed
Viceroy of Yunnan, but, according to this source, the Mongols never 
thoroughly subdued the Twans. 
In 1367 another Prince of Liang named. Timur Backha established 
r..imself as an independent Governor of Tali after a war; by this time 
the Mongols had been driven out of China by the Mings. 
In 1381 a large Ming army effected the conquest of Yunnan, but 
the native chiefs were allowed to govern their own people. 
Mro Parker concluded : 
This brL�gs us to the period whence the history of the 
border tsawbw·as begins. Even now, the southern portions of 
Ytll1Ilan are in part administered by Shan tsawbwas, or by
Chinese adventurers, who have become Shans in  character. As 
the Chinese find they can absorb this or that tsawbwaship, it 
falls unde� direct Chinese rule, and the centre of Shan 
power is slowly but surely driven south. As Captain Forbes 
very j ·�diciously suggests, "previously to the destruction of 
the Pagan monarchy in A.D. 1284, the Tai race, of which the 
Shans form a branch, had been gradually forced out of their 
original seat in Yunnan by the advance of the Chinese power
under the great Emperor Kublai Khan. It was about this time 
that a portion of the race formed the kingdom of Siam. 11 
Dieu Van-tri, the Chief of the Muong Shans, is not a Shan,
but a Canton Chinaman named Lo, who still holds the Ming seal, 
and hUlalways rejected the overtures of the Manchus". The 
r."ame Dieu is simply the surname Tao given by the Chinese. 
hi.s colleagues of Ch 1 e-li, or the Sib-s0ng-panna, seems to be 
25 
still in a wavering state, and it is high time that China put 
her foot downo After fighting against the French, Dieu has 
come to the conclusion that t·hey are better allies than China, 
and, in order to"·"protect himself against Chinese revenge, he 
has admitted 300 Tonquinese soldiers, under French officers, 
into his capital at Lai-chau, or perhaps Dien-pien-phuo His 
children have gone to Paris to be educated. 
In speaking four years ago to Siamese of high rank at 
Bangkok, I found that they were totally ignorant of the 
history of the Shan Empire. Doubtless the Siamese migrated
or were driven south when the Shan Empire broke up o The 
Chinese are also ignorant that the Nanchao were Shans. In 
fact , in submitting the above sketch, I can cite no better 
authority for the due concatenation of events than myself, 
for nearly the whole information is taken from translations 
published by me a year or two ago in China, or from informa­
tion gathered on the spot in Tonquin; Siam, or Burma. l 
Such is the story of the Kingdom of Nanchao. Regarding the 
race of its rulers I am inclined more towards the tl1eory that it was 
Lolo rather than Shan ( though I knov1 nothing of Lolos) if only be­
cause of one or two aspects in the story just narrated, which do not 
appear Shan to me • 
The custom of adopting the last syllable (or even one of the 
syllables) of the father's name i� that of the son is not a Shan 
usage, and like the Burmese, the Shans do not have family names which 
seem to have been the practice among the Nanchao kings". Moreover,
except for "Mengfah" none of the kings"' names suggests a Shan origin. 
''Chao" and "kien"  might be Shan words, but they seem to be the ex­
ception rather than the rule, and if the Tais intermingled with other 
peoples in Yunnan in those days there must have been some words which 
·Here common to all o The words "piau-sin11 and "meng-tso" suggest .?
rather", a11 affinity 1.Ji th the Burmese language, and Lolo and Burn1ese 
belong to the same stock - that of Tibeto-B"urman. 
It might be asked what traces remain of this great 1 Shan"1 or 
other Tai settlements of those days. There is a sad lack of ruins 
and inscriptions to begin with." · The earliest Thai inscription is 
that of Ramakhamheng of Sul<hotai in 1292". As far as the Western 
Shans and Chinese Shans ( who claim the past glories of Hse· nwi and 
Mongmao ) are concerned, no such tl1ings have yet been found",. I t  is 
not known when the present Shan Script came into being, but no stone 
inscription of any antiquity written in this script has been found". 
A Shan book which is over 100 years old is still to be discovered o 
1. Burma Political Department Progs . No. lj July 1892 letter No. 
C .  S. 20 dated Mandalay the 21st June 1892, from E. H .  Parker, 
0ffg. Adviser on Chinese Affairs in Burma to the Chief Secre­
tary to the C. C . ,  Burma. 
This shows either that the script is of very recent origin or that the 
Shans were not in the habit of erecting inscriptions. In the present". 
Shan State nothing short of granite should have survived the incessant 
·:ar·fa re �Ti thin and bet,veen the states. Nevertheless, traces of old 
cities can sti11 be seen in many places in the Shan State . A well­
organized excavation will certainly add to our knowledge of the old 
Shan states. East of tl1e Sal1-1een, in Kengtung city a stone inscription 
bears a date, if rny memor)' serves me, in the sixteenth century, and the 
:.cript is Khun but the letters are rectangular instead of rounded as 
used at present. There are many inscriptions in the north of Kengtung
awaiting rubbing and readine."1 
Many pa�odas ( cediya) in the Shan State claim to be hundreds of 
years old, but the original shapes of the more celebrated ones have not 
survived the zeal of the devotees who insist on building grander but 
more modern shells over the old forms. It is these same devotees who 
allow beautiful monasteries, adorned with rare wood carvings and 
splendidly gilded, to go to rack and ruin, and, instead of maintaining 
and repairing them, insist on builc.ing new ones. 
Ancient sites and ruins and inscriptions have failed us, we next 
turn to the chro.1icles o The modern practice is to regard the chronicles 
cnl;T as the barest outline of history, unless events mentioned are 
collaborated by otb.er ·writings and/or chronicles. As far as the Shan 
chronicles are concerned, if the events mentioned in them are also 
spoken of in the annals of Chinese Dynasties, so 1nuch the better. The 
chronicles of all the major Shan States can be found in trie Gazetteer 
of Upper Burma and the Shan States, but they are always prefaced with 
word s of caution as to their historical 1,rorthiness . I have before me 
three versions of the Chronicles of Hsen,,ri, and some of the important 
dates do not agree. The t:i•TO versions of Hsipaw Sta·(;e Chronicle 
suffer from the same shortcoming. A Chronicle of Mongnai has over 
100 pages of parabai.k, but it contains not a single date ., The dates 
in the four versions of the Kengtung Chronicles, however, agree sub­
stantially. Tr1i s 1.-1as rno st probably due to the fact that they ,.,,ere 
copied from the same original source. I also find that th0 English 
translation of th�se Chronicles in the Gazetteer of Upper Burma and 
the Shan States contain some errors, either in the names of rulers, or 
in cer•tain facts; but, it is not an easy matter for any translation to 
be entirely accurate if it has to go through another medium. Most 
Shan chroniGles must have been translated first into Burmese, orally
or �therwise, and then into En�lish in the offices of British Admin­
istrators"o But until better translations are available those who work 
in En:;lish must rely upon the work of those Administrators, to whom our 
grateful thanks are indeed due. 
