THE SHAN STATES

and the

BRITISH ANNEXATION THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST ASIA PROGRAM

The Southeast Asia Program was organized at Cornell University in the Department of Far Eastern Studies in 1950. It is a teaching and research pro­ gram of interdisciplinary studies in the humanities, social sciences and some natural sciences. It deals with Southeast Asia as a region and with the in­ dividual countries of the area: Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The activities of the Program are carried on both at Cornell and in Southeast Asia. They include an undergraduate and graduate curriculum at Cornell which provides instruction by specialists in South­ east Asian cultural history and present-day affairs and offers intensive training in each of the major languages of the area. The Program sponsors group research projects on Thailand, on Indonesia, on the Philippines, and on the area's Chinese minorities. At the same time individual staff and students of the Program have done field research in every South­ east Asian country.

A list of publications relating to Southeast Asia which may be obtained on prepaid order directly from the Program is given at the end of this volume. Information on Program staff, fellowships, require­ ments for degrees, and current course offerings will be found in an Announcement of the Department of Asian Studies obtainable from the Director South­ east Asia Program, Franklin Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

• ii• THE SHAN STATES

and the

BRITISH ANNEXATION

by Sao Saimong Mangrai

Data Paper: Number 57 Southeast Asia Program Eepartment of Asian Studies Cornell University, Ithaca, New York August 1965

Price: $4. 00

• 1.• 1.• 1. 0 1965 CORNELL UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST ASIA PROGRAM

First Printing, 1965 Second Printing, 1969

iv PREFACE

The author of this woik, Sao Saimong Mangrai, is the son of a past Sawbwa of the Shan State· · of Kengtung, the husband of Daw Mi Mi Khaing, herself the writer of a well-known book on Burmese family life, and was, until the army coup d'etat of 2 March 196·2 in Burma, Chief E.ducation Officer of the Shan and Kayah states. In these pages he essays to present the full story of the British occupation of this area . consequent' upon the deposition of Thibaw,. · the last king of Burma, in November 1885, and the subsequent annexation of his kingdom to British India on 1 January 1886. He has drawn upon unpublished documents in. the India Office- archives in-London, official publications and con­ temporary published works now long out-of-print and only available in a few libraries. He quotes copiously from his sources, partly for this reason, but also because he has found them fascinating, and his own words inadequate to convey their distinctive flavour.

In his introduction, Sao Saimong explains why he has been unable to carry out the full plan suggested to him by Professor Gordon Luce, the sayagyi (great teacher) of all students of Burma's ·.history. He has, however, p.refaced his main story with. a chapter in which he recounts the stories of earlier Shan history to be found in their

chronicle literature. They present the histori�n. ' with many problems, and it may be a long time before a-definitive history of the Shans can be written. But they must not be lightly disr�garded for they offer a mirror to the mind of the Shan: they reflect conceptions of the past which have become ·part and parcel of the·outlook of more recent generationsi and failing an authentic picture of_ their past, it is next in importance that the reader should know what the Shans tpemselves have been told about ·it by their own writers.

During his year's furlpugh from Burma, when Sao Saimong was researching in London, he and I had regular·_.weekly discussions, and I read each section of his _work ·as it came hot from his pen. His intelligence, urbanity and wit

V made these meetings delightful and memorable: they display themselves repeatedly in this book. More than that, the author's ability to stand above the fray and assess situa­ tions fairly -- with nevertheless the occasional touch of amusement -- gives his book what to me is its special quality.

D. G. E. Hall Visiting Professor Southeast Asia Program

Ithaca, New York December 1963

vi CONTENTS Page Introduc-tion • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1 Chapter

I. Shanland and Its Peoples • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 5 II. Some Earlier Shans • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 15 III. Past Shan-Burmese Relations • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 47 IV. Preparations • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 81 V. Chaos and Revolts • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1.01 VI. Annexation by Marching Columns • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 129 VII. Southern and Northern Shan Columns • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 147 VIII. Karenni • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 169 IX. The Third Annexation Tour: Kengtung • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 197 x. Boundary with Siam • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 217 XI. Boundary with France • •••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••• 239

XII. The Wa States • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Q • • 0 • • • 263

XIII. Boundary with China • • • e • I e e e e e e • • e ♦ e • ♦ ♦ I O e •. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ e O e ♦ e e e D 275

XIV. Epilogue e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e ♦ e e e ♦ ♦ • ♦ e ♦ O • e • e e ♦ e ♦ • 0 • • ♦ ♦ ♦ • • ♦ 0 e 0 299

Bibliography 0 ♦ • 0 0 I • e • • e • e • • • e • e • • e ■ ■ e e e ♦ • • e • ■ e e • ■ ♦ ■ e ♦ ♦ e e ■ ♦ 0 e e e e 313 Appendix

I. Table of Pong kings • ♦ • • • • • • • • I • • • • • • • • • • • e • • 0 • ■ 0 I • ♦ • 0 0 • i II. The Story of Mung-mau and table of kings • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ii

• • • III. The Story of Mog.aung and table of rulers • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • XV1l.1

