HISTORY OF THE SHAN STATE from its origins to 1962 (Sai Aung Tun)

About the Author

Sai Aung Tun is above all an academic and a scholar of history, although he was involved in the political life of his country during the socialist regime and later became a member of the National Convention(1993) to shape the future constitution of Myanmar. A fervent nationalist all the Myanmar citizenry, he is also a devoted Shan Buddhist. Through his postings in Myanmar he made a acquaintance with many monks and religious persons, participated ceaselessly in the construction of numerous pagodas, and therefore has become a well-known pagoda-builder.

    Sai Aung Tun was born in 1932. He matriculated in Hsipaw (northern Shan State) and was appointed as tutor in the History Department of the University of Rangoon in 1957. Sent to the University of Denver (Colorado), he obtained an MA in International Relations. He then began a career as a government servant and, in 1961, he was promoted to head the History Department of Taunggyi College in the capital of Shan State. From 1964 to 1968 he was posted to the Department of History, Arts and Science of the University of Mandalay (Mandalay Division), and later transferred to head the History Department of Magwe College (Magwe Division). From 1970 to 1980 he assumed the post of principal of Myitkyina College (Kachin State) and then switched to a political career during the socialist regime. He was elected as a member of parliament for the constituency of Mogaung (Kachin State), where a large Shan community is located. From 1980 to 1985 he was recalled to the capital and appointed principal of the Institute of Foreign Language of the University of Yangon. In 1985 he was elected a State Council member in Hsipaw, he native town, and remained in his position until 1988.

    In 1992 Sai Aung Tun was appointed vice chairman of the Myanmar Historical Commission, where he joined the remaining members of the Myanmar academic community (Dr. Than Tun, U Tun Aung Chain, U Hla Thein, U Thet Tun [former ambassador to France], Daw Ohn Kyi, U Than Htut, U Thaw Kaung [former chief librarian, Universities Central Library], Dr Ohn Khine, Dr Khin Maung Nyunt, and Daw Ni Ni Myint). Presently professor emeritus of international relations, he conducts PhD and MA classes at the University of Mandalay-Yangon and continues to receive and help many visiting foreign scholars.

    In the years preceding the Golden Jubilee of the Historical Commission (1955 - 2005), Professor Sai Aung Tun was instrumental in preparing and realizing the publication of more than forty volumes detailing the mostly unknown works of his colleagues on the commission. This achievement, coupled with the yearly organization of international conferences held in Yangon, effectively put an end to several decades’ isolation of Myanmar scholars and opened up a new era for developing a relationship with the outside world.

Guy Lubeigt
Docteur d’Etat
Senior Research Officer (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
Permanent Representative in Myanmar and Thailand












Acknowledgements

It had long been my intention to write a history of Shan State from the earliest times to the 1960s. But my aim went unrealized because financial limitations did not allow me to carry out the research necessary for the project. I looked around for sources of support that might enable to conduct my research. On my way to Bangkok,  I met Dr. Chatthip Nartsupha from the Chulalongkorn University and Professor Renoo Wichasin from Chiang Mai University, both of whom had keen interest in Shan Studies. Dr. Chathip Nartsupha invited me to his house, where we discussed my research project in his library. He had a big collection of materials on the Shan and he allowed me to make use of it for my research project. The both suggested that I apply for a research grant from the Toyota Foundation. One of my very close friends, Dr. Thaw Kaung, who is a member of the Myanmar Historical Commission, also advised me to apply for a research grant from the foundation. I would like to thank these three scholars for their encouragement and the valuable suggestions they gave me.

    With a letter of recommendation from U Tun Aung Chain, secretary of the Myanmar Historical Commission, I sent my application to Mr. Norio Kanie, the managing director of the Toyota Foundation.

   The research grant was promptly given, and for this I would like to express my deepest thanks to Mr. Norio Kanie and also to the two program officers, Mr. Alan Feinstein and Mrs. Yumiko Himemoto-Hiraishi, who came to Yangon and explained to me in detail how I should make use of the research grant and the rules and procedures that I should observe.

    Having obtained the research grant, I wasted no time and immediately began my research. I went through the collections of the Universities Central Library, the Yangon University Library, the Library of the Universities Historical Research Center and the National Archives Department, gathering the information and materials that were and I would like to thank them for all their help.

