Chiang Mai / Zinn Mai and Myanmar

Chiang Mai was the capital of the kingdom of Lanna (the kingdom of a million fields), which enjoyed a golden age throughout the 15th century. During this age the powerful inland kingdom came to control most of what now constitutes northern Thailand, north-western Laos, the eastern Shan states of Burma and Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan.

King Mangrai founded Chiang Mai. 1296

Lan Na had been the old and powerful kingdom since the early times. According to Lan Na Chronicles, in the year Kad Sai, B.E. 1181 (A.D. 638) Thai Yuan principalities had been consolidated into a leading, powerful kingdom. It corresponded to the neighborhoods of Chiang Lao-Chiang Saen, the first ruler of which was Lava-changaraj.

And King Lava-changaraj was succeeded by many kings until Phya Mangrai, the 25th monarch of Lava-changaraj Dynasty (B.E. 1805-1854 / A.D. 1262-1311).

The Mao Chiefs claim the honour of this dominion. They annexed Chieng-mai about AD 1295, and were strong enough to attack Cambodia. Between 1285 and 1292 the Mao Shans shattered the Burman Empire. About 1293 they annexed Chieng-mai (most likely driving the Chieng-mai Shans to Chaliang, whence the Siamese, to escape a pestilence, descended and founded Ayuthia in 1350).

After his founding of the Lan Na Kingdom in the mid-13th century, King Mangrai established friendly relations with Burma when he travelled to the court of King Suttasoma of Pegu. King Suttasoma cemented this friendship by giving Mangrai his daughter, the Lady Phai Kho, in marriage. According to the Chiang Mai Chronicle “the two rulers met at the Asa (Sittang?) River, and feasted their retainers with food and drink, and staged great entertainments for three days and three nights.

According to the same source, the King of Pagan in Upper Burma was also on good terms with Mangrai, and sent five hundred families of artisans, including silver, gold, bronze and iron workers, as a gift to the Lan Na court

The Chieng-mai “adventurer” named Magedu established himself at Martaban as “King Wareru of Pegu” in AD 1287, founding a dynasty that maintained itself in the heart of the Mon kingdom for 253 years.

When Mengrai Dynasty Lanna began to crumble, with no reign ending peaceably for a quarter century, a LanSang ruler, King Potisarat, began to fantasize of becoming the ‘wheel-turning universal monarch whose righteousness and might make all the world turn around him.’ Unfortunately, at the same time, so did a King Burengnong from Toungoo (due west from ChiangRai, separated by Karen people and the mighty Salween River). After Mengrai’s direct line ended, half of the last independent rulers were women. One, MahaTevi Jiraprapa (sometimes said named PhraNang Yout KhamThip), was a full, absolute ruler from 1545- 46.

In July, 1545, Shan King FaYongHui of Mong Nai (Muang Nai, on the Salween, were Lanna’s last king was from) attacked ChiangMai. As he did, an earthquake destroyed nine revered reliquaries there, including a couple of the most important (finials at Wat Jedi Luang and Wat PraSing). For a month attackers poured dirt into the city moat and tried to cross it with bamboo bridges; but defenders burnt the attackers’ encampment, and the Shans withdrew.

1545-47 and 1564-78 Queen Regnant Phra Chao Chira Prapa Mahadevi
Also known as Chiraprabha, Mahatevi Jiraprapa or Phra Nang Yout Kham Thip, she was the oldest daughter of king Phaya Ket, and took over after a power struggle among various factions and during civil war in the region. According to some sources, King Burengnong married her, (now in her 40s (at least), and she ruled for a second time from 1564 until her death in 1578, according to other sources, it was her younger sister, Queen Wisutthithew, that Burengong married, and it was she who ruled from 1564.

