Wuntho

Wuntho was a Shan principality in the hills west of the Irrawaddy, between the great river and the Chindwin. The Mangin Range runs through its territory, dividing wooded highlands from the valleys and settlements below its slopes. Its rulers held the title of sawbwa, and the state formed part of the chain of northern principalities with which the kings of Burma maintained relations.

Local tradition preserves a long succession of Wuntho rulers. In the late eighteenth century Maung Tha Ywe became sawbwa and ruled into the nineteenth, during the era of the Konbaung dynasty. Wuntho's position west of the Irrawaddy set it apart from the better-known Shan states east of that river, though it shared their tradition of hereditary chiefs.