    I also made a research trip to Shan State, visiting Taunggyi, Lashio, Muse, Nam Hkam, Mong Mit, Keng Tung, and other places of historical importance, interviewing local scholars, collecting local chronicles, copying historically important manuscripts, and taking photographs of antique items, old monasteries, old haw (residences of Shan chief), and the products of cottage industries. For the information and materials I acquired I owe a debt of gratitude to all the local scholars and friends, especially to Dr. Sai Mawk Hkam (Lashio), Sao Sukhamin (Tang Yan), Long Karn Hkam (Lashio), Sai Pan Seng (Mandalay), Sai Myat Aung (Mandalay), Sai Hkun Noom (Muse), Sai Kyaw Naing (Muse), Nang Sandar (Muse), Sai Hsar Aye (Nam Hkam), Sai Yee Pu (Nam Hkam), Sai Than Nyan (Nam Hkam), Sai Yee (Keng Tung), Long Tang Kae (Taunggyi), Sao Noi Mao Hkun (Putao), Long Hong Hkam (Keng Tung), Long Tip (Kneg Tung), Sai Sam Tip (Keng Tung), Sai Aik Pao (Yangon), Long Heng Shwe Aye (Yangon), Dr. Sai Sang Aik (Yangon), Hkun Wun Tip (Yangon), Sai Thet Win (Yangon), Nang Vo Seng (Yangon) and all the executive members of the Shan Cultural and Literary Committees of Yangon, Mandalay, Taunggyi, Lashio, Muse, Nam Hkam, Mong Mit, and Keng Tung, who rendered me every possible help in my research.

    I aslo visited Taunggyi Museum and obtained many valuable manuscripts and received photographs of historicallly important museum pieces. For the help I received, my thanks go the museum curator, Nang Lao Ngun, and the members of her staff.

    The grant also allowed me to go abroad for the collection of material relevant to my research. There are a lot of documents, reports, manuscripts, and personal letters bout the British Administration in the Shan States at the India Office Records in the British Library in London and in the Scott Collection of the Cambridge University Library. While in London, my research would not have been possible without the help of Reverend Sao Dhammasami and Reverend Sao Jotika, who personally took me to the British Library, and Sai Pang, Anita Jain, Saye Khaeo Pang, Tzai Seng Pang, Sai Mong, Sai Onn Mong, Dr. Kyaw Thinn and Sao Phong Kaeo (Owei), Dr. Richard Tun Nyunt, Dr. Ye Lin Hock and Shwe Phyu Thaw, U Maung Maung and Daw Than Than Myint and Sao Noon Oo, who provided me with accommodation and transport to the libraries  and museums around London. I would like to thank all of them for their very kind help. I would also like to thank Daw San San May and other staff members of both the British Library and the Library of Cambridge University for helping me to get all essential materials for my research.

    I also owe a great debt of gratitude to Sao Hso Hom, my old classmate, who lives in Australia, who was kind enough to help me organize my research. He also read through my research paper, especially the last four chapters which dealt with the proposal for revising the constitution in whose discussion he participated more than forty years ago.

    I would like also to thank Dr. and Mrs. David Rachael Hall of Cambridge, who read through parts of my research work and gave me good advice about the format of my research, and also to Dr. Justin Meiland of Mahidol University, Bangkok, for his valuable advice.

    Another scholar who helped me organize my research project was Dr. J.N. Phukan from Guwahati (Assam). I also thank him for his very kind help.

    I should not forget to mention U Tun Aung Chain, secretary of the Myanmar Historical Commission, who not only wrote a letter of recommendation when I applied for a research grant but also patiently and thoroughly went through my project paper from beginning to end, correcting the errors I had committed in writing the paper. I thank him from the bottom of my heart.

    Last, but not least, I would like to express my sincere thanks of my research assistants U San Win, Daw Mie Mie Lwin, Daw Hmwe (Nang Hom), Daw Lya Lya Win, my computer programmer Dr. Sai Sang Pe (Mong Yai), and Dr. Guy Lubeigt and his staff for preparing all the necessary maps. They gave me every possiblile help in accomplishing my research project. Remaining mistakes and shortcomings are my sole responsibility.

    Finally, I would like to thank Ms. Susan Offner for her editorial work and Ms. Trasvin Jittidecharak for her help in publishing this book.

November 2004.