1551 – 1564 Mekuti
Lanna endured anarchy and civil war, with nobles fighting on elephants in the middle of ChiangMai City. Petty officials and rulers of principalities proved more interested in their changing relative power than in the threat from Burma (as seems the case today), until Mekut of MongNai (a Shan State where rebellious descendents of Mengrai were sometimes sent to rule) was made king in 1552.
In 1551 the influential court officials at Chiang Mai, seeking to end this chaotic interregnum, invited Mae Ku, then reigning in Mong Nai, to come to Chiang Mai and rule over the Kingdom of Lan Na.
Mae Ku, legitimised by his status as a direct descendant of King Mangrai, accepted the invitation. According to the Chiang Mai Chronicle: ‘On the fourth waxing of the 9th month 913 (9 May 1551), King Mae Ku entered the city of Chiang Mai and was enthroned in the royal palace on the bejewelled throne’.
Phra Mekuti (r.1551- 1564) began an oppressive and unpopular rule. He forbade worship of Chiang Mai pillar, an act which is thought to have brought misfortune to Chiang Mai.
Mekhut levied heavy taxes and conscription. Sensing weak public support, other princes of Maung Nai decided to invade. Mekhut was briefly aided by King Burengnong (Bayinnaung of Hantawaddy and Pegu)
Mae Ku was the 17th monarch of the Mangrai Dynasty(1263-1578), who ruled North Thailand from 1551 to 1564, the last six years of his reign as a vassal of King Bayinnaung of Taungoo. Mae Ku, whose full name was Phra Maekutawisutthiwong, was a direct descendant of King Mangrai through the latter’s son, Khun Khrua, who Mangrai had sent, in 1312, to rule over Mong Nai in Shan State.
In 1555, Mekut’s brothers attempted to seize Lanna’s Mekong region, and gained ChiangRai and ChiangSaen… so Mekhut “was not at first inclined to listen to his brothers’ cry for help” when Burengnong, who’d become king in 1551, took Ava in 1555, then Hsenwi, then KengTung…
For the next seven years King Mae Ku ruled Lan Na without serious challenge, though in October 1556, while making merit at Wat Lampang Luang, he saw ‘a cloud shaped like a naga serpent… more than seven fathoms long’. At the same time ‘the planet Jupiter appeared like a comet with its tail to the north, which could be seen for a month before disappearing’. The Chronicle interprets these events (with the ease of hindsight) as bad omens, and sure enough one year later, in 1557/58, King Bayinnaung of Taungoo crossed the Salween into North Thailand at the head of his army. On 31 March 1558 he besieged Chiang Mai ‘for three days and three nights’, before taking the city, apparently with little opposition, early in the morning of April 2 1558.
King Min Taya of Pegu advances, demanding Mae Ku to come and meet him at Salween River. Mae Ku evades his invitation, sending officials instead. Min Taya takes Chiang Mai. Min Taya stays in Chiang Mai for 1 month and 12 days.
Setthatirat returned, defeating ChiangMai and almost taking ChiangSaen in 1558. Governors of Lampang, Prae and Nan joined his, but Burengnong forced him back to Laos, where the Burmese ran out of provisions.
Min Taya allows Mae Ku to rule Lan Na as before, but leaves a Burmese commissioner, a deputy commissioner and 10,000 troops to stay in Chiang Mai.

Between 1558 and 1564 Mae Ku continued to govern Chiang Mai, but as a vassal ruler of Bayinnaung.

Keng Tung has remained with Burma since that time (1559) except for two brief instances, in 1802 and during Japanese occupation in the Second World War.

In 1559 Mae Ku led a military expedition, well documented in the Chiang Mai Chronicle, to subdue provincial lords in Chiang Rai, Phayao and Phrae who remained loyal to Luang Prabang.

As a vassal state of Burma, Chiang Mai had to send Burma some tributes in terms of “silver trees, golden trees” and revenues, including foodstuffs in the wartime. As regards the administration, in the beginning the Burmese government did not come to take a direct rule but allowed Phra Mekuti to be the king of Chiang Mai as before.
Mekut revolted against his obligations, and the Burmese returned, invading Luang Prabang to capture Mekut, who’d taken refuge there.
Perhaps before going back to Burma, Burengnong married Princess Jiraprapa, now in her 40s (at least). Perhaps he married another ChiangMai princess.
The woman who ruled Lanna from 1564 until her death in 1578 is called Wisutthitewi. This PhraNang Visuti (Wisutatewi, a.k.a. MahaTewi), whom Burengnong replaced Phra Mekut with, may have been a different, younger daughter of Phaya Ket.
However, Burma dethroned Phra Mekuti when he tried to gain independence and appointed Phra Nang Visuddhidevi or Nang Phaya Rajadevi as a ruler of Chiang Mai.

Mekut was taken to Pegu
Mekut died in exile at Pegu or Ava, and became known as one of Burma’s famous “37 Nat” spirits, YunBayin. The Mengrai line is said to end there, but the last person descended from Mengrai to rule might have been Thado Gyaw, 4th Lanna ruler (descended from urengnong/MinTaya) through MahaTwei Jiraprapa).