It ,;,rill tal<:e time to sort out the dates in the chronicles of the 
Shan States �  MongrrLit, Hsipaw, Hsenwi, r,1or1gnai and YawnghtTG seem 
closely connected a-: one time or another and some cohesion and accuracy 
should eme:r-ge frorn 8omparing dates and nai.1es. The Kengtu.ng chronicle 
1 ? Se•.� -page l abo•,re . 
27 
would need to be checked with those of Kenghung, Monglem and Chiengmai. 
It will be interesting to see how much of these chronicles is men­
tioned in the Chinese dynastic annalso Sooner or later such verfica­
tion and comparison should be done and it certainly can be done, given 
sufficient time and facilities"o Once that is done there is no reason 
why a modest history of the Shan State cannot be compiled. 
For the time being the chronicles of the major Shan States 
make a sad reading as they tell of little else except moving of capi­
tals, palace intrigues, rebe-llions, fighting for succession and inter­
state warfare". Very often fraternal love among princes was only skin 
deep o Nevertheless, posterity is grateful for some dates of succession 
which give us something to start witho". 
The most famous so far, of such chronicles is not that of a:n.y 
of our own Shan States, but that of the Kingdom of Pong"o It is famous 
because it was the earliest to be read by European scholars who, how­
ever, not being at all certain which of the Shan kingdoms 'Pong' could 
be indentified with, there being no �ong state discernible in the geo­
graphy of these regions, variously located it in Mongmao (Yunnan) ,  
Mogaung ( northern Bunna) and Nanchao. Sir George Scott whose own be­
lief was that it was Nanchao declared at one point that in the absence 
of any really satisfying solution., the frivolous might say that "it 
was Mrs. Harris.n 
,· 
The Pong chronicle was discovered by Captain R o D o Pemberton 
of the Indian Army who was sent to Manipur on intelligence work in the 
early 1830 1 s, and I reproduce his translation verbatim, because, 
having compared it carefully with the stories of Mongmao and Mogaung 
(which are attached at the end of the book) , I off�r my own theory
as to the location of the mysterious erpong. "  To general readers who 
are not interested in the unravelling of such clues in the tracing of 
old Shan kingdoms I offer the story as an example of the state 
chronicles such as every major Shan State in Burma also possesses o 
Captain R. B o Pemberton has writtenj 
1st. The country, of which it is now proposed to give a 
general description, extends from the foot of the mountains form­
ing the south-eastern boundary of the Assam valley"j in lati­
tude 27° north, down to the 22nd parallel of lattitude, and 
from the mountains which separate the Muneepoor and Kubo 
valleys on the west, to the Chinese province of Yunnan on the 
. east. 
2nd u These, as far as our information now extends,
formed the boundaries of an extensive empire, of which 
scarcely even the name has hitherto been known; though the 
Siamese and the people of Lowa Shan, who · speak the same 
language, unite in representing themselves as descended from 
the Taee-lon or great Shans, by whom it was occupied"o 
Dr. Buchanan, who accompanied Colonel Symes in his embassy 
to Ava, in 1798, was the firat European who obtained any 
28 
certain infonnation upon the subject; but even he appears to 
have been wholly uninformed of the earlier history of the 
country, and to have known its chiefs only in their present
degraded situation, as tributaries to the King of Ava. 
3rd. During nor residence in Muneepoor, I ascertained 
the existence of an ancient Shan manuscript chronicle, which 
proved of very material assistance in some discussions upon 
questions of boundary with the Court of Ava; and though un­
able to procure the document itself from the old Shan to 
whom it belonged, he allowed me to have it translated into 
the Muneepooree language under his immediate superintendance, 
and from this translation I have obtained the infonnation of 
the past political relations of this kingdom, of which it is 
now proposed to give an abstract. 
4th. The names by which this territory was lmown to 
Dr. Buchanan, were those of Mrelap Shan, or Shan tributary to 
the Burmahs, and Kasi Shan, or the western portion of it, 
tributary to the Kasis, Kathees, or Cassayers, by all of which 
names the people of Muneepoor, who call themselves Moitay or 
Mieethiee, were designated. To the Munee· poorees, the whole 
country under its ancient limits was, and is still, known as 
the kingdom of Pong, of which the city called by the Burmahs 
Mogaung, and by the Shans Mongmaorong, was the cap· i tal. The 
people, they generally called Kubo, and distinguished them, 
as they were dependant on Muneepoor or Ava, by the terms 
Mieethiee Kubo, or Awa Kubo, which expressions are synonimous
with the names Kasi Shan and Mrelap Shan, applied by the 
Burmahs to the same people and country. 
5th o From Khool-liee, the first king, whose name is 
recorded in the chronicle, and whose reign is dated as far 
back as the 80th year of the Christian era, to the time of 
Murgnow, in the year 667 A.D. , the names of twelve kings are 
given, who a.re described as having gradually extended their 
conquests from north to south, and the names of no less than 
twenty-seven tributary cities are mentioned, which acknowledged 
the supremacy of Murgnow. To this period, the Pong kings 
appear to have been so fully engaged in attempts to consoli­
date their power at home as to have had but little leisure, 
ani probably less ability, to extend their conquests to cotm­
tries more remotely situated. In the year 777 A.D., Murgnow 
died, leaving two sons, called Sookampha and Samlongpha, of 
whom the eldest Sookampha succeeded to the throne of Pong,
and in his reign we find the first traces of a connexion 
with the more western countries, many of which he appears to 
have succeeded in bringing under subjection to his authority. 
6tho Sarnlong, the second brother, was."dispatched by 
Sookampha at the hea4 of a powerful force, to subdue first 
t.''.le countries to the eastward, including probably the 
29 
principality of Bhumo, which extends from the left bank of 
the Irawattee river to the frontier of Yunan: this expedi­
tion was successful, and Sa.mlongpha again leaving Mongmaorong, 
is described as having arrived in the western country of the 
Basa king, which probably means Banga, the ancient capital of 
the Kachar country;- he o·vercame the opposition there made to 
him, and having received his submission� proceeded to Tripurah,
where he was equally successful o From Tripurah"jl he marched 
back across tpe hills , and descended into the Muneepoor valley 
near Moeerang, a village on the western bank of the Logta.k 
lake. 
7th. The fact of this visit is also recorded in the 
ancient chronicles of Muneepoor, though the period assigned 
to it is earlier by sixty years than that given in the Shan 
chronicle - a discrepancy in dates , which it were equally
vain and useless to attempt to reconcile"e Samlongpha, in 
consideration of the extreme poverty of the Muneepoor 
territory, remitted all tribute, and appears to have directed 
the adoption of certain observances in dress and diet, cal­
culated to improve the habits and manners of the people, who 
were evidently in the lowest stage of civilization o 
8th. From Muneepoor, Samlongpha, according to the Shan 
chronicle, proceeded into Assam, where he also succeeded in 
establishing his brother ' s  authorityo He dispatched messen­
gers to Mongmaorong, to communicate the intelligence of his 
success to his brother Sookampha, and to announce his in­
tended return to Pong. The messengers, however9 instilled 
the most serious suspicions into the mind of Sookampha, of 
the designs of his brother, and represented him as deter­
mined to assume the sovereignty of the country on his return 
from Assam". A conspiracy was entered into for the purpose 
of poisoning Samlongpha� who was saved by his mother ' s  hav­
ing accidentally overheard the plot, of which she gave him 
timely warning by letter o · Samlongpha 1 s wife and"· son were 
permitted to join him in Assam, and from this son, who was 
called Chownakhum, the su·bsequent princes of the Assam 
dynasty are said to be descended. 