PREFACE

A history of the Shan State from the earliest times to the 1960s is here presented to inform the general reader about the migration of the Shan ethnic people from their old settlements around the Hwangho-Yangtze region to Southeast Asia until they reach Myanmar. It is also believed that the Shan people entered Myanmar beginning in the first Century A.D. They generally occupied most of the areas in the northwest, north, northeast, and east of Myanmar proper. But the area of their greatest concentration was in the eastern part, called the Shan State. From their base in the Shan Plateau, the Shan tried to invade the plain region of Myanmar several times and to control the heartland of the country. They were able to do so only after the fall of Bagan. They  dominated the political stage of Myanmar for a few centuries and founded three historically important capitals in the heartland of Myanmar at Pinya, Sagaing, and Inwa(Ava). After the decay of the Shan dynasties Myanmar was unified under a most able king, Bayinnaung. From there Shan history merges with that of Myanmar.

    I should have written a complete history of the Shan State in all its cultral, economic, social, and political aspects. But owing to financial constraints and a lack of time to do wider and deeper research, I could write only a short history under a grant from the Toyota Foundation with a time limit set at one year.

    The migration of the Shan people to Southeast Asia and finally to Myanmar was a lengthy and strenuous process. In their long march to Myanmar the Shan stopped many times on the way to establish a number of dynastic kingdoms whenever and wherever they could find good valleys. The size of their kingdoms depended mostly on the size of the valley. Most of their kingdoms were small with the exception of Nan-chao and Mong Mao Long, which developed into empires with many notable political, social, and economic achievements. The Shan brought with them their culture of wet-rice cultivation wherever they migrated and settled for food security, which was considered an important element of national power in the old days.

    It took three thousand years at least for the Shan to march down to Myanmar from their original home in China. They were always on the move due to the restlessness of their character. When they did not quarrel and fight among themselves, they would move gently and quietly along the rivers until they found a new valley with fertile land, tender grass, and fresh water to establish their traditional baan and mong or kingdoms. When they fought among themselves, or encountered new forceful immigrants, or neighbors, their migration became more forced and violent, as in when the floodgate open during the invasion of the Mongol military forces led by Kublai Khan in A.D 1287.

    Bamar and Shan became united whenever they encountered foreign invasions or wars. In the long course of its history, Myanmar intermittently had wars with its neighbors, China, Thailand, Assam, and Manipur, and also with Great Britain. There were glorious periods in its history when Myanmar fought foreign wars during the reigns of King Anawratha, Bayinnaung, and Alaung Paya. The Shan contingents gallantly fought together with Bamar to win against the foreign foes.

    In the three wars with the British, the Shan sacrified thousands of lives in guarding Myanmar sovereignty. Myanmar fell into the hands of the British in 1885, and both Shan and Bamar became colonial subjects of the British for nearly a hundred years. During the British rule in Myanmar, the Shan states were separated from Myanmar proper in accordance with the British policy of “divide and rule.”

    At first, the British had no idea how the Shan states should be ruled. Finally they readopted the method of the Myanmar kings to rule the Shan states through their own chiefs. They held out the olive branch to all Shan chief, persuading them to submit and vow allegiance to British power. Many Shan chiefs did, and sanad, or appointment orders, were issued to the Shan chiefs who were required to rule their states in accordance with the terms stated in the sanad. By those terms, many traditional and hereditary privileges and rights were curbed and the positions of the Shan chiefs were no better off than in the time of the Myanmar kings. This created dissatisfaction among the Shan chiefs. They were under the tight control of the Birtish commissioner and governor. In 1922 the British introduced reform, and all the Shan states were placed under the instruction of the Federated Shan States. A council was created, having the British commissioner as its chairman and the British resident as its secretary. The Shan chiefs were members of the Federal Council but their roles were merely advisory. They had no legislative and executive powers at all. The Shan chiefs presented memorandum after memorandum stating their grievances and dissatisfactions and appealed for reform and an increase of most of their privileges and rights in administering their states. The British turned a deaf ear to their appeals and were slow to introduce reasonable reforms. Political agitation took place in 1930 when a roundtable conference was held in London to discuss the question of the separation of Myanmar from India. The Shan chiefs sent another memorandum and requested permission to participate in the roundtable conference and ascertain the position of the Shan States after the separation of Myanmar from India. But they received no favorable response form the British government. The Shan States were not only separated from Myanmar proper but placed under the Frontier Area Administration created by the British authority.

    The second World War broke out the Japanese invaded Myanmar. Then Shan States came under the Japanese military administration and were also separated from Myanmar proper. Moreover, two prominent Shan States, Keng Tung and Mong Pan, were given to the Thai government by the Japanese military authority as royal gifts without the knowledge or agreement of the Shan people.

