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26-603: The federation was established in order to facilitate the future transfer of the Shan principalities to the Governor of Burma. Unaware of the implications of the British political move, the Shan Saophas lost power in the process and had to contribute 50% of their revenue to the central fund as well. Their status was thus diminished from having been semi-sovereign rulers of princely states when

52-408: A central king or other leader. The more powerful mueang (generally designated as chiang , wiang , nakhon or krung – with Bangkok as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon ) occasionally tried to liberate themselves from their suzerain and could enjoy periods of relative independence. Mueang large and small often shifted allegiance , and frequently paid tribute to more than one powerful neighbor –

78-795: A hierarchy, listed states also as Sawbaships, Myosaships and Ngwegunhmuships The term was also used for the rulers of some Tai polities in what is now China's Yunnan Province. This name-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Mueang Mueang ( Ahom : 𑜉𑜢𑜤𑜂𑜫 ; Thai : เมือง mɯ̄ang , pronounced [mɯaŋ˧] listen ), Muang ( Lao : ເມືອງ mɯ́ang , pronounced [mɯaŋ˦] ; Tai Nuea : ᥛᥫᥒᥰ muang ), Mong ( Shan : မိူင်း mə́ŋ , pronounced [məŋ˦] ), Meng ( Chinese : 猛 or 勐 ) or Mường (Vietnamese) were pre-modern semi-independent city-states or principalities in mainland Southeast Asia , adjacent regions of Northeast India and Southern China , including what

104-664: A municipal status equivalent to town ( thesaban mueang ). In standard Thai, the term for the country of Thailand is ประเทศไทย, rtgs: Prathet Thai. Mueang still forms part of the placenames of a few places, notably Don Mueang District , home to Don Mueang International Airport ; and in the Royal Thai General System of Transcription Mueang Phatthaya ( เมืองพัทยา ) for the self-governing municipality of Pattaya . Nakhon ( นคร ) as meaning "city" has been modified to thesaban nakhon ( เทศบาลนคร ), usually translated as " city municipality ". It still forms part of

130-566: Is colloquially known as Muang Lao , but for Lao people , the word conveys more than mere administrative district. The usage is of special historic interest for the Lao; in particular for their traditional socio-political and administrative organisation, and the formation of their early (power) states , described by later scholars as Mandala (Southeast Asian political model) . Provinces of Laos are now subdivided into what are commonly translated as districts of Laos , with some retaining Muang as part of

156-578: Is not directly attested by any surviving texts, but has been reconstructed using the comparative method . This term has Proto-Tai-tone A1 . All A1 words are rising tone in modern Thai and Lao, following rules determined for tone origin . Accordingly, the term is: Different linguistic tones give different meanings; scholarship has not established a link between this term and any of the terms which differ in tone. Mueang conveys many meanings, all having to do with administrative, social, political and religious orientation on wet-rice cultivation. The origin of

182-618: Is now Thailand , Laos , Burma , Cambodia , parts of northern Vietnam , southern Yunnan , western Guangxi and Assam . Mueang was originally a term in the Tai languages for a town having a defensive wall and a ruler with at least the Thai noble rank of khun ( ขุน ), together with its dependent villages. The mandala model of political organisation organised states in collective hierarchy such that smaller mueang were subordinate to more powerful neighboring ones, which in turn were subordinate to

208-792: The Japanese Empire , on 18 August 1943, the Japanese government agreed to the Thai annexation of Kengtung and part of Mongpan state (as well as the annexation of Kelantan, Trengganu, Kedah, Perlis states and nearby islands in Malaya.) The other districts that the Thai government wanted in the southern Shan states and the Karenni states, all located east of the Salween River, were assigned by the Japanese to their client State of Burma in September 1943. Thailand left

234-511: The Yuan as imperial officials, in an arrangement generally known as the Tusi ("Native Chieftain") system. Ming and Qing -era dynasties gradually replaced native chieftains with non-native Chinese government officials. In the 19th century, Thailand's Chakri dynasty and Burma's colonial and subsequent military rulers did much the same with their lesser mueang, but, while the petty kingdoms are gone,

260-692: The Federated Shan States, under a British commissioner who also administered the Wa States . On 27 May 1942, during World War II , Kengtung State was invaded and its capital captured by the Imperial Japanese Army . Following a previous agreement between Thai Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram and the Japanese Empire , in December the same year the Thai Phayap Army occupied the part of

286-452: The Karenni states located between the Thai border and the Salween, corresponding to the eastern half of Kantarawadi State, as well as two districts of Mawkmai and four districts of Möngpan . The annexation by Thailand as Saharat Thai Doem northern province was formalised on 1 August 1943. Following the existing agreement between Thai Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram (Phibun) and

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312-417: The caparisoning of the royal elephant, the instruments for processional music, the gateways and the style of residence, all were rigidly prescribed to ensure that the dignity kept up accordance with the status of a royal chieftain, yet did not encroach on the special privileges reserved for the court of Ava itself. The British, whose success in administration was largely bound up with observance, of precedence in

338-427: The decisions of the British authorities. The privileges and titles were so much a matter of royal ordinance that every one of a Sawbwa's symbols of power was laid down in a special book of dispensations granted by the higher court. His regalia and clothes, the guilding and jewel decoration of betel boxes, spittoons, fly-whisks and such articles of use, the dress of ministers, the umbrellas, spears and horses in procession,