9th. If we compare this tradition with the acco"unts 
given by the Assamese themselves, to Dr"o Buchanan, in 1808 
and 1809, we shall find them tracing their descent from two 
brothers, Khunlaee and Khuntaeej whose names sufficiently
prove their Shan origin; the one brother is said to have 
remained in Nora, by which term the Sinphos , or tribes 
oc-cuping the mountains south-east of Assam"J to ·this day
designate the Tsobwa or trib·utary prince of Mogaung., whom
they call the Nora Rajah; and the other brother, Khuntaee, 
remained near the hill Chorai Khorong9 in the vicinity of 
Geergaong, the ancient capital of Assam, which, as it is on 
3 0  
the eastern borders of the valley, was probably the site chosen 
for a residence by Samlongpha o 
10th. This account is the only one I am aware of, that 
proves with any degree of certainty the fact of intercourse 
having taken place at so remote a period between the Indo­
Chinese nations and the inhabitants of the eastern frontier of 
Bengal o That the supremacy which was then obtained by the 
brother of the Pong king over Cachar and Tripurah, was exer­
cised but for a short period, may be fairly ass"umed from the 
nature of the co"untry and the distance which separated the 
paramount authority from the subjected state"o But the proof, 
that such an intercourse did take place, satisfactorily 
establ"ishes the source from whence the Tartar peculiarities by 
which these tribes are distinguished have been derived, and 
we know that with Muneepoor, connnunication continued to be held 
to a comparatively recent period. 
lltr.. From the death of Sookampha, in the year 808 ,  to 
the accession of Soognampha, in 1315, the names of ten kings
only are given, whose reigns appear to have been unmarked by
any event of importance; but about the year 1332, A.D. some 
disagreements originating in the misconduct of four pampered 
favourites of the Pong king, led to collision between the 
frontier villages of his territory, and those of Yunan"o An 
interview was appointed between the kings of Pong and China, 
to take place at the town of Mongsee, which is said to have 
been five days distant from Mongmaorong, the capital of Pong. 
The Chinese sovereign, with whom this interview took place, 
is named in the chronicle Chowongtee, and Shun-tee, the last 
prince of the twentieth imperial dynasty, is in the best 
chronological tables described as having ascended the throne 
of China in the year 1333 � the coincidence of dates and 
striking sirrdlarity of name leave no doubt of the identity of 
the emperor in whose reign the conference took place, and the 
misunderstanding was removed by the execution of the Pong men. 
12th"o The Chinese, however, probably, now conscious of 
their superior power, determined on subjugating the Pong
dominions, and after a protracted struggle of two years 1 
duration, the capital of Mogaung or Mongmaorong was captured
by a Chinese army, under the cormnand of a general called 
Yangchangsoo, and the King Soognampha, with his eldest son,
Sookeepha, fled to the king of Pugan or Ava, for protection.  
They were demanded by the Chinese general, to whom the 
Burmese surrendered them, and were carried into China, from 
whence they never returned o 
13th"o The Queen of Pong, who, with her two remaining
sons, and a third born after her fli�ht from the capital , had 
souglrt a refuge among tb � Khumptis on the north , returned at 
t.i1e expiration. of two :re .rr·a ,  and estab"lished a town on the 
31 
banks of the Numkong river"1 to which the name of Moong-kong 
was given. The second and third sons of the exiled king 
Soognam reigned, the one three , and the other, twenty eight, 
years, and were succeeq.ed by their younger brother, Soo-oop­
pha; who, as has been before mentioned, was born after the 
destruction of the capital Mongmaorong by the Chinese. 
14th. This prince ascended the throne in the year A.D"o 
1363, and anxious to avenge the treachery of the Burmahs, who 
had surrendered his father and brother to the Chinese general.
Yangchangsoo, he invaded their territory three years after­
wards, at the he�d of a large a+rny,, and laid siege to the 
capital of Zukaing, on the northern bank of the Irawattee 
river, which he succeeded in capturing and destroying. A 
veey unexpected confirmation of this event is  found in the 
Appendix of Mr. Crawfurd"9 s Embassy to Ava, where in the 
Burmese chronological table, obtained during his residence 
in that country, the destruction of Chitkaing or Zakaing and 
Penya is mentioned as having been effected in the year 
1364, and Major Burney also discovered the same circumstance 
recorded in the 6th vol o of the Maha Yazwen, or great history 
of Ava, where the destruction of both cities is said to have 
been effected by the Shan king T hokyenbwao 
15th"o Soo-oop-pha was succeeded by his nephew 
Soo-hoongpha, who, after a prosperous reign, died in the 
year 1445 1 A.·no , leaving four sons , whose names, and the 
districts assigned for their support, it will be useful to 
record . T he eldest son, who was called"·Sooheppha, was also
lmown by the cognomens of Soohoongkhum and Chow-hoo-mo, and 
to him the districts of Manpha and Moonjeet were assignedo 
The second son was called Chow-hoong-sang and Satabal, and 
he possessed Moongyang and the surrounding territory"o The 
third, ·"chow-swee-nok, subsisted on Kaksa; and to the fourth,
Sow-rum-khum, the district of Khumbat, was assigned",, The 
names of two princesses, daughters of Soohoongpha, are also 
mentioned in the chronicle, one of whom was given in marriage
to the tributary chieftain of Moongyang,"and the other was 
affinanced to the dependant Rajah of Khumbat; but on reach­
ing Moongyang, on her way to Khumbat, the anticipated 
separation caused the two sisters so much distress, that they 
solicited and obtained their father"v s pennission to dissolve 
the engagement with the Khumbat chieftain, who requested that 
the dowry he was to have received with the princess should 
be still paid, and a remission of tribute be granted to him 
for three yearso The latter request only was complied with, 
and the Khumbat Rajah, indignant at the treatment he had 
received, built a strong fort, under a pretended apprehen­
sion of the tribes of the adjacent hills, .and prepared to 
throw off his allegiance to the king of Pong o 
32 
16th. In this state of affairs, Soohoongkhum, in the year 
1474 A.Do,  sent an embassy, headed by a Shan nobleman called 
Chowlanghiee, to Kyamba, the reigning prince of Muneepoor, re­
questing a daughter in marriage, which was acceded to; and in 
the following year, the princess left Muneepoor, for Pong, 
escorted by Chowlanghiee". On reaching the Sekmoo hill, which 
is close upon the western frontier of the Sumjok territory, the 
cavalcade was attacked, and the princess carried off by the 
Rajah of Khumbat, who had been lying in wait at the foot of 
the hill for this purpose, with a chosen band of followers". 
The Pong nobleman Chowlanghiee effected his escape, and reach­
ing Mongmaorong, related the disaster and capture of the 
princess. 
