Magnates and their honours · Chiang Rung, the Tai Lue muang of Sipsong Panna · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Lords of Muang Hai and Muang La

Muang Hai lies in the western Sipsong Panna basins, on the tea and salt tracks between the Mekong and the Salween side.

Muang La lies in the eastern basins on the road down toward the Nam Ou and the Lao country. Each is a Dai muang, a rice basin with a stockaded town and its headman. The Ming placed both under the Cheli xuanwei si; for 1200 nothing dated names a lord.

Who he is

Title
Chao of Muang Hai and of Muang La
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
None named; in the Dai tradition the founder's sons and kin are posted to the basins.
Confidence
low

Chinese Wikipedia (Menghai, Mengla): no history before the Ming; Ming sources call Mengla "Mengla" under the Cheli xuanwei si.

Overlord

the lord of Chiang Rung

What it holds

  • Muang Hai and the Menghai basin
  • Muang La and the Mengla basin
  • The tea hills round them (tea is noted in the Yinsheng hills in 862)

Allies and rivals

Chiang Rung (overlord); the Wa and Blang hills (west); the Nam Ou muang (south-east).

How things stand that morning

Basin muang under Chiang Rung, no dated event.

Wealth

Rice and tea.

Threats

  • None dated

Places of note

  • Muang Hai: western basins
  • Muang La: eastern basins

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Late chronicle tradition and the Ming records.

On the map: Two seeds drawings.

Primary sources for Chiang Rung

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • The later Tai, Lao and Mon chronicles of the north, Ratanapanna (Jinakalamali); Bodhiramsi (Chamadevivamsa); anonymous monks and court scribes (the Chamadevivamsa about 1410; the Jinakalamali 1516 to 1528; the Chiang Mai Chronicle in its surviving form 1827; the Nithan Khun Borom 16th to 17th century). There is no text of 1200 for the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, the Tai muang of Ngoenyang (Chiang Saen), Chiang Rung, the Yom and Nan valleys, or the Lao middle Mekong.

Sources and studies

  1. Chinese Wikipedia, Mengla county
  2. Chinese Wikipedia, Zhao Pianling (list of the lords of Chiang Rung from the Le Shi)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.