    In 1945 the world war came to an end. The Japanese withdrew from Myanmar and the British reoccupied it. The Shan States were again placed under British rule. But a political awakening took place in Myanmar proper as well as in the Shan States. The people from Myanmar proper began their political campaign for independence. What happened then in the Shan States? In 1946 the First Political Conference was held in Pang Long, organized by the Shan chiefs. Representatives of the hill peoples and representatives of Myanmar proper including the governor and Frontier Service personnel were invited. The question was raised: “Politically, where do we go from here? The representatives from the hills and from Myanmar proper came to realize that the time had come for them to forge political unity and demand independence. Leaders from Myanmar proper and the hills discussed their common political causes and objectives and all came to agree on a demand  for independence. A preliminary agreement was obtained and all agreed to hold a larger and more dynamic political conference at the same place in 1947. According to schedule, the Second Pang Long Conference took  place in February 1947. The Myanmar delegation, led by Bogyoke Aung San, and all the representatives of hill peoples arrived. Political discussions were held continuously until a consensus was reached to demand independence from the British government. Under the signed historic Pang Long agreement all pledged to unite and to demand complete independence.

    Independence was given on January 4, 1948. A tragic incident took place on July 19, 1947. Bogyoke Aung San and his comrades including the Shan leaders Sao Sam Tun were assassinated.

    A parliamentary government was adopted after independence together with a quasi-federal state. After a decade of trial, it became apparent that the clauses and articles provided in the constitution did not meet the needs of the nationalities. They began to see the omissions and the loopholes and the need for amendment and reform. It was the Shan leaders and the people of Shan states who were the first to point out the weakness of the constitution. They were joined by other nationalities and all agreed to reform the constitution. The Shan produced a document called “A Proposal for the Amendment of the Constitution.” A national seminar was held in Yangon in a broadcasting station. Before the discussions were finished a coup d’ètat took place and the country was left without a constitution. That is a short history of the Shan States from the earliest times to 1962. The pages that follow flesh out the background, circumstances, decisions, and events presented in this brief overview.

AFPFL            Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League
KMT            Kuomintang
KNDO            Karen National Defence Organization
NUF            National United Front
Pa-Ah-Ma-Sa        Pa-O National Association
Pa-Ah-Ma-Pha    Pa-O National Organization
PVO            People’s Volunteer Organization
SCOUHP        Supreme Council of United Hill People
SEATO        Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
SSHPO        Shan State Hill People’s Organization
SSPFL            Shan State People’s Freedom League
SSPO            Shan State People’s Organization
USSPO        Union of the Shan State People’s Organization
Ya-Pa-La-Pha        Shan State People’s Liberation Party


