Tai Lü

The Tai Lü are a Southwestern Tai people, Theravada Buddhists whose name shares its root, meaning north, with the Tai Nüa. Their home is Sipsongpanna, the twelve rice districts straddling the upper Mekong, and their chief seat was Chiang Hung. The chief Phanya Coeng founded the kingdom there in 1180 after subduing the local Akha.

The Mongol invasions of 1290 reduced Chiang Hung to a Yuan tributary, its kings bearing the title of Cheli and the Dao surname. Chiang Hung then passed under Lanna until Bayinnaung's Burmese conquest of 1558 opened three centuries of Burmese overlordship, during which the twelve-panna administration was formalized.

Between Burma and the Qing, the country was raided for manpower. In the Burmese-Siamese war of 1802 to 1805, tens of thousands of Tai Lü were deported to Nan and other towns; Chiang Hung submitted to Siam in 1805.