Daen Lao Range

The Daen Lao Range rises in the Shan Hills and runs from near the Chinese border southward through Shan State and into northern Thailand. Its 400-to-2,500-metre ridges separate the Salween watershed from that of the Mekong, with Loi Pangnao reaching 2,563 metres. Alluvium over hard rock, dramatic summits and karst formations break the mountains into narrow valleys and separate routes. Forested slopes and difficult passes made this a country of small, scattered communities rather than a single political centre. Wa, Akha, Yao, Lahu and Lisu people historically occupied villages across the range. Shan tradition holds that King Naresuan was cremated in its southern Burmese section and that his ashes were placed in a stupa at Mongton, a claim remembered in local belief rather than securely identified as a tomb. Hill farmers cleared slopes for shifting cultivation, and the cool upper elevations gave these villages a climate quite unlike that of the plains below.