1


The Shan in Myanmar


One unique feature about the Union of Myanmar is that, according to the 1931 census, more than one hundred national races had been living together as members of the same family since time immemorial, sharing all sorts of joy and woe in the long course of their history. In the early parts of their history of ups and downs, there were times when they fought each other like foes and there were also times when they could establish cordial and harmonious relations to become kinfolk and friends. Sometimes they were subject to each other, but most of the time they became good partners working and helping each other for the common goals of achieving sociopolitical and economic development, defending national territorial integrity, organizing national consolidation, maintaining national sovereignty, and striving for the assurance to have equal standing with other members of the world community. Each of these national ethnic groups has greatly and substantially contributed something to the development of this country according to the best of its ability, and each has also hoped to enjoy the fruit of its contribution according to its need.
    Now, of the many national ethnic groups living in this multinational Union of Myanmar, the Shan are the largest, occupying different parts of the country, especially the eastern plateau called Shan State. More than that, the Shan people have a history and cultural tradition of their own and a developed literature and religion, Buddhism.
    In fact, the Shan have played many prominent roles in the task of organizing Myanmar to become a sovereign nation like today. The Shan helped found the Upper Myanmar capitals like Pinya, Sagaing, and Inwa (Ava) and many baan, mong, and keng in the northwestern, northern, northeastern, eastern, and southeastern parts of the country, taking responsibility for defending the Myanmar border areas from being encroached and infringed on by alien powers. At that time, there were no national or standing armed forces like today. The task of defending these areas lay totally in the hands of the Shan levies.
    When the Myanmar kings established their Bagan Empire and began their territorial expansion, it was the Shan who provided contingents of fighting soliders. In the internal work of construction the participation of the Shan as good donors was recorded in the stone inscriptions of Bangan, especially in the promotion of religion and its activities.
    In the long course of history, there are many historical evidences of the Shan closely and actively cooperating with the Myanmar kings in their wars with neighboring countries and the victories achieved over foreign foes. There is historical proof of the roles that the Shan contingents and  their chiefs played in the Myanmar conquest of Chiang Mai, Ayuthaya, Assam, and sometimes in war with China.
    In critical situations the Shan never hesitated to help, especially when there were foreign wars. In the First, Second, and Third Anglo-Myanmar Wars, the Shan provided the best fighting soliders, including Shan women, under the command of their feudal cheifs. Many Shan sacrificed their lives in these three wars and many others in the past. The Shan never betrayed the sovereign in the times of monarchy. The Shan patriots even hatched a plan to rescue King Thibaw on his way from the palace to the Gaw Wein jetty in Mandalay.
    U Aung Myat, the saohpa of Waing Hso (Wuntho), became much enraged on hearing of King Thibaw’s capture by the British. He gathered forces around him and, with the Shan patriotic forces, rose against the British despite a warning from Kinwunmingyi not to do so. As a lone fighter, he continued to fight on until he was defeated owing to the superior quality of British arms. But he never surrendered to British. He took refuge in Mongna-Sanda, a Tai Nue Shan state of the border area on the Chinese side. He came back to Myanmar at the invitation of the government only after independence was achieved.
    Again, the role of the Shan people came to the fore during the Myanmar struggle for independence. Bogyoke Aung San led the Myanmar delegation to London without Shan representatives to negotiate for independence with the British prime minister, Clement Attlee. There, the question arose regarding the participation of the frontier people of the hill regions in the political struggle for independence. Independence without the hill regions and their people would not be compelete or meaningful. At this juncture, the Shan leaders and representatives of other nationalities organized a political conference at the strategic town of Pang Long in the  Central Shan States in February 1947. There, heated, thorough, and serious political discussions took place and finally a political breakthrough was achieved. All representatives attending the conference unanimously voted to join hands with the Myanmar leaders in their struggle for independence. That historic agreement signed between the leaders of the plain region and leaders of the hill region greatly affected the negotiations in London, and independence was granted to Myanmar on January 4, 1948. More than that, the Pang Long Agreement was a historic landmark in many ways. First, it was the first national unity achieved between the leaders of Myanmar proper and the frontier hill region. Second, it was the historic creation of the First Modern Union of Myanmar on February 12, 1947. Third, it freed Myanmar as a whole from the colonial bondage that had been imposed upon the people for nearly a century. Fourth, it led to the restoration of national sovereignty to the new nation, the Union of Myanmar. Finally, it helped Myanmar to become a sovereign nation on equal footing with other members of the United Nations Organization.
    Even from the cultural and religious points of view, the Shan and Myanmar are closely akin to each other. The major link in the cultural and religious kinship of these races in Buddhism of the Theravada School. The two peoples, in fact, share not only a common religious faith but a large body of customs, ceremonies, folk beliefs, and values related to Buddhism. For centuries the Shan and the Bamar were socially economically, and  religiously mixed, and they mingled and intermarried. The Shan speak the Myanmar language much more fluently than the Myanmar speak Shan. All national tasks or responsibilities laid down by the Union Government were equally shared and faithfully carried out by all the national ethnic peoples of the country including the Shan.

WHO ARE THE SHAN?
    The Shan belong to the Mongoloid stock of the Tai ethnic group who are spread over southwestern China, Hainan, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia(Kampuchea), Myanmar, and northeastern India in Assam. They are known by a variety of names depending upon the color of their costumes, teeth, and tattoo. Sometimes they are called to accord with the names of the streams, the rivers, the lakes, the forests, the plains, the hills, the mountains, and the valleys where they live. On the basis of the color of the dress, there are names like Tai Lam(Dam, black), Tai Kau(white), Tai Leng(Deng, red), Tai Lai(striped waistband). Those who live by the Red River are called Tai Leng(Deng) and by the Black River Tai Lam(Dam), etc. J.G.Scott in his book Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States gives a list of Tai names1 as does Professor Namal Chandra Gogoi in his article “Tai, Htai and Dai: Origin, Evolution and Dissemination of Tai Culture in China and Southeast Asia with Special Reference to the Ahoms of Assam”2
    Regarding the original home of the Tai people, historians and ethnologists have been making intensive investigations, but the result is still far from being satisfactory. However, the scholar Max Muller ventures to say:
    the original seat of the Tai or Siamese branch of the Indo-Chinese peoples, called Shan by the Burmese, was in Central Asia
    and  it was from that area that these people were the first to migrate towards the south  and settle along the rivers Mekong,
    Irrawaddy and Brahmaputta.3

