Notes On "Hso Hkan Hpa"
By Hkun Myat Sa
In 540 B.E Hkun Phang Hkam ascended the Tai throne with his capital at Wain Wai. The king
had a lesser wife (Minor Queen) who under suspicion of infidelity was
sent away to live at Hman Kaidaw in
653 B.E. and late in the same year she became mother of triplets who were named
severally, Hkun Ai Ngam Mong, Hkun Yee Hkang Hkam and Hkun Sam Lone.
In the year 550 B.E. the king shifted
his capital to Pang Hkam ruled from
there for sixteen years eventually dying in 656, when he was succeeded on the
throne by Nang E Hkam Leng, his
second daughter by the chief Queen, because the eldest daughter Nang Yey Hkam Lone had been given in
marriage to a Chinese Official of Mong
Myen and had left her native land to live with her husband.
The Queen Nang E Hkam Leng reigned for seventeen years and died in 673 B.E.
and was succeeded by her half brother Hkun
Yee Hkang Hkam better known as the heroic and Militant Hso Hkan Hpa, the Second of the triplets mentioned in the opening
paragraph. His elder brother Hkun Ai Ngam Mong had died while still an infant
at the age of two years in 655 B.E.
After his accession, the new king made
his younger brother Hkun Sam Lone
the Kyemmong or Heir Apparent and
vested in him the chief command of the army, in which office he was assisted by
a Board of strategy consisting of three ministers, named (1)Tao Hso Yin, (2)Tao Hpa Law and (3)Tao Hso
Han.
The king's capital was at Se-Hai but in 675 B.E. he established a
new capital at Se-Lan. He was by
character aggressive and ambitious and dreamed of extending the bounds of his
dominions. Hostilities were sought and broke out with China. In 679 B.E. the
king invaded Chinese territory and advanced up to Se Zong Tu when the Chinese Emperor put an end to the invasion by
making peace at the price of the cession of Mong Se-Long to the Tai King.
The next year, 680 B.E. his victorious
sweep continued. The Tai forces occupied Keng
Mai, Keng Hai and Keng Hone Laboon Lagawn. The Ruler of Hpa Hso Taung in an attempt to resist
and check the Tai King's advance, was overthrown in battle and the Tai forces
proceeded to overrun Mong Yun.
Thereafter the King's forces were turned
in a westerly direction and a victorious campaign ended in the annexation in
681 B.E. of Upper Assam or Way Sali Lone as it was then known.
While returning from this campaign, the Heir apparent and commander-in-chief,
died at Mogaung. Hkun Sam Lone is stated to have taken
poison as a consequence of interique the part of his deputies Tao Hso Yin and Tao Hpa Law. The death of the prince did not check the successes of
the King's armies. Hso Hkan Hpa's
victorious sweep continued in 722 B.E. when the Burmese armies armies were
routed at Tagaung, Sagaing and Pinya and the King, Narathu
was taken away to Mong Mao. (Kawzambee – became known as Mong Mao on the accession to the throne
of Hkun Sang U Ting otherwise known
in Burmese as U Dainna Mingyi.)
The Chinese then resumed hostilities and
launched an invasion in 723 B.E. in a vain attempt to catch him napping at a
time when they considered his military power to be exhausted with his
successive expeditions but they were defeated. Two years later, the King, Hso
Hkan Hpa moved his capital from Se-Lan to Ta Saop U but died the next year in
726 B.E.
It will thus be seen that Hso Hkan Hpa
was perhaps the most monumental figure in Tai History. As an administrator and
Military Leader he was unequalled and spread the boundaries of the Tai
dominions to an unheard of extent. Any student of Tai History would be able to
ascertain from a study of the map of these regions how extensive the Tai
dominions were in those days – penetrating into China, Mong Yun, Arakan and
Upper Assam and now unhappily scattered,
disunited and shared out.
Ref: No.(4), 1957-58, Tai Youth
Magazine, P.8.
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