17th. Measures were immediately taken to avenge so 
gross an insult; the king of Pong crossed the Ningthee or 
Kyendwen river, at the head of a considerable force, and 
entering the Kubo valley, was there joined by the Muneepoor 
chieftain, with all his men; they besieged Khumbat, which, 
after an obstinate defence, was carried by assault, and the 
Rajah made his escape to the southward, on a spotted elephant, 
by a pass which still bears his name, and commerates the 
event. 
18th. A tract of country was then made over to the Rajah 
of Muneepoor by the king of Pong, extending east to the 
Noajeeree, a range of hills running between the Moo and 
Kyendwen rivers, which was then established as the boundary 
between the two countries .  South, the limit extended to the 
Meeyatoung or Meeya hills, and north, to a very celebrated 
mangoe tree near Moongkhum, between the Noajeeree hills and 
the Kyendwen river, where, the two princes separated, and 
returned to their respective capitals. 
19th. The Pong king Soohoongkhum, or Kingkhomba, with 
whom these arrangements were made, died about the year 1512-
1513 , and was succeeded by his son Soopengpha, in whose reign, 
according to this ancient chronicle, the Burmahs first attacked 
and conquered Pong, though they affirm their subjugation of 
this kingdom to have been effected so early as at the commence­
ment of the 11th century. 
20th o In the 9th and 10th volumes of the Burmese History, 
before alluded to, Major Burney found, that in 1526 A.D.,  
the Niibyen and Mogaung Shans again invaded Ava in consider­
able forces, and destroyed the capital, killed the king, and 
overran the whole country as far south as Toungnoo and Prome: 
for nineteen years afterwards, according to the same authority, 
two Shan princes reigned in Ava, and Soopengpha, whose career 
had been marked by such vicissitudes of conquest and defeat, 
died, according to the Shan chronicle, in the year 1568, A .D. 
33 
21st. Under his son and successor, Sookopha, two success­
ful invasions of Siam are recorded in the chronicle, and the 
capture of four white elephants gave a degree of importance 
to the conquest, which none but an Indo-Chinese can fully
appreciate: his territories were subsequently invaded by the 
Burmahs, his capital taken., and himself compelled to ny to 
Khumpti, where he was discovered and betrayed to the Burmese 
by two of his slaves, Tooyang and Sieerang: his subsequent 
fate is unnoticed in the chronicles, where his reign termi­
nates in 1587 A o D o, with his capture, and his son Chow­
kalkhum is said to have succeeded him"o In an attack upon 
Meetoo or Myedoo, not more than- four or five marches north 
of Ava, he was cut off by a Chinese force, which appears to 
have invaded this portion of the Burmese territories at 
the same time, and was killed about the year 1592 Q 
22nd. Chowoongkhum, called also Soohoongpha, who had 
fled to Ava on the death of his father Chowkalkhum, was 
raised to the vacant throne by the Burmah king, but was 
again dis-po"ssessed four years afterwards, in consequence
apparently of having attempted to throw off his allegiance, 
and raising the standard of rebellion in Moongyang, which 
he had been sent to destroy"o His reign lasted but four 
years, and is only remarkable for the general adoption by 
the Shans, about the year 1596, of the Burmese style of 
tying the hair and dressing; two circumstances which 
clearly' prove their subjugation at that period to have 
been effectually accomplished. An Interregnum of ten 
years followed the expulsion of Chowoongkhum, and from 
1617 to 1662 A.D. four rulers are mentioned whose brief 
sway was unmarked by any event worth recording. In the 
ten years between 1662 and 1672, a son of the king of Ava 
reigned in Pong, after whom, the succession again reverted 
to the lineal descendants of their ancient race of kings, 
and five are mentioned whose united reigns bring the 
history of that country down to the year 17340 
2Jrd"o About this time., two princes o f  Pong, called 
Mongpo and Kyathon, f led to Rajah Oureeb Nuwaz of Muneepoor, 
whose career of conquest has been noticed in the second 
section of this report, and solicited his protection against 
the Burmahs: he attacked and destroyed the town of Meetoo, 
and establishing the two princes at Moongkhong, in the month 
of M�, bes_towed his daughter Yenjeejoyaee in  marriage on the 
eldest". From Moongkhong, they returned in August to Mong-
maorong, the ancient capital of Pong, where the elder brother 
reigned for a short and uncertain period; Chowmokhum (Mongpo) 
was succeeded by the younger of two sons named Chowkhoolseng, 
in whose time a rose the Burmese dynasty of Mooksoo, with its 
founder Alompra., about the year 1752, A.D . ,  from which period, 
even a nominal independance has ceased to exist, and this 
once extensive empire, stretching to Assam, Tripurah, Yunan, 
and Siam, has been thorcughly dismembered, its princes are no 
longer known, and its cP.pital is ruled by a delegate from 
Ava o l 
On comparison of the above story with those of Mongmao and 
Mogaung2, I came to the conclusion that "Pong" was neither Nanchao; nor 
Mongmao nor Mogaung alone; nor need it be "Mrs. Harris. 11 I think, 
rather, that the first part of the story up to the surrender of Songan­
pha by Ava to the Chinese was the story df Mongmao or the Mao Kingdom; 
and that from there onwards, from the time that the Pong Queen, 
Songanpha 's  wife, established her court at 'Moongkong ' ,  the story is 
that of Mogaung. 
Before enumerating some points in support of this theory, I 
sho·uld point out that both Pemberton I s report of Pong and Elais 1 
sketches of Mongmao and Mogaung reached the compilers in English after 
having passed through two or three hands and as many languages. It1 is 
natural, therefore, that there should be mistakes in Shan sounds and 
dates after such treatment. I suspect that the original Shan source 
ofl- both works was Mao Shan. In this dialect of the Tai language 
group, the consonant ttnn is often pronounced as n1n and vice versa, 
also, certain individual Shans would pronounce "l" as "r", although 
this is very rare. The fact that both Elias and Pemberton did not 
know any- dialect of the Tai language made it difficult for them to 
render every Shan word or name wholly intelligible. The capital of 
the Mao Kingdom, Ma-Kao-Mung-Lung or Ka-Kao-Mung-Lung, for example, 
provoked the following comment from its compiler, Mr. Ney Elias. "I 
have been unable to obtain a meaning for the name as given, and indeed 
cannot be sure tha t I have written it correctly, reaching me as it 
did, through two foreign languages. 11 3 
The considerations which lead me to identify Pong first with 
Mongmao, and later with Mogaung are the following : 
1) The capital of Pong was called Mongmarong in Shan, but 
Mogaung in Burmese, according to Pemberton"• s  account. Actually, in 
the first part the capital was "Mongmaorong" (Mongmaolong in Shan, . 
Maingmawgyi in Burmese) ; in the second part, it was Mogaung
(Mongkawng in Shan)"o Henry Yule, following Pemberton also says 
l o Pemberton, R. B"o, Report on the Eastern Frontier of British India, 
pp. 108-116. 
2 .  See Appendices I & IT". 
3 .  Elias, N., Introductory Sketch of the History of the Shans, p. 31, 
footnote. 
