Shan

The Shan group includes the Tai peoples of the hills east of the Irrawaddy. The Shan call themselves Tai.

According to Tai chronicles the first major Shan state was founded at Möng Kawng in 1215, followed by Möng Nai in 1223. When the Mongols overran Pagan in 1287 the Shan states gained ground, and Möng Mao ended the kingdoms of Sagaing and Pinya in 1364. The Shan were too divided to resist their larger neighbors: the Ming conquered Yunnan in the 1380s, and the Burmese kingdoms to the south later absorbed them.