The Kha, the Lao name for the Mon-Khmer hill peoples (with the Khmu the largest), live in the hills above the Mekong between Pak Beng and the Nam Ou and in the uplands round the Nam Beng and Nam Ha.
They gather the benzoin resin, stick lac and cardamom that make a country with no rice surplus worth trading with (board); the trade is well attested in later centuries and in Chinese notice, but nobody names the gathering places in 1200. Their villages are governed by elders; the lowland muang take tribute in forest goods, and raids on the Kha are a source of people for the valleys (the Lao realm record). Modern ethnonyms are used with caution: the evidence for the hill peoples of 1200 is Chinese trade lists, Cham and Khmer stelae naming forest products, Vietnamese notices of campaigns and ethnography of later centuries.
Who holds it
- Title
- Village elders (the Khmu elders are traditionally the most important people of the village)
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia (Khmu people): 88 percent of the Khmu live in northern Laos; they are swidden rice farmers who gather, hunt, trap and fish; village leaders have included a shaman, a medicine man, a priest of a priestly lineage and a headman; they were pushed into highland refuges after Thai and Lao peoples settled the lowlands. The page does not mention Muang Sua or any early source.
Overlord
The chao muang of Muang Sua take tribute in goods; no administration.
What it holds
- Swidden fields, forest and hill villages
- The benzoin, lac and cardamom of the upper Nam Ou
How things stand that morning
Gathering and paying; no event.
Wealth
Benzoin, stick lac, cardamom, forest goods.
Places of note
- Benzoin forests of the upper Nam Ou: Resin, lac and cardamom.
Where the sources disagree
- English Wikipedia (Khmu people) does not define the term Kha and gives no source earlier than 1964; the pairing with Muang Sua's tribute rests on the campaign board and the brief.
Evidence: Later ethnography and the campaign board.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A block over the hills of northern Laos; the lowland seats of Muang Sua and Pak Ou lie inside it and are drawn in the Lao records.
Sources and studies
- English Wikipedia, Khmu people
- OMNIA board notes for the Khmer and Lao area (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.