    Dr. B.Laufer, Curator of Anthropology, Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, remarks:
    the early home of the peoples of eastern Asia was in the upper reaches of the Hoangho or Yellow River of China,... from
    this centre the Tibetans migrated westward; the early tribes of Indo-China, southward; and the Chinese southeastward.4

    On the course of the Tai migration to the south, Professor P. Gogoi in his article, “The Tai and the Tai Kingdom,” written in 1969, has this to say:
    The history of their migration is a history of long centuries of struggle which they had to carry on both against the Chinese
    imperial pressure from the north  and against the powerful neighbours  in the south,  resulting in the succession of glorious
    periods of their supremacy in China, Burma, Laos, Assam down to the modern times.5

    Later, through intensive field researches carried out by Chinese and foreign scholars, the general consensus is that the real home of the Tai people or the region where they developed as a well-known or distinctive race had been in southwestern China and that, in the course of time, due to the pressure of the new immigrants from the north, they continued to move along the big rivers and their tributaries that flowed from or through China to Assam, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, like Brahmaputta, Chindwin, Ayeyarwady(Irrawaddy), Shweli(Nam Mao), Than Lwin(Salween, Nam Kone), Menam, Mekong, Black River (Nam-me-lam/dam), and Red River(Nam-me-leng/deng).

WHERE WAS THEIR EARLY HOME ?

Generally, the Tai ethnic people were believed to have their early settlements around the fertile basins of the Huanghe or Yellow River and the Yangtze River. But the actual location of their original homeland is very difficult to ascertain. For that, further research and investigations will have to be undertaken. Regarding the story of the spread of the Tai into southwestern China, information could be available from the study of the Chinese historical annals, the dynastic records, and the chronicles of the periods concerned.

    The Tai ethnic people are believed to have migrated into China even before the Chinese themselves. That was why they were called the elder brothers of the Chinese. The history of the pre-Chinese period revealed the existence of the Tai state of Ngu or Wu. It was believed that Ngu or Wu State was located around the mouth of the Yangtze River. The area controlled by this state consisted of the modern province of Kiangsu and its adjacent region. The Tai ethnic people living in China in the early days were called white barbarians and black barbarians, and sometimes they were known as people with golden teeth as described by Fan Ch’o, a Chinese official of the Tang dynasty. In his book Man-shu, he stated:

    The “black-teeth” barbarians, the “gold-teeth” barbarians, “silver-teeth” barbarians, “tattooed-leg” barbarians... The “black
    -teeth” barbarians use lacquer to lacquer their teeth... The “gold-teeth”barbarians use gold carved plates to cover their teeth,
    and the “silver-teeth” barbarians use silver to cover their teeth. When they have business to go out to interview people, they
    use these as and adornment... The “tattooed-leg” barbarians engrave the skin above the ankle and below the shin, all round
    with lines and patterns...

    From the beginning of their history, the Tai people were good agriculturists. They were well known for wet-rice cultivation, which they took with them to every place they moved to and settled in. As a means of communication, the Tai language was widely used and spoken. Many Tai words were incorporated into the Chinese language in later days. According to the Statistical Account of the Province of Kwanghsi (Guangxi), out of nineteen words, twelve are Tai. In A.D. 1172 a Chinese resident of Kwanghsi gave a short list of nine words of their language and almost all were found to be Tai.6 Obviously the Tai spoken language was once quite influential and spoken by ethnic groups around the fertile region of the Yellow River.

    In their long march to the south, southewest, and west, the Tai never failed to establish their kingdoms and empires whenever the situation favored it. The Chinese historical annals revealed the emergence of the Tai Confederated States, known as Ts’u. Where was Ts’u then? Ascending the Yangtze River to the present province of Hupeh, that would be the seat of the Ts’u state. According to the sinologist Mr.Parker, Ts’u was the largest of the Tai Confederated States of ancient times, covering the vast area of land northward between the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, including the old Tai state of Ngu or Wu and all the regions southward to the sea.7

    Regarding the widely spread Tai ethnic race, the scholar S. Hallett remarked that the Tai not only stretched far away eastward, perhaps to the Chinese Sea, but also formed one of the chief ingredients of the Chinese race.8