35 
"Mogoung"  and "Moung Maulong"  are one and the same city.1 No Shan or 
Burmese could make the mistake of identifying those two cities". The 
mistake clearly arises from the successive translations of the account 
in Pemberton"1 s report . 
Elias observed � 
• o •  This Munipuri history of Pong is simply that of the 
Mau Shans , ante dated by nearly five hundred years at the 
commencement, while as it proceeds, dates and events are made 
gradually to agree more closely by assigning unreasonable 
periods to the length of the re•igns of the kings o The error 
doubtless arose in the first instance from the absence of an 
intelligible chronology in the original Shan record,  and for 
want of fixed points in the contemporary annals of neighbour­
ing countries by which to set up landmarks; but however this 
may be, we see that on arriving at the death of Chau-Ngan-pha, 
Major Pemberton"1 s date is only about one hundred years in 
arrear of the correct date, and that some four hundred years 
had to be distributed in the reigns of the intervening kings. 
Thus it is that twelve kings are made to reign for 587 years, 
or an average of nearly 49 years each; the i3th Murgnow (a
name impossible to �ecognise ) ,  reigns for the astounding 
period of 110 years; the 14th for 31 years, and the remaining 
10 for 507 years; giv ing an average for the whole of twenty 
four of very nearly 51½ years, or more than double the usual 
period, and sufficient, in itself, to show the erroneous 
nature of the story from a chronological point of view"ol2 
2)• The first Pong King, "Khool-liee"11 , was definitely the 
first Mao King, n·Kun-lai"; and perhaps the name Elias found it im-
possible to recognise, viz. "Murgnown has an affinity with the 30th 
Mao King, "Mo-Kang-Neng"? 
3) Samlongpha"' s  conquests and the surrender of Songanpha to 
the Chinese are identical in both the Mongmao and Pong stories, ex­
cept in the dating"o 
4)  It was from the time the Pong Queen, Songanpha' s wife,
established her court at "Moongkong '  that the story of Pong became 
the history of Mogaung (=  Moongkong = Mongkawng in Shan)"o It is 
quite possible that the Mogamg descendents of Samlongpha were also 
ruling in "Chei-En" or "Tsei-En" at the same time since they were 
very closely related - the scions of one Ruling House were sometimes 
asked to become ld.ngs of the other. 
5 )  The gift of a tract of territory by 0Soohoongkhum"  of 
Pong to Manipur has some bearing on the division of his territory 
around the Chindwin by "Chau-Kaa-phan of Mogaung to his relatives. 
1. Yule, H o , A N arrative of the Mission sent b the Governor-General 
of India to t e  Court of Ava in 1 , P o  270 .  
2 .  Elias, N ., Op. cit"o , pp. 29-30". 
J-. 6 
6) Wars with Pegu which occurred at about the same time in both 
Pong and Mogaung stories, took place in the reign of "Soopengpha" in 
Pong and of "Chau-Peng" in Mogaung, the two kings being one and the same. 
7) 11Sookopha" of Pong and "Chau-Kaa-pha" of Mogaung invaded 
Siam"o This was plainly at the behest of Pegu, and the two names belonged
to one and the same person. 
8 )  Pong was finally subjugated in 17 52 by the "Burmese dynasty
of Mooksoo" in the reign of "Chow Khoolseng 11 • This was undoubtedly
the same king as "Haw Seing" of Mogaung who had to submit to Alaungpaya 
in the fifties of the eighteenth century. 
What about the name "Pong"? It was the Manipuri term for 
"Shan". Mr. Harvey is right in saying it meant "Maw Shan''. 1 Mr. Wood 
admits "Pong" is one of the mysteries of history. 2 Elias tries to 
attribute to the word the Burmese 11Pong11 meaning ''glory" in the sense 
of the Chinese "Celestial Kingdom". But we are still left with the 
question, why the Manipuris, who had had no dealings with the Shans 
beyond Ava and Mogaung, should call the Shans "Pong"? 
My own theory is as follows : In the story of Mogaung, a tribe 
of Pwons were subjects to that state during the height of its power.
The Pwons are still to be found along Irrawaddy defiles above Bhamo. 
It was more than probable that these people were known to the Shans of 
Mogaur1g and Mongmau as "Pongtt. If Samlongpha"' s army that invaded 
Manipur contained some contingents of the Pong and if these contingents 
were the first to come into contact with the Manipuris and said they 
were Pong, it would be quite natural for this name to stick to all men 
under Samlongpha"' s standard in the eyes of the Manipuris. Hence all 
Shans were known ."to the Manipuris as Pong. After all the Burmese word 
Taruk came from Turkic tribes who formed the bulk of the Mongol army
which invaded Burma in 1277 .  3 
Here is another plausible explanation of how the Shans were 
c alled Pong. In the entry for the 25th February 1837 of his Journal,
McLeod observed that the Kengtung Shans called the Northern Shans 
-Ph-on-·g or Tai Nik. But the origin of the word Phong is as elusive asever. 
Tables of Kings and Rulers in the three narratives will be 
found at the end of this work, and I hope they will help to confirm my
observations. 
l � Harvey , G .  E o, History of Burma, p. 322. 
;� o Wood, W. A. R • .9 op . cit. , p o  36 . 
3 o Lu� ·e ,  Go H., The Early Syam in Bunna"1 s History; JSS, XLVI, 2, 
1'!0 ,/ei1ber 1958, p .  136. 
37 
There _"are still other words from the past which tease the 
imagination of Shans. These are the words Kawsampi or Kosambi, and 
Koshanpyi, which figure in local chronicles as well as in Burmese 
annals. 
Kawaampi was the classical name of the Mao Kingdom"o The 
Hsenwi Kingdom of the northern Shan States of Burma also had 
Kawsampi as its classical name o Both claimed a founder of the same 
name - Khun Lai o It is quite clear that the Hsenwi Kingdom was 
intimately related, as an off-shoot descendant perhaps, to the Mao 
Kingdom. In the Hsenwi chronicle, not only is the country called 
Kawsampi, but the name Mongmao is also used for one tract of territory
and is explained in the following story o 
In Mong Kawsampi there lived a queen named Ekka Mahesi Dew1,"·l 
who was great with child, and one day feeling unwell she lay ."wrapped in 
a shawl of red velvet basking in the sun on the terrace of the palace. 
There a Tilanka bird, while flying through the air, saw her, and taking 
her for a piece of raw meat, swooped down and carried her off beyond 
the reach of mortals into the depths of Hema Wunta, the centre of the 
3000 forests. There he settled on a great Mai Nyiu 2 tree and would 
have devoured her, but the Dewi cried aloud and the Tilanka was 
frightened away o The queen was then delivered of a male child on 
the tree and the cries of the infant attracted the attention of a 
hermit named Alakapa who was living in the neighbourhood o He came 
to the tree and the queen related how she had been carried off by the 
bird from Kawsampi. The hermit then made a ladder for her and her 
son to descend from the Mai Nyiu tree o After a while, being far away 
from other human beings and lonely, the hermit and the queen lived 
together as husband and wife. 
