Möng Yang

Möng Yang (; ) was a Shan state in what is today Burma. It was an outlying territory, located away from the main Shan State area in present-day Kachin State. The state existed before 1400 and after 1604. The main town was Mohnyin (Möng Yang).

History

Möng Yang was a Shan state established at an uncertain date before the 15th century with the town of Mohnyin as its capital.

Sawlon I, the chief of Möng Yang and a descendant of the Möng Mao royal family in 1527, created the Confederation of Shan States which eventually succeeded in capturing Ava, upsetting the delicate power balance that had existed in the area for nearly two centuries.''Countries and Territories of the World: Vol I; Asia'' p. 407
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The Confederation originally consisted of Möng Yang, Möng Kawng, Bhamo, Möng Mit, and Kale and raided Upper Burma throughout the early 16th century (1502–1527) and fought a series of war against Ava and its ally Shan State of Hsipaw. The Confederation finally defeated Ava in 1527, and placed Sawlon's eldest son Thohanbwa on the Ava throne. Hsipaw and its tributaries Yawnghwe and Möng Pai also came over to the confederation. In 1533, their erstwhile ally the Prome Kingdom was defeated because Sawlon felt that Prome did not provide sufficient help in their war against Ava. After the Prome war, Sawlon was assassinated by his own ministers, creating a leadership vacuum. Although Sawlon's son Thohanbwa naturally tried to assume the leadership of the Confederation, he was never fully acknowledged as the first among equals by other saophas.

An incoherent confederation neglected to intervene in the first four years of Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1535–1541) in Lower Burma. The saophas sent a force to relieve Prome from a new invasion only in 1539, and were ultimately unable to hold Prome against another Toungoo attack in 1542.

In 1543, the Burmese ministers assassinated Thohanbwa and placed Hkonmaing, the saopha of Hsipaw, on the Ava throne. Möng Yang leaders, led by Sithu Kyawhtin, had to grudgingly agree to Hkonmaing's leadership in light of the Toungoo threat.The confederation's bickering resumed in full force after failed invasions leading to Toungoo forces taking Bagan in 1544 and Hkonmaing's death in 1546. Sithu Kyawhtin set up a rival fiefdom in Sagaing across the river from Ava and finally drove out Mobye Narapati in 1552.

The weakened Confederation proved no match for Bayinnaung's Toungoo forces. Bayinnaung captured Ava in 1555 and conquered all of Shan States in a series of military campaigns from 1556 to 1557. A record of the conquest of Möng Yang in 1557 is mentioned in a bell inscription relating the conquests of King Bayinnaung.
Occupied by the Taungoo dynasty of Burma between 1579 and 1584, the state was extinguished in 1604.Shan (Tai) states
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Rulers

Saophas

Myowuns

Under the Konbaung dynasty the area of the former state was administered by a Viceroy called a ''Myowun'', who was appointed by the king and possessed civil, judicial, fiscal and military powers.
* 1853–18?? Nemyo Minhtin Themanta Yaza (Six Myowuns – Mohnyin, Kawng Ton, Shwegu, Moe Ta, Yin khia, Kat )

Popular culture

Mong Yang is a playable nation in ''Europa Universalis IV''.

References

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External links

"Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan states"

Shan States
Kachin State
Tusi in Yunnan

{{Kachin-geo-stub