kingdom · Mainland Southeast Asia

Mong Mao

1310 CE – 1604 CE (approx.) · capital Mong Mao (Shweli valley, near Ruili)

A Tai Mao kingdom on the Shweli river along today's China-Myanmar border, a regional power in the 14th century that the Ming crushed in the 1440s.

Origins

Mong Mao arose among the Tai Mao people of the Shweli valley in the early 14th century, after the Mongol conquest of Dali opened space for local powers. Under Si Kefa, in Shan tradition Hso Hkan Hpa, it expanded in the 1340s and 1350s, resisting Yuan armies and raiding into upper Burma.

Rule and society

Mong Mao's rulers dominated neighbouring Tai principalities, including Hsenwi, Mohnyin and Mogaung, which later Shan chronicles present as its offshoots. The Ming called it Luchuan and named its ruler a pacification commissioner. Its power rested on rice valleys and cavalry, and its rulers fought both the Chinese and the Ava Kingdom.

Decline and legacy

Si Renfa defied the Ming, who launched the Luchuan-Pingmian campaigns of 1436 to 1449; he fled to Ava, which handed him over. The kingdom fragmented, and its remnants lingered as small border chiefdoms under Chinese and Burmese pressure. Its memory remains central to Shan and Dai identity.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Mong Mao. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/mong-mao
MLA
“Mong Mao.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/mong-mao. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Mong Mao.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/mong-mao.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Mong Mao’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/mong-mao (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