Gěngdāng

Gěngdāng was a small Tai prefecture in the forested hills northwest of Jǐnghóng, in the Chēlǐ country along the upper Mekong, which the Chinese called the Lancang. The Yuan court set it up as Gěngdāng Zhōu under Chēlǐ Fǔ in 1347. Its separate rule did not last: in 1382 the new Ming government folded it into the Chēlǐ Military and Civil Pacification Commission, whose hereditary Tai Lue rulers governed the whole river country. The hills here were tea and elephant country, and the rulers of Chēlǐ sent tribute to the Chinese court in the form of elephants and silver and gold vessels.