    Another pre-Chinese period of the Tai state was called Pang or Pan-hu and it was predominant in central China, south of the Yellow River. The Pang people occupied the area of the northeast of Sichuan and the west of the Honan. The generic name of the people of Pang was Ngao or Yao or Great. They should be considered the oldest stock of the Tai ethnic people. Their language and words spoken at that time were recorded in the annals of the eastern Han. It is also found that out of eight words on the list, five are Tai. Pang State had been in existence since the twentieth century B.C. The Pang people were not subdued by the Chinese until the end of the eleventh century A.D and they did not acknowledge the supremacy of the Chinese emperor. The chief of Pang State was once recognized as king of Siang-yang (Hupeh) and governor of King-chou. His realm contained eighty thousand villages. 9 Pang State was contemporary with the rival of the Chinese Han dynasty. The two states established friendly relations and gave mutual help to each other. The political existence of the Great Pang State was, however, destroyed by Shang Wu-ting in 1231 B.C. After a lapse of 767 years, the old Pang state was revived with the help of the Tchou people. The second seat of Pang State lay between the Yuen and the Wu rivers, west and southwest of Tung-ting Lake, a mountainous region.10

    Another group of the Tai ethnic people settled at the headwater of the Yangtze River and occupied the region at the intersection of Honan, Hupeh, and Nang-hwui provinces. From there they extended their territory westward in the Kiu Lung (green wilderness of thich wooded area) range of the mountains, forming the boundary between Shansi and Sichuan provinces.11 Professor M. Terrien de Lacouperie assumed the area to be the original cradle of the Tai race.

    Moving to western Sichuan in about 2000 B.C, another Tai ethnic group set up a new kingdom known in history as Ta Mung or Great Mung. This group was recognized as the progenitors of the Tai ethnic group of Tongking of Vietnam.

    The Tai ethnic people were always on the move and they never tried of finding a new place and establishing a new baan, mong, and keng. They were required to do that to maintain their identity, their cultural heritage and wet-rice cultivation culture, and their values and right to exist as a civilized people like other nationalities.

    A twin city-state established by another branch of the Tai ethnic group was called Pa and Lung. These two states played an important part in the subsequent history of the Tai race. The seats of both Pa and Lung states were in western Sichuan. The Pa had relations even with Ts’u as early as 600 B.C. There is evidence of Pa princesses married to Ts’u kings. The Chinese annals also mention how the ruler of Hia Ki sent his minister, Mang Tu, to Pa State to establish friendship between the two kingdoms in 1971 B.C. The Chinese annals also state that near the Pa was the Lung. The Chinese called the Lung people Lung-jen and the Pa people Pá-yi. The Pa people lived under a government of their own.12 The dynastic histories of the Hou-han-shu (the later Han dynasty, A.D 25-250) and the Tsin Shu (the history of the Tsin dynasty, A.D 265-420) give a long description of the Pa kingdom and the prominent role it played during the dynastic periods of the time. Wu-hsiang was described as a hero king who helped to found the State of Pa in eastern Sichuan.

The Pa people spread to Hupeh (Hubei) and Hunan and then moved down to the Yangtze River and then to the Chia-ling and Ch’u rivers. A branch of the Pa people was known as Tsung. They also established a kingdom called Tsung.13 They settled in the Hunan-Guizhou border region. During the Han dynasty, the native people who lived along the Yu River of the Lang-chung were Tsung people.14 The Hua-yang-kuo-chih also explains that T’ang Chu was an old Tsung kingdom. In Sichuan there was a place called Ch’u where settlements of Tsung people could be found. Another stocck of Tai ethnic people who inhabited the regions in western Hunan, southern Kuei-chow (Guizhou), and eastern Yunnan were called Chung or Chung-chia and those in western Kwanghsi (Guangxi) were called Chuang. They all spoke the Tai language with variant dialects. During the Chou dynasty (1122 B.C to 255 B.C) Pa State was on equal footing with other feudal states of China, like Ch’in to the north, and Ch’u and Teng to the east.15 These states sometimes fought each other and sometimes established cordial relationships.