When the boy attained the age of fourteen or fifteen years, 
the _Thagya came down and _presented him with a harp, whose strains 
charmed and subdued all the elephants of the forests, and the boy was 
thus known by the name �f Khun Hseng U Ting, from the word Ting, a 
harp. 
Khun Hseng U Ting at an appropriate time gathered together all 
the elephants of the forests with the music of his harp and marched to 
the country of Kawsampi". There he found that the King, his father, 
was dead, and he succeeded him on the throne"o Later he went back to 
the forests where his mother . lived, and there built a city called 
U Ting, afterwards known as Mong Ting, on the spot where the Thagya 
gave him the harp. 
The forests in which the queen lived came to be known as 
Kawsampi. 
l o The words merely mean "chief queen o"tt 
2 o Red Silk cotton tree - Bombax Malabaricumo 
38 
While the Tilanka bird was carrying the queen through the air 
she felt so dizzy that the country over which the bird flew was named 
Mcngmao - from the Shan word mao meaning dizzy or giddy ol 
Many Shans believe this story to be the explanation of the 
Hsenwi kingdom"' s  own origins, and some Europeans working on the Hsenwi 
chronicle treat it as a Shan fairy tale. But in fact the story aan be 
traced back to the Dhammapada' s celebrated ' Story-cycle of King Jldena ' , 
and I recotlllt his story at some length, not .  only to give my compatriots
the pleasure of reading a Dhammapada story unexpectedly, but also to 
convince them of the true origin of the Hsenwi legend. King Udena was. 
reigning in the classical Kosambi during the life time of Lord Buddha,
and this is the story of the birth and youthful career of Udena: 
Once upon a time, two kings, Allakappa and Vethadipaka, re­
nounced their kingdoms and went to live as hermits in the depths of the 
Himalaya o In due course, one of them, Vethadipaka, died and became a 
nat"o Wishing to see his old friend, the nat disguised himself as a way­
farer and visited him, and eventually revealed his identity. Before 
parting from the nat, Vethadipaka · asked his friend if he was disturbed 
by anything and if he could help in any way. Allakappa replied that 
he had been much disturbed by wild elephants in the forest and had 
much trouble in cleansing their foul dung from the ground of his 
hermitage"o Vethadipaka then gave Al.lakappa a three-stringed lute and 
three gathas (spells) with this instruction "Strike this string and 
utter this gatha, and the elephants will turn and run away without so 
much as daring to look at you ; strike this string �d utter this 
gatha, and they will turn and run uay, eyeing you at every step;
strike this string and utter this gatha, and the leader of the herd 
will come up and offer you his back. Now do as you please."" There­
after the ascetic .Allakappa lived in peace. 
rFrom this point until the end of the story, it is direct 
- transcription- 7
At this time Parantapa was king of Kosambio One day he was 
sitting out in the op�n air basking hil'nself in the rays of the newly 
risen sun, and beside him sat his queen, great with child"o The queen 
was wearing the King ' s  cloak, a crimson blanket worth a hundred 
thousand pieces of money; and as she sat there conversing with the 
king9 she removed from the king ' s  finger the royal signet, worth a 
h·undred thousand pieces of money, and slipped it on her own. 
Just at that moment a monster bird with a bill as big as an 
elephant ' s  trllllk came soaring through the airo Seeing the queen and 
mi�taking her for a piece of meat , he spread his . wings and swooped 
1. Compiled from GUBSS, I ol"o 227 and a chronicle of Hsenwi in my
possession. 
39 
down". When the king heard the bird swoop down, he sprang to his feet 
and entered the royal palace. But the queen , because she was great
with child and because she was of a timid .nature, was unable to make 
haste. The bird pounced"·"upon her, caught her up in the cage of his 
talons, and soared away with her into the air. (These birds are said 
to possess the strength of five elephants; they are therefore able to"· 
convey their victims through the air, settle wherever they wish and 
devoured their flesh. ) 
As the queen was being carried away by the bird, terrified 
though she was with the fear of death, she preserved her presence of 
mind and thought to herself, "Animals s-tand in great fear of the 
human voice". Therefore if I cry out, this bird will drop me the 
instant he hears the sound of my voice. But in that case I should 
accomplish only my own destruction and that of my unborn child. If, 
however, I wait until he settles me somewhere and begins to eat,
then I can make a noise and frighten him awa;s-. n Through her own 
wisdom,.  therefore, she kept patience and endured"o 
Now there stood at that time in the Himalaya country a banyan
tree which, although of brief growth, had attained great size and was 
like a pavilion in form; and to this tree that bird was accustomed to 
convey the carcasses of wild animals and eat them"o To this very 
tree, therefore, the bird conveyed the queen, lodged her in a fork 
of the tree, and watched the path leading to the tree"o (It is the 
nature of these birds, we are told, to watch the path leading to 
their tree. )  At that moment, the queen, thinking to herself, "Now 
is the time to frighten him away,"" raised both her hands, clapped 
them together and shouted, and frightened the bird awayo 
At sunset the pain of travail came upon her, and at the same 
time from all the four quarters of heaven arose a great storm. The 
delicate queen, half dead with suffering, with no one beside her to 
say to her, ttFear not, lady,"n slept not at all throughout the night. 
As the night grew bright , the clouds scattered, the dawn came, and 
her child was born at one and the same moment". Because her son was 
born at the time (utu) of a storm, at the time when she was upon a 
mountain, and at the time when the sun rose, she named her son Udena. 
Not far from that tree was the place of residence of the 
ascetic Allakappa. Now on rainy days it was the custom of the ascetic 
not to go into the forest for fruits and berries, for fear of the 
cold. Instead he used to go to the foot of the• tree and gather up 
the bones from which the bird had picked the flesh; then he would 
pound the bones, make broth of them and drink the broth. On that 
very dq, therefore, he went there to get bones o As he was picking
up bones at the foot of the tree, ·he heard",the voice of a child in 
the branches above G 
Looking up, he saw the queen o ttWho are you?" said he"o "I 
am a woman .. " "How did you get there?" "A monster bird brought me 
here. "  "Come down, n said he"o "Your honour ,  I am afraid to come down 
on account of difference of casteo n "Of what caste are you?n "Of the 
40 
warrior caste . "  "I am alsc of the warrior caste . "  "Well , then, give 
me the pass word of the warrior caste .t11 He did so.  "Well then, 
climb up and set down my boy. 11 Finding a way to climb the tree on 
one side, he climbed up and took the boy in his arms, obeying the 
queen : s  behest not to touch her with his hands he set the boy down; 
then the queen herself caine downt. 
The ascetic conducted the queen along the path i o  his 
hermitage and cared for her tenderly without in any way· ·violatirig 
his vow of chastity. He brought honey f�om flies and r:Ave it t.o 
ner; he brc.ught rice grown in his own field and prepared rrot.;h and 
gave it to her., Thus did he minister to her needst. 
After a time she thought to herself, "For my part I know 
neither the way to come nor the way to , nor can I repose absolute 
conf:1den.ce even in this ascetict. Now if he were to le Ave us to go 
elsewhere, we should both perish right heret. I must by 3cme means 
.3educe him to violate his chastity, so that he will no1, abandon us . '' 
Accordingly she displayed herself before him with her under and upper 
garments in disarray, and thus seduced him to violate his vow of 
chastity; thenceforth the two lived togethert. 
