Haripunjaya, the Mon kingdom of Lamphun

Who rules

Title

King of Haripunjaya (Hariphunchai), at Lamphun

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

The nearest dated name is Sabbadhisiddhi (Sabbasiddhi), who appears in the Mon inscriptions of Lamphun dated 1213, 1218 and 1219. Whether he, a predecessor or a kinsman sat on 1 January 1200 is not settled. The Jinakalamali list, which read literally gives a Nyotta 1196 to 1270 and a Yi Ba 1270 to 1292, is not used: its dates are back-calculated from reign lengths.

Confidence

low

English Wikipedia (Haripunjaya) summarising the Lamphun steles; the chronicles are the Camadevivamsa (15th century) and the Jinakalamali (compiled at Chiang Mai in 1516 or 1517, from memory).

What the realm holds

• Lamphun (Haripunjaya), the royal town on the Kuang, with the relic stupa of Wat Phra That Hariphunchai at its centre (the chronicles say the town was laid out like a conch shell)
• The moated towns of the Ping plain, among them Wiang Tha Kan and Wiang Mano (Mon-period earthworks, excavated; their lords are not known)
• Khelang Nakhon (Lampang) and the Wang valley with the walled hill monastery of Lampang Luang (the chronicles treat Lampang as a sister seat with its own ruler)
• The Ping road south and west: Hot and its ferry on the road to the Salween, then Li and Thoen on the road south (claimed rather than garrisoned); Tak is a march, not held
• The monastery estates and endowed people named in the Mon inscriptions of 1213 to 1219 (gifts of land, people and buildings by the king)
• Forest goods from the Lawa uplands (lac, wax, honey, iron), which the Lawa bring down to the valley markets but do not pay as regular tribute

How it was acquired

Not known. Chronicle tradition says Queen Camadevi came from Lavo and founded Lamphun in the seventh century (dates 653 to 688 depending on the text); that is legend. The archaeology favours the eleventh or twelfth century for the Mon settlement (Baker and Pasuk, via the English Wikipedia article on Camadevi).

Allies and rivals

No alliance, war or marriage with any named power is dated for 1200. The chronicles tell of eleventh-century wars with the Khmer of Lavo and of Adityaraja taking Lavo in 1052; these are chronicle only and are not used here. Pagan: no relation is attested; Burmese and Indian touches in the art are a style judgement, not a political fact. North: Ngoenyang and Phayao are Tai muang whose relations with Lamphun before Mangrai are not recorded.

West: the Lawa and Karen hills, and across the Salween the Mon coast, which is Pagan's claimed margin. South: Tak and Kamphaeng Phet, then the Khmer-orbit plain of Chaliang and Sukhothai.

The realm that morning

At peace so far as any source shows: no war, raid or embassy is dated to the winter of 1199-1200 in anything we could reach, and the chronicles call the early thirteenth century a time of building. The king is not known. Lamphun holds the Ping and Kuang plain; Khelang Nakhon (Lampang) has its own lord on the Wang; Li and Thoen on the road south are claimed more than garrisoned; Tak is a march with no attested lord; Chiang Dao and Wiang Pa Pao are the northern seam where Tai villages begin.

Mangrai is not born (1238 or 1239 in the chronicles), Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai do not exist and Lan Na is not yet a name.

Wealth

Irrigated rice of the Ping, Kuang and Wang plains, with weirs and canals (the chronicle story of Ai Fa's forced labour on an irrigation system is late); a relic cult that draws pilgrims and gifts; tolls on the Ping road to Tak and on the hill road west over the Salween; lac, wax, honey and forest drugs from the Lawa hills; iron from Lawa smiths; Mon merchants, who in the Mangrai story carry news of Lamphun's wealth. No coin or mint is known for it.

Military

No army, garrison or levy figure survives in any source we could reach. The defences are the earth-banked and moated towns (Lamphun, Wiang Tha Kan, Wiang Mano, Lampang) and the walled hill monasteries. In the chronicle Mangrai takes Lamphun by an agent (Ai Fa) and not by assault.