IV. List of States (1925) and classical names • • • • • • • e • • • • • • XXV

vii Appendix Page

• • • • • • • • • • • ••••••• IV-A. Table of Salutes to Shan sawbwas • • • xxvii

V. Titles of Burme::;e kings and Shan sawbwas ...... xxv·iii VI. List of Bohrnus and Jitkes at Mongnai, 1802-1881 ......

i!II. :�orms of 3ar1ais 5ranted to: i. Sawbwas ...... :XXX1 . . ll,• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •••• t·�yo�,as and Ngwegur1hmus • • • • • • • X.XX::.J.l

• • • . . . lll. Sawb-.1a of Ken�tung 1889 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • XXXlll

• lV. Sawbv1a of Ken:�tung 1896 • • • • • • • • • •••••••••••••• xxxv· . . • • • • • • •• v. Sawbwa of Hsipaw 1889 • • • • • •••••••••••• XXXVll

• • • • • • • • • • ••••••••••••••• vi. Sawbwa of Hsipaw 1906 • XXXlX .... 01 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • vii. Sawbwa Mong Mit 1905 • • • xlii . . . Vlll. Sawbwa of Kantarawadi • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • xliii

ix. l..Jestern Karenni Chiefs .••..•...•.....•.....•.• xlv

x. Cases of successions •...•.....•..•...•.....•.• xlvii

'iJIII. The Twelve Pannas of Kenghung ....••••...... ••• xlix

1. McLeod's List • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • xlix

ii. Scott's First List ...... xlix

iii. Scott's Second Lista...... L

iv. Daly's List ...... Li IX. 18 94 Convention ...... Lii x. 1897 Agreement ...... •...... Lxii XI. 1960 Sino-Burmese Boundary Treaty ..•••••..••...... ••• Lxix XII. Commuted Pensions of Shan Chiefs .••••...••••...... • Lxxx XIII. Agreement between Shan State Government and the Saophas ...... Lxxxl.

viii ABBREV"IATIONS

& Burma Handbook Burma ·"- A Handbook of Practical Commercial Political Information by J. G. Scott, London, 1906. = BSUB Boundary between Siain & Upper Burma being Memorandum (November 1888) and Supplementary Memorandum (April 1889) presented by the Siamese Legation in London to the British Foreign Office on Siam"Y s claim to certain trans-Salween Shan States. CSTK Correspondence Concerning the Siamese Claim to the trans-Salween Territory of Eastern Karenni. Rangoon, 1890. = FACE Frontier Areas Committee of Enquiry, 1947: Report presented to His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and the Government of Burma, Part I (Report) and Part II (Appendices). Rangoo11, 1947 ., GUESS Gazetteer of Upper Burma & the Shan States. = GUBSS, I.2.100 Gazetteer of Upper Burma & the Shan States, Part I, Volume 2, page 1.00, etc.

= JAOS Journal of American Oriental Society. = JASB Jo·urnal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal"o JBRS = Journal of Burma Research Society. JSS = Journal of Siam Society. PAC - Parliamentary Accounts & Papers. PCTSS - Papers Concerning the trans-Salween States, being correspondence on the· relations between Siam and Burma and the former's claims to certain territory. on the easii of the Salween, in 6 parts. Rangoori, 18890

1.X RANSS = Report on the Ad.ministrat:ion of the Northern Shan States. RASSS - Report on the Administration of the Southern Shan States.

X Introduction

In August, 1957, I wrote to Professor G. H. Luce in the follow­ ing,..vein: A friend had s11ggested that, as the only history of the Shan States existed piece-meal in several works, I should attempt to put together those pieces in one convenient volume. I thought I would spend six months in London reading up all available material on the Shan Staterfrom English, Burmese, Siamese and Shan sources, and spend the next three months in putting them together in a book of perhaps 200 - JOO pages� I asked Saya Luce what he thought of the idea"e The following are extracts from his very kind reply. ,Your.letter of August 17th reached me yesterday evening, and I hasten to replye If you are just required to put to­ gether, in your spare time, a pleasant tissue of 'historical' legends for the delectation of school-children, go ahead; but IVm afraid I can't be of much use to you. But if you really mean, or are really meant, to write the history of the Shans, you yourself (it can't be delegated) will have to do an enormous amount of research (never yet done), and you can't possibly do it nas part of yourwork.n They must put you on special, whole-time• dutyo You can't write such a history, even of the Shan States of Burma, within one year"., And are you going to ignore the Shans (Tai) of China and Further India, of whom the Shans of Burma are only a small fraction? God forbid that I should say anything to dissuade you from this task - the biggest and most important historical job still to be done in S. East Asia. I know of no one more competent to do it than you are. J;3ut I ,-1ant, your Government to realize how big a job this is, an� how full of pitfalls"v What strikes me immediately about the plan you outline, is that it entirely omits the two most important sources of all:- (i) Chinese sources, which go back at any rate to the 1st. Cent. Ao D�j and are far-fuller and more trustworthy than any source except original inscriptions; (ii) Original Old Tai inscriptions, which" appear t�o exist in considerable quantities at least as far_ north as Mong Yang - There appear to be 20 faces or more at Mong Lwe

