Kengtong
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Kengtong (Burmese: က္ယုိင္းတုံမ္ရုိ့; MLCTS: kyuing: tum mrui., also spelled Cheingtung, Chiang Tung, Kyaingtong and Kengtung) is a town in Myanmar. It is home to the Kyainge Tong Degree College.
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[edit] History
Kengtong was founded by King Mangrai. This migration of the Chiangmai dynasty, made in the 13th century with the idea of founding a new kingdom which called Lannathai in Chiang Mai, has resulted in Kengtong having a different type of Tai population from the rest of the Shan State.
The city hosted the headquarters of the Thai Phayap Army, which had occupied the Shan States, during the Second World War.
[edit] Demographics
The Tai here call themselves Khün; their speech contains many variations from the western Shan, and their script is entirely different.
Most of the Khuns for example would adopt Thai names, in the wats of Kengtong one would find the monks chanting their daily prayers exactly the same way as if anywhere in Thailand. The Thais have always felt Cheingtung to be a part of their old country.[citation needed]
[edit] Geography
Kengtong is the largest, most mountainous, most easterly, and culturally the farthest from the Burmese, of all the Shan States. Geography makes approach to it from the rest of Burma difficult for it lies not only beyond the Salween across which no bridge has been built and whose eastern tributaries have cut no easy routes through the serried north-south ranges, but nearer again to the Mekong than to the Salween.
[edit] See also
[edit] Bibliography
- J. G. Scott, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States. 5 vols. Rangoon, 1900-1901.
- Sao Sāimöng Mangrāi, The Pādaeng Chronicle and the Jengtung State Chronicle Translated. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1981