One day as the ascetic was observing a conjtunction of a con­
stellation with one of the lunar mansions , he saw the occultation of 
Pa.rantapa I s star .  ''My lady, 11 said he, 11 Parantapa, king of Kosambi , is 
deadt. :r 11Noble sir, why do yo1.1 speak thust·.' Why do you bear ill-will 
against him?" "I bear him no ill-will, my lady. I say thi.s because 
I h ave just seen the occultation of his star . "  She burst into tear s .  
'?Why do you weep? '' he askedto Then she told him that Parantapa was her 
own husbandto The ascetic replied, "Weep not , rr.y lady; whoever is 
born is certain to diet. 11  11 I know that, noble sirt. 1 1 1 1T hen Why do you 
weep?" "I weep, r.oble sir, because it pains me to think, To my son 
belongs the sovereignty by right of succession; had he been there he 
would have raised the white pa=asol; now he has become one of tt1e 
common herd. n rtNe·rer mind, my lady; be not disturbed . If ifOU desire 
that he shall receive the sovereignty, I will devise some means by 
which he shall re�ei ve it .. 11 Accordingly the ascetic gave tne boy the 
lute to charm elephants with and likewise taught him the spells for 
charmir1g elephantst. 
Now at that time many thousands of elephants came and sat at 
the foPt of the banyar1-tree o So the ascetic said to the bo;y , ''Climb 
the tree before the elephant.s comet, and whetn they comet, ut tctr t.his 
spell and strike this string, and they will all turn and run away, 
without even so much as daring to look at you, th en descend and come 
to me . 11 The boy did as he was told, and then went and told the 
ascetic � On the se=-�ond day the ascetic said to l1im, ''Today utter 
this spell and strike this string, if you pleaset, and they will turn 
and run away eyeing you at ev·ery· stept. 11 On that day also the boy did 
as he was told, and then went ar,d to ld the asce t�tc .  
41 
Then the ascetic addressed the mother, saying, "My lady, give 
your son his message and he will go hence and become king ., '' So she 
addressed her son, saying, "You mu.st say, 'I am the son of King 
Parantapa of Kosambi; a monster bird carried me off ! Then you must 
utter the names of the Cormnander-in-chief and the other generals". 
If they still refuse to believe you, you must show them this blanket 
which was your father"' s  cloak and this signet ring which he wore on 
his finger . "  With these words she dismissed him. 
The boy said to the ascetic , "Now what shall I do?"' The 
ascetic replied, nseat yourself on the lowest branch of the tree, 
utter this spell and strike this string ; and the leader of the 
elephants will approach and offer you his back". Seat yourself on 
his back, go to your Kingdom, and take the Sovereignty. "  The boy 
did reverence to his parents, and following the instructions of the 
ascetic, seated himself on the back of the elephant and whispered 
in his ear, 111 am the son of King Parantapa of Kosambi". Get me and 
give me the sovereignty which I have inherited from my father". "  When 
the elephant heard that, he trumpeted, "Let many thous"ands of 
elephants assemble ; ti and many thousands of elephants assembled. 
Again a second time"· · he trumpeted, "Let the old, weak elephants 
retire ; "  and the old, weak elephants retiredo The third time he 
trumpeted, tttet those that are vecy young retire; st and they also 
retired. 
So the boy went forth surrounded by many thousands of warrior­
elephants, and reaching a village on the frontier, proclaimed, nr am 
the son of the king; let those who desire worldly prosperity come with 
me . "  Levying forces as he proceeded, he invested the city and sent 
the following message to the citizens , "Give me the battle or the 
kingdom . "  The citizens answered, "We will give neither.  Our queen 
was carried. off by a moneter bird when she was great with child, and 
we know not whether she is alive or dead. So long as we hear no news 
of her, we will give neither battle nor kingdomo " ( At that time , we 
are told, the kingdom was handed down from father to son"o ) Thereupon 
the boy said, "I am her sono " So saying, he uttered the names of the 
Commander-in-chief and the other generals , and when they still refused 
to believe him, showed the blanket and the ring o They recognised 
the blanket and the ring, opened the gate, and sprinkled ( annointed) 
him king. l 
There is no doubt where the origin of "Sao U Tain"2 came from,
and how the classical name Kosambi or Kawsampi for Mongmao and Hsenwi 
came about. 
The Shan theory that the early rulers of Hsenwi took turn to 
rule for a period of three year each and hence the name (Kaw = each, 
l o Burlingame, Buddhist Legends, Pt.  1, Book 1-2 ; in Lanman • s  
Harvard Oriental series .  
2 .  There is no consonant trdn or 11b" in the Western Shan script or 
speech. 
42 
Sam = three, .Pi = year ) ,  can hardly be taken seriously, though it makes 
better sense than the story of ttSao U Ting11 or "Um Ting" ( = Harp
carrier). 
Again, the term Kawsarnpi is often confused with Koshanpyi, a 
term from Burmese annals. Sometimes these two names are made 
synocy.mous with Nanchao, Pong, Mongrnao and Hsenwi. 1 Sometimes it is 
said that Koshanpyi is derived from Kawsampi. Scott suggests so , 
adding, "the Burma official, with the ear of a hippopotamus and the 
arrogance of a self-made man, could not bring himself to admit that a 
Shan Kingdom had any right to a classical title, if indeed he lmew 
that Kawsarnpi was classical. He therefore, transformed Kawsampi into 
Koshanpyi. "  2 ( ' Koshanpyi means, in Burmese, nine Shan countries .  ' )  
Some Burman might be cussed but certainly not in this respect, and 
Scott seems to have missed the whole point of Burmese culture which 
recognised royalty, foreign as much as its own. There was no reason 
why Ava should grudge the Shan States the classical names of which 
every important Shan State had one."3 Every Shan State had its place 
in the Burmese hierarchy and the whole set-up was full of high-sounding 
classical terms. A sawbwa or rnyosa was given so many white or gold
umbrellas or entitled to so many tiers of pyatthat or such and such 
royal regalia or dresses. The adoption of classical terms for cities 
and states was the custom throughout Buidhist Southeast Asia. Shan 
States"' classical names had been used and respected by the Court at 
Ava. 
Whether through the poetic touch of the phrase Ko maing ko 
kyaing or the play-ful fancy for the favourite number "9" ,  the term 
Koshanpyi seems to have had a definite geographical application. If 
the term is SY110n��1t,.s with anything, it is so only with the phrase 
Kopyidaung Lo'J.: (.Q.� c;OO? S  'nine states�? and this latter term makes 
it even less possible for Koshanpyi to be confused with Kawsampi. In 
Bunnese, Kawsampi is written to read as Kaw-tharn-bi and is never mis­
taken for Koshanpyi, because both existed side by side. In their 
ref"erence to Hsenwi , the Burmese chroniclers wrote Kawthambi, whereas 
the Chinese Shan States would be referred to as Koshanpyi. These 
nine Shan countries or states were situated along the present border of 
Burma from Bhamo area down through Namkharn, Muse , the Wa States and to 
Manglon. The following extracts from the Burmese chronicle will 
establish the distinction made by the Burmese between the two terms": 
In the reign of Pyu-zo-di , the third King of Pagan, who 
reigned between A. D. 166 and 241, the Chinese are said to 
have invaded his Kingdom with an immense army, over which 
the King obtained a great victory at a place called Ko­
tharn-bi, but neither the date nor the cause of this war 
was given ., 
lo GUBSS, I. 1. 190"0 
2 o  GUBSS, I. 1. 189. 