1 2

1 alone. tle know of 60 more in N. Siam (I can give you par­ ticulars) - none yet edited. And there are certainly others (I know not how many, but one can find out by refe�ences to books in London) in Laos, around Vieng Chan and Luang Phrabang. Any history of the Shans which ignores these 2 basic sources will be, in my opinion, not only no good, but definitely bad and misleading. You don't want to feed your Shan school boys and school girls on legends and lies: they deserve something better •. .. Your assistants can be useful in collecting and translat­ ing materials. Card-indexing, which is the longest and most tedious job, must be done by yourself. (I speak from experi­ ence, and know that I am right here). The reflecting that goes in your mind as you card-index, breeds the imaginative alertness and careful insight, which finally may lead you to the truth. An assistant, however good, will not extract half the historical value of a s�ngle sentence of Chinese or Old Shan that you will; and the half that he will miss, is pre­ cisely the half that gives the key to the problem. With your knowledge of Shan, Thai, Lao and Burmese, you are wonderfully well equipped to tackle Old Tai; and if you are sufficiently interested, and prepared to spend not less than 5 years on the job, you could do it to admiration ...• I also wrote to Professor D. G. E. Hall at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, in identical terms. In his reply Saya Hall said he was delighted at the idea and that he would do all he could to help me in my contact with learned men and various libraries in London. It is plain the two professors regarded my "project" in dif­ ferent lights. I was 1 flattered by Saya Luce's compliments and en­ couraged by Saya Hall"s open arms. One expected that I would be able to do a thorough research on the subject; the other, probably more aware of my limitations and the limited time at my disposal, was of the opinion that any aspect or period of the history of the Shan StateJ was worth at.tempting. That was the beginning of the present work. I knew, of course, of the existence of the Chinese sources and of the inscriptions, but, at the time of writing my letters, neither was in my plan because both were beyond rrry ability to cope with. After pondering over the two replies I decided to work backward. The British Annexation of the Shan States at once offered itself as a starting point and there would be no lack of material for reference in the British official records. The starting point has, in fact, become the whole compass of the work. This book which, in view of its limited nature, may, I hope, be the prelude to others in English or in Shan, concerns itself mainly with the year.3 1886 to 1900, which was the period of the British annexation 3

of the Shan States, following on their annexation in 1885 of the Upper Burma Kingdom of Ava which had been the suzerain authority over the Shan States. Three preliminary chapters have been affixed as introduction to my subject. The first is a brief account of the geography and population of the Shan States as they are today. The second concerns movements in earlier times of the Tai race, of which-the Shans are a part, which might give to the reader some idea of the place of the Tais in Southeast Asian history; it also contains accounts of some old Shan kingdoms or what are generally considered Shan kingdoms, in the period before the Shans made their historically accepted mark in Burmese history, which I hope, with the theories I have put forward concerning them and words associated with them, will help to clarify the association of names. at present"· connected vag·uely and romantically with the cherished past of the Shana. The third preliminary chapter concerns such incidents of Shan-Burmese relations, from the historically­ accepted period up to the time of the British entry into the Shan States, which might help to relate these states adequately to the Burmese back­ ground. In many of the chapters,I have quoted liberally from sources which I found in Londono These extensive quotations have been in­ cluded partly because I address myself primarily to that important section of my compatriots who read English but have not the good fortune to gain access to these rare old books and correspondence papers. For my own good fortune in having gained such access the fol­ lowing benefactors must be given my deep and abiding tha.l'lks: Sao Hkun Hkio (Head of the Shan State until November 1958) and the Shan State Government for so generously allowing me to accept the Asian Fellowship, and for their blessings. Professor G. H. Luce for his ever inspiring example and his kind enco·uragement of the humble efforts of others o

Professor D"o G. E·. Hall for initiating this whole work and for greatest possible help in every wa::,, not the least of which was the regular discussions which he patiently allowed me to have with him so that I would gain a better insight into my work. The School of Oriental and African Studies and its Director, Professor C." H. Phillips, for granting me the Rockefeller Foundation's Asian Fellow�hip, without which I could not have undertaken the work; and for all facilities given to me and the fortnightly seminars in which I was privileged to take part. Dr. Htin Aung, then Chairman of the B·urma Historical Commis­ sion, and the Ford Foundation for enabling me to visit Bangkok and· Chiengmai for collection of material in Thai"o 4

T. S. H. Prince and Princess Piya Rangsi t and Mr. and Mrs. Kraisri Nimmanhemindr for every help so kindly given to me while in Tha,iland. Miss Dorothy Woodman for encouragement and help in finding source material which I could not otherwise have found in the short time.avail­ able to me in London. Various sawbwas and state authorities, as well as numerous friends, including the cheerful and willing staff of the India Office Library ar1d of my own office, who have helped me in various ways, sent me local• chronicles or lent me relevant books and records in their possession. �ti Mi Khaing, my beloved wife, for relieving me of all family cares during my years' study in her usual kind and able way; and for help in reading over the final manuscript.