Kengtung

The Kengtung dynasty was the saopha house of Kengtung, also called Menggen, the eastern Shan state between the Salween and the Mekong. The line was founded around 1243 by the Tai prince Mang Kun; later tradition presents him and his kinsman Mang Kyin as governors sent by King Mangrai. Before the Tai arrival the country had been Wa land, known in chronicle tradition as Khemarattha.

Its saophas generally sent tribute of gold flowers to the Burmese kings, and in 1405 the Ming enrolled the state as a native tusi office under the name Menggen.

The house kept its autonomy through the wars of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries: in 1760 rival Qing and Burmese claims over Kengtung helped bring on war, and after a period under Chiang Mai from 1802 the dynasty was restored in 1814 with Burmese aid.