3. See Appendix IV. 
43 
In the year 1562, Tshen-byu-mya-yen (Lord of many
white elephants) ,  the great King of Pegu, after conquering
Ava, Mogaung, Zenmay,"Theinni, etc . ,  sent a large army to 
the frontiers of China, and took possession of the nine 
Shan towns (Ko-shan-pyi, or Ko-shan-daung) ,  Maing-mo, 
Tsi-guen, Ho-tha, La-tha, Mo-na, Tsanda, Mo-wun, Kaing-ma, 
and Maing-IQin or Maing-lyi, all of which, with the ex­
ception of Kaingma, are now, and apparently were at the 
time, under the dominion of China • • • •  l 
Many"-European writers,"·"including Yule and Sladen, subsequently 
quoted the nine Chinese Shan States as" -the Koshanpyi, and I am con­
vinced they were right". 2 
While Hsenwi-Mongmao"1 s classical name was Kawsampi, the whole 
of the Shan States was known as Kambawsa, and this is still the 
practice". Kambawsa is the Burmese pronounciation of the Pali Kamboja 
from which Qunbodia is derived, but why- the whole of the Shan States 
has been given that classical title is not easily explained. Many
Shan Sawbwas of old had that word included in their titles, normally
given by Ava."3 
The most satisfactory explanation, for want of a better one, 
seems to be that given by Phya Praja-Kichkornchakr. He says that 
around Northern-India in the Maha Kosala Ayudhya and Indra Bharat 
(Delhi) regions most of the people there belonged to the Kamboj a  
clan. These people were the descendants of Prince Boja a scion of 
King Jajati and because these people worshipped the cow and the 
planet Saturn, the word Boja was prefixed with Kamo Wherever the 
Kambojans settled they called their country Kamboja, and when they 
came to Siam, at the time under the Khmer power, they also named 
their new colony "Kamboja . "  Phya Praja adds that the classical name 
was applied not only to the Khmers but also to the ancient Thais as 
well, and hence the Shan adoption."4 
Is it possible then that the Tais of the Shan States had 
connections with the original Kamboja or Kambawsa as early as those 
days when the "$yams" were mentioned"·"as slaves and prisoners of 
war in the Cham inscriptions in the eleventh century? 
l o Burney, H., Some Accotmt of Wars between Bunnah and China in 
J .A.S .B. , February 1637, pp . 121, 124. 
2 o For an eye witness account of Koshanpyi, in the 1860s, Mandalay 
to Momeik by Colonel E .  B .  Sladen and Colonel H .  Browne (London, 
1876) is reconunended. 
3 .  See Chapter III". 
4 .  Praja Kichkornchakr, Phya, (Chaem, Bunnag) ,  Phongsawadan Yonok 
(Yonok Chronicle) ,  pp". 18-20. 
44• l  
It must be noted that the State of KengtW'lg does not come into 
these classical terms. Its own classical name is Khemarata Tungaburi, 
and in its chronicle there was no mention of affairs in the west until 
the beginning of the sixteenth century. Before this, Khemarat had close 
relations only with the Lus, the Lems, and the Laos of Lannathai 
(Chiengmai) and Lanchang (Laos)",.  and this tends to confirm the theory 
that these peoples, including the Thais, belonged to the same Eastern 
wave of the southward migration of the Tais during the first millenium 
A.D o  The first date mentioned in the Kengtung Chro"nicle is  1229 when 
t.he country was full of the Was. By 1253 Mangrai had sent up his son 
and people up from Chiengsen-Chiengrai area to rule and populate the 
Kengtung valley. There was no mention of Samlongpha. If the latter"i s  
forces had really gone into Siam they must have bypassed Kengtung.
A glance at a map of Burma will clearly show that the land lying between 
Hsenwi-Mongmao area and the border of Chiengmai, via the rolling downs 
of the Central Shan State, Mongnai and Mongpan, is devoid of really
formidable mountains excepting those bordering both banks of the 
Salween between Mongpan and Mongton-Monghang area. 
A word about the terms -Shan and Tai. 
We lmow that the word Shan came from the same root as Siam,
�am, Sajam, Siem, Sien, Hsien, etc. , but so far no satisfactory
exolanation has been offered how it came about or what it means. As 
st�ted earlier, l the word Syam was mentioned in the Cham inscriptions 
of the eleventh century. This seems to have been the first mention of 
the word. In the twelfth century, it again occurred on the bas-reliefs 
of Angkor Wat o Professor Luce further tells us that the word occurs 
over twenty times in the Pagan inscriptions, the earliest being dated 
1120 A.D"o , which is one of the earliest in Burmese, and that it occurs 
usually in the lists of pagoda slaves, male and female. 2 But the 
Thais never call themselves Syam, nor do the Tais in the Shan States 
call themselves Shan. Syam or Shan seems to be a term used by other 
people in calling certain members of the Tai race. 
The word Tai is the same as Thai. Many scholars prefer to use 
the spelling Dai to represent the name of the language and the people 
as a r·ace; but some prefer to use Tai, and when this is aspirated it 
becomes Thai, which means the Siamese or inhabitants, and official 
lang�1age of the present-day Thailand. The present work adopts this 
latter usage. 
Many Thais and Shans will tell one that the word Tai means 
free ·- free from bondage as well as from debt. But in Siazn, the word 
also denotes anything pleasant, beautiful and not dark, with its noun 
form meaning light or illumination. In the Shan dialects (including 
See p. 16 above. 
2 .  Luce, G .  H. , op. cit . ,  P o  124. 
45 
Khun) the word Tai also means people or inhabitants . Thus Tai Loi or 
Tai Doi means hill peopl$, Tai Weng - city dwellers as opposed to Tai 
Nawk or outside villagers or simply ttjungle wallahs" .  Tai Mandalay -
Mandalq denizensl. The Khun of Kengtung are called Tai Kengtungl. 
What about the terms Khun, Lu, Lem and Lao? These people do 
not call themselves Tai or Thai·, ·lbut Khun, Lu, Lem and Laolo Their 
languages or dialects falll.lbetween the Shan and the Thai tongues; 
that is, speakers of these dialects will understand either Shan or 
Thai better than the Shan or Thais would understand each other. 
Some people say the word Tai or Thai is the same word as the 
Chinese Tai meaning great or big, in the celestial sensel. I doubt . 
very much if this interpretation can be taken seriously. 
Beyond this .I fear I cannot throw any light on the origin or 
meaning of the two words, Tai and Shanl.