The Imperial Gazetteer of India
Meyer, William Stevenson, Sir, 1860-1922.
Burn, Richard, Sir, 1871-1947.
Cotton, James Sutherland, 1847-1918.
Risley, Sir Herbert Hope, 1851-1911.
....................................
New edition, published under the authority of His Majesty's secretary of state for India in council.
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1908-1931 [v. 1, 1909]

252 SOUTHRN SHAN STATES
Mao Shan kingdom came to an end. In the remoter parts Burmese
suzerainty was practically without effect in those early days, but in
the nearer States it was an active and oppressive reality which slowly
crept eastward, despite the influence of China. Wasted by internecine
warfare of the most savage description, and by the rapacity of the Bur-
mans, the States in time declined in power. The government of Ava
fostered feuds both between the States and within them, so as to keep
their rulers too weak for resistance. Risings were put down by calling
out troops from the surrounding principalities, who were only too ready
to ravage the rebellious area; in fact, some of the States are but now
beginning fully to recover from the effects of those troublous days.
The chief centre of Burmese administration in the years preceding the
annexation of Upper Burma was Mongnai, the capital of the most
powerful chief, where an officer with the title of Bohmumintha had his
head-quarters. Troops were kept here and at Paikong, in Karenni,
opposite Mbngpai, the latter for the purpose of watching the Red
Karens. Burmese Residents were appointed to the courts of all the
States, but their counsels received but scant attention across the Sal-
ween. As at present, the Sawbwas administered their own charges,
and exercised powers of life and death, and, what was probably more
important, collected taxes. There was no check on oppression, though
it was always open to the persecuted subject to remove to another
State. After the death of king Mindon Min the administration
collapsed, as it did over all the outlying parts of the Burmese domi-
nions. The first chief to revolt was the Sawbwa of Kengtung across
the Salween, who quarrelled with his suzerain over the appointment
of a new Sawbwa to the neighbouring State of Kenghung (now in
Chinese territory), massacred the Burmese Resident and staff, and
burnt Kenghung. King Thibaw was too weak to retaliate, and the
powerful chief of Mongnai joined in the revolt, followed by the Saw-
bwas of Mongnawng and Lawksawk. These more accessible States,
however, on joining the general rebellion, were overrun by the Bur-
mese troops, and the three Sawbwas had to take refuge in Kengtung
in x884. Here the first attempt was made at a Shan coalition with the
intention of throwing off the Burmese yoke, and it appears probable
that only the unexpected annexation of Burma itself by the British
prevented the formation of a powerful Shan kingdom. A leader was
selected in the Linbin prince, a nephew of king Mindon, who had
escaped the wholesale massacre of the royal family by Thibaw's ser-
vants, and who arrived at Kengtung at the very time when the British
expedition was being dispatched to Mandalay. The Burmese troops
had been withdrawn, and it was a question of forcing on the States,
some more or less unwilling, the ruler the allies had chosen. The
Linbin faction crossed the Salween early in 1886 ; Mongnai was
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