Hsenwi

Hsenwi, known in Burmese as Theinni, was the centre of a great Shan principality west of the Salween. Its rulers governed a wide country of hills and valleys, with influence extending towards other Shan and Wa states. The town lay in the northern highlands where routes from Burma crossed towards Yunnan and the lands beyond the Salween. Hsenwi's authority changed as Burmese and neighbouring Shan powers competed for control. Around 1738 the Burmese ended the old kingdom of Kawsampi and divided its territory among rulers appointed from Ava. The northern Shan country became a battleground again during the eighteenth-century wars between Burma and Qing China, when armies crossed the mountains towards the Irrawaddy valley.