Threats

• Tai chiefs of the northern and eastern valleys (Ngoenyang, Phayao) growing stronger, though no source shows them at war with Lamphun in 1200
• Hill raiding from the Lawa and Karen country on the west side of the plain
• A Khmer or Tai reach up the Ping from the south (Sukhothai is a generation or two away: 1238 or about 1243)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1213 to 1219 (Mon inscriptions; dates as printed, not recomputed)King Sabbadhisiddhi endows monasteries and buildings in the seven large Lamphun steles: an uposatha hall is built about 1214, an earthquake and its repairs are recorded, and on Tuesday 28 May 1219 (Julian; the weekday checks) he is briefly ordained at Vat Don (Jetavana) with his two sons present.Depends on: The court and Sangha of Lamphun going on as they are in 1200; the steles are the only dated record. Stopped by: A collapse of the court before 1213 (no sign of one).
2. 1238, or about 1243 (Wyatt)Tai chiefs take Sukhothai from its Khmer-titled commander: the plain south of Tak and Kamphaeng Phet passes to a Tai ruler.Depends on: Khmer weakness after Jayavarman VII dies (about 1218, range 1218 to 1220). Stopped by: A strong Khmer successor, or no Tai chief able to unite the Sukhothai valley.
3. 1259 or 1261, then 1262Mangrai succeeds in Ngoenyang and founds Chiang Rai (1262).Depends on: The chronicle dates are right; Lao Meng's death. Stopped by: A different succession at Ngoenyang.
4. 1281, or 1291, or 1292 (the sources differ and the date is not pinned)Mangrai takes Lamphun with the help of his agent Ai Fa; the last king, Yi Ba, flees to Lampang. Wiang Kum Kam is built (1286 or 1294) and Chiang Mai in 1296.Depends on: Ngoenyang growing at Haripunjaya's cost; discontent in Lamphun; Ai Fa's intrigue as the Chiang Mai Chronicle tells it. Stopped by: An alliance of Lamphun with Phayao or with Sukhothai; a failed intrigue.

Places of note

• Lamphun (Haripunjaya): the royal town on the Kuang
• Wat Phra That Hariphunchai: relic stupa at the centre of the town
• Wat Chamathewi (Kukut): stepped brick stupa west of the town
• Wiang Tha Kan: moated Mon-period town of the Ping plain
• Khelang Nakhon (Lampang): sister seat on the Wang
• Hot: ferry on the hill road west

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry powers.txt: "a Mon Theravada kingdom six centuries old". The seventh-century foundation is legend; Baker and Pasuk say the archaeology favours the eleventh or twelfth century for the Mon settlement. Drawn as an established kingdom, but not as an old one.
• Board (haripunjaya-lamphun, wat-chamathewi-kukut): the temple "rebuilt after an earthquake in 1218". The Lamphun steles do record an earthquake and its repairs, but we could not see that they tie it to Wat Chamathewi (Kukut), and 1218 is the campaign board's date.
• Board (moei-crossing-mae-sot): "secure" for Haripunjaya. No source we could reach puts Haripunjaya at the Moei; treated as a Karen and Mon crossing outside any state.
• Mangrai's taking of Lamphun: 1281 (English Wikipedia articles on Lamphun, Haripunjaya and Lan Na), 1291 (its Mangrai article), 1292 or 1292/93 (its Haripunjaya article, the German article). Not pinned.
• English Wikipedia (Haripunjaya) lists Adityaraja and Dhammikaraja before Sabbadhisiddhi without dates, and a Jinakalamali list that puts Nyotta on the throne on 1 January 1200 if read literally. That list is not used.

Evidence: Seven large Mon stone inscriptions of 1213 to 1219 (known to me from the English Wikipedia article, which summarises them; the originals and Bauer's editions were not read) and excavated moated towns give a thin but real dated core. Everything earlier, and the king list, rests on chronicles written two to three centuries after 1200 (Camadevivamsa, 15th century; Jinakalamali, 1516 or 1517; Chiang Mai Chronicle, begun in the late fifteenth century and surviving in a text of 1828). WebSearch was unavailable this round and Thai Wikipedia was refused, so Wyatt, Baker and Pasuk and Swearer and Premchit are cited from memory only.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Polygons follow the lowland basins and the mountain foot; the south (Li, Thoen) is claimed ground, Tak is drawn as a march, and the Lawa uplands are drawn as a separate people.

Primary sources for this realm

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 Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma, The Royal Historical Commission of King Bagyidaw (Monywe Sayadaw and others), drawing on U Kala's Maha Yazawin (about 1724) and earlier chronicles (1829 to 1832). The standard Burmese court chronicle, compiled six centuries after 1200 from older chronicles now lost. Read online
• 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.
• Epigraphia Birmanica, being lithic and other inscriptions of Burma, Various, edited by Taw Sein Ko, C. Duroiselle and C. O. Blagden (inscriptions of the 11th to 15th centuries; the series ran from 1919 to 1936). The Archaeological Survey of Burma's series of edited inscriptions with full translations. Read online
• Inscriptions of Pagan, Pinya and Ava; Inscriptions of Burma, Various (the Pagan kings, queens, ministers and donors), edited by Tun Nyein, Taw Sein Ko, G. H. Luce and Pe Maung Tin (inscriptions of the 11th to 14th centuries; editions 1899 and 1933 to 1956). The dedicatory inscriptions of Pagan are the only contemporary texts for the kingdom of Narapatisithu (reigning 1174 to 1211). Read online
• The Inscriptions of Cambodia, Various (the Khmer kings and their officers), edited by George Coedes (inscriptions of the 6th to 14th centuries; edited 1937 to 1966). The Khmer empire of 1200 is known almost entirely from the great foundation stelae of Jayavarman VII (reigning from 1181), which Coedes edited: the Ta Prohm stele of 1186 (K. Read online