364-553: The establishment of the Federated Shan States greatly reduced the sawbwas' autonomy. In April 1959, the sawbwas relinquished their feudal authority to the Burmese government. The distinction in the titles dates from the days of the Burmese monarchy although the same states have not continued to hold the same titles for their chiefs during the centuries -- changes took place according to royal favour, results of battles and later,

390-609: The heavens" in Tai languages , including chaopha (𑜋𑜧𑜨 𑜇𑜡) in Ahom , saopha ( Shan : ၸဝ်ႈၽႃႉ , romanized:  tsaw3 pʰaa5 ) in Shan , chau-fa ( Tai Nüa : ᥓᥝᥲ ᥜᥣᥳ ) in Tai Nuea , and chao fa ( Thai : เจ้าฟ้า ) in Thai . The title was rendered into Burmese as sawbwa ( Burmese : စော်ဘွား ). In the pre-colonial era, the term 'sawbwa' was utilised by the Burmese monarchy in reference to

416-428: The hereditary rulers of Shan-speaking polities called mong ( Shan : မိူင်း , pronounced [mə́ŋ] ), in the region. In order of precedence, the sawbwas outranked local rulers of lower ranks, namely the myoza and ngwegunhmu. During British colonial rule , colonial authorities adopted the Burmese system, recognising between 14 and 16 sawbwas who enjoyed a degree of autonomy in their fiefdoms. In 1922,

442-415: The latter were established in 1888 to that of becoming a kind of tax collectors. Under the British colonial administration, the former Shan States consisted of nominally sovereign entities, each ruled by a local monarch, but administered by a single British commissioner. On 10 October 1922 the administrations of the Karenni states and the Shan states were officially clustered together in order to establish

468-633: The most powerful of the period being Ming China . Following Kublai Khan 's defeat of the Dali Kingdom of the Bai people in 1253 and its establishment as a tutelary state, new mueang were founded widely throughout the Shan States and adjoining regions – though the common description of this as a "mass migration" is disputed. Following historical Chinese practice, tribal leaders principally in Yunnan were recognized by

494-406: The name of some places. Sung Noen District is noted for having been the site of two ancient cities: Mueang Sema and Khorakhapura. Pali púra became Sanskrit puri , hence Thai บุรี, บูรี , (buri) all connoting the same as Thai mueang : city with defensive wall. "Khorakhapura" was nicknamed "Nakhon Raj," which as a portmanteau with Sema, became Nakhon Ratchasima. Though dropped from

520-585: The name of this mueang, Sanskrit buri persists in the names of others. Müang Fai is a term reconstructed from Proto-Tai , the common ancestor of all Tai languages . In the Guangxi - Guizhou of Southern China region, the term described what was then a unique type of irrigation engineering for wet-rice cultivation . Müang meaning 'irrigation channel, ditch, canal' and Fai , 'dike, weir, dam.' together referred to gravitational irrigation systems for directing water from streams and rivers. The Proto-Tai language

546-451: The name: Thailand is colloquially known as Mueang Thai . After the Thesaphiban reforms of Prince Damrong Rajanubhab , city-states under Siam were organized into monthon ( มณฑล , Thai translation of mandala ), which was changed to changwat ( จังหวัด ) in 1916. Mueang still can be found as the term for the capital districts of the provinces ( amphoe mueang ), as well as for

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572-562: The place names remain. Place names in Southwestern Tai languages In Khmer, "moeang" (មឿង) is a word borrowed from the Thai language meaning "small city" or "small town." Usually used as a place name for villages. The placename "mueang" is written in Chinese characters as 勐, 孟 ; měng , which is equivalent to Tai Nüa : ᥛᥫᥒᥰ and Tai Lü : ᦵᦙᦲᧂ , both of which are spoken in China . Laos

598-614: The right to secede from the Union. Following the 1962 Burmese coup d'état , the status of the Shan States and the saophas' hereditary rights were removed by Gen. Ne Win 's military government. Saopha Chaopha ( lit.   ' lord of the sky ' ) was a royal title used by the hereditary Tai rulers in mainland Southeast Asia , including the Mong Dun , Mong Shan , Mong Mao , and Khamti fiefdoms. The title literally means "lord of

624-535: The same watershed area that insured a high degree of cooperation to create and maintain irrigation systems ( müang-faai ) – which probably was the primary reason for founding mueang . Kham Mueang ( Thai : คำเมือง ) is the modern spoken form of the old Northern Thai language that was the language of the kingdom of Lan Na (Million Fields). Central Thai may call northern Thai people and their language Thai Yuan . They call their language Kham Mueang in which Kham means language or word; mueang ; town, hence

650-571: The territory in 1945, but officially relinquished its claim over the territories of the Federated Shan States it had occupied only in 1946 as part of the condition for admission to the United Nations and the withdrawal of all wartime sanctions for having sided with the Axis powers . When Burma gained independence in 1948, the Federated Shan States became Shan State and Kayah State of the Union of Burma with

676-753: The word mueang yet remains obscure. In October 2007, The National Library of Laos , in collaboration with the Berlin State Library and the University of Passau , started a project to produce the Digital Library of Lao Manuscripts. Papers presented at the Literary Heritage of Laos Conference, held in Vientiane in 2005, have also been made available. Many of the mss. illuminate the administrative, social, political, and religious demands put on communities in

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