    Shuh was another Tai state in western Sichuan. The limits of the Shuh kingdom, according Ch’ang Chu, the author of the Hua-yang-kuo-chih, were from the Pao-hsieh route on the north to Nanchung on the south. The Pao-hsieh route was valley in Shensi province. In the modern period, this route linked up with Shensi and Sichuan provinces. Nanchung was a vast province, including southern Sichuan, western Guizhou, and most parts of Yunan. The king of Shuh at that time was called “Wang Ti.”16

    The Hua-yang-kuo-chih also said that the states of Shuh and Pa were contemporary and rivalrous. Sometimes they were at war with each other.17 The Shuh king appointed his brother to assist in his administration and that post was called “Chia-meng.”18 The translation of Chia-meng could be Kyem-mong used in the later period by Tai chiefs.19 In 316 B.C, Shuh and Pa were conquered and annexed by Ch’in.20

    The Tai in Sichuan during the Han dynasty (206 B.C - A.D 220) were known as Pan-hsun. The Pan-hsun people set up their numerous settlements along the Yu River during the third century B.C. They were good cultivators as well as courageous fighters. The Han kings, whenever they had trouble with neighboring states and were unable to defeat them, enlisted the help of the Pan-hsun people to fight for them. The Han king called them “Marvelous Troops” and conferred titles on them and very often exempted them from taxation as a reward for their victories over the enemies.21 They remained loyal subjects of the Han emperor.

    For many centuries the Tai ethnic people were the dominant race over a wide strip of land on the left side of the Yangtze from Sichaun to the sea. But they were always followed by the long stretching arm of the Chinese race. From southwestern China, the Tai ethnic group known to the Chinese as Pai-i made another move to enter the remote province of the western frontier, Yunnan. These Pai-i people referred to themselves as Ai Lao or Ngai Lao.

THE EMERGENCE OF NAN-CHAO


    The Tai ethnic groups, in the long march to southern and southwestern China, were able to revive and reestablish their kingdoms and dynasties intermittently in various localities. Some of these were shortlived; other lasted for centuries. The history of this period showed that the Tai people were unable to unite their petty feudal kingdoms into a large and powerful state until the emergence of Nan-chao in the seventh century.

    In A.D 650 the Ai Lao rulers united and organized six Chao states into one powerful confederated state named Nan-chao. The six Chao states that were thus united were:

1.    Mung-Hi-Chao
2.    Che-Chai-Chao
3.    Chien-Lang-Chao
4.    Shi-Lang-Chao
5.    Teng-Shan-Chao
6.    Mung-She-Chao22
   
    Nan-chao State was the creation of the Ai Lao (Ngai Lao) branch of Tai people. They were a tough and vigorous Tai group, having great ability and organizational skills, through which they managed to organize mobile armed forces composed of the ethnic nationalities living within Nan-chao, and to create an effective administrative machinery to control Nan-chao. That the Ai Lao created Nan-chao can be gleaned from the Chinese history Chin T’ang Shu, which states:

    The Nan-chao barbarians were originally a sort of Wu Man (Black barbarian) tribe. Their surname is Meng. These barbarians call their kings Chao. They claim to be descendants of the Ngai Lao (Ai Lao). For generations they dwelt in Meng-She-Chou and were chieftians there. It is east of old  Yang-Ch’ang  of  the Han dynasty and west of Yao-Chou. Formerly their chiefs were six: hence their names Lu-Chao...23

    As regards the location and extent of Nan-chao State, the Chinese history Hsin T’ang Shu described it thus:

    Nan-chao  is  called  Hao-to,  Lung-wai (Dragon’s Tai), Chu-mieh, and Yang-Chien Mang-She Chao is to the south of the other, hence the name Nan-chao. It lies between Yung-Ch’and and Yao-Chu, south of the Iron Bridge. On the east it adjoins the Ts’uan; on the southeast it is connected with Chao-Chih (Tonkin);  on the west with Mo-ch’ieh-t’o (Magadha);  on the northwest it joins T’u-fan (Tibet): on the south it joins Nu-wang (probably Sip-Song-Pan-Na); on the northeast it connects with Ch’ien-wu. The king’s capital is Yang-Chu-Mieh city (Ta-li-fu). Another capital is Shan Shan-fu (Yunan-sen).24

    If the accounts in the Chin T’ang Shu and Hsin T’ang Shu are considered authentic, then we are provided with a very good estimate of the size and power of Nan-chao. To administers such an extensive empire effectively, the Nan-chao rulers introduced an elaborate governmental organization which included:

    • entrusting ministers with the power to decide matters of state
    • appointing governors, army officers in charge of horses, cows and the collection of the taxes; officers
      for the management of secret businesses; officers in charge of the palaces...
    • parceling out lands to the officials according to their ranks, to village communities, and to the farmers
    • conscripting all able-bodied men into military service. The army was divided into four departments,
      each having its own flag.  The soldiers were supplied with helmets  and  with  shields  of copper and           rhinoceros hide, with coats and trousers of leather. A leader was appointed over each one hundred men
      an officer over each one thousand, and a commander in chief over four armies.






to be continued....