King Mae Ku: From Lan Na Monarch to Burmese Nat
http://www.cpamedia.com/research/king_mae_ku/
Between 1558 and 1775, for a period of 217 years, the Lan Na Kingdom and its capital of Chiang Mai were ruled by a succession of Burmese-appointed suzerains owing allegiance to the Kings of Pegu in Lower Burma. During this period of lost independence, Chiang Mai and its people were inevitably influenced by Burmese culture and traditions- but the traffic wasn’t all one way. One of the most fascinating and enduring associations between Burma and North Thailand is the continuing widespread veneration in Burma of a Chiang Mai king in the pantheon of Nats that plays so great a role in the spiritual tradition of the Burman people.
Sir Richard Temple describes in considerable detail the full order of thirty-seven Nats of which one in particular stands out where Chiang Mai-known in the Burmese annals as Zinme or Zimme-is concerned. This is the 22nd, or Yun Bayin Nat, a member of Temple’s 5th Group of Nat belonging to the Bayinnaung Cycle. These are defined as a group of four spirits ‘whose direct reference is not clear, but are… of a very late date and are connected with the great conqueror Bayinnaung… and his dynasty in the 17th century’. Of these four spirits, Yun Bayin Nat is the only non-Burmese spirit hero associated with the Nat cult, and as such occupies a special place in the pantheon, emphasising Chiang Mai’s once close association with the courts of Pegu, Toungoo and Ava.
Relatively little is known of the earthly incarnation of the Yun Bayin Nat. According to Temple, he was the ‘Yun Shan’-that is, Northern Thai-ruler of Chiang Mai, who was taken prisoner by King Syinbyumyashin of Hanthawadi (Pegu), the ‘Lord of Many White Elephants’, and taken to Yangon. He is known as Yun Bayin, or ‘King of the Yun’, with reference to the old Burmese name for the Tai Yuan or Northern Thai. He is reported to have died of dysentery in 1558, and thereafter to have become a Nat. The Yun Bayin Nat, who is still widely revered throughout Burma, is generally represented as seated on a lotus throne in high court dress, holding a sheathed sword.
There is no direct reference to the Yun Bayin Nat, or indeed to any ruler of the Lan Na Kingdom dying in captivity in Yangon, either in the Northern Thai Chiang Mai Chronicle or in its Burmese equivalent, the Zinme Yawazin. Both chronicles do, however, record the invasion of Lan Na and the seizure of Chiang Mai by King Bayinnaung in 1558. The Chiang Mai ruler at that time was Mae Ku, who was obliged to pay tribute to Bayinnaung for the last six years of his reign.
Bayinnaung was the second monarch of the Taungoo Dynasty (1531-1752), founded by King Tabinshweti of Taungoo (1531-1550), who conquered the rival Kingdom of Pegu (Temple’s Hanthawadi) and crowned himself King of all Burma. He was succeeded by Bayinnaung (1551-1581), who proved to be a remarkable military commander, subduing Upper Burma, the Shan States, Manipur, North Thailand and parts of Laos.
Mae Ku was the 17th monarch of the Mangrai Dynasty(1263-1578), who ruled North Thailand from 1551 to 1564, the last six years of his reign as a vassal of King Bayinnaung of Taungoo. Mae Ku, whose full name was Phra Maekutawisutthiwong, was a direct descendant of King Mangrai through the latter’s son, Khun Khrua, who Mangrai had sent, in 1312, to rule over Mong Nai in Shan State.
In 1545 King Ket Chettharat of Chiang Mai was assassinated, ushering in-according to the Chiang Mai Chronicle-a ‘Kali Era’ of decline for the Lan Na Kingdom. He was briefly succeeded by his daughter, Queen Maha Thewi Chiraprapha, who ruled as regent (1545-1546), and then by King Setthathirat of Luang Prabang who remained in Chiang Mai for just one year (1546-1547) before returning to Laos, taking with him the fabled Emerald Buddha which had been installed in Chedi Luang and leaving Lan Na without a king for the next four years. In 1551 the influential court officials at Chiang Mai, seeking to end this chaotic interregnum, invited Mae Ku, then reigning in Mong Nai, to come to Chiang Mai and rule over the Kingdom of Lan Na.
Mae Ku, legitimised by his status as a direct descendant of King Mangrai, accepted the invitation. According to the Chiang Mai Chronicle: ‘On the fourth waxing of the 9th month 913 (9 May 1551), King Mae Ku entered the city of Chiang Mai and was enthroned in the royal palace on the bejewelled throne’. For the next seven years King Mae Ku ruled Lan Na without serious challenge, though in October 1556, while making merit at Wat Lampang Luang, he saw ‘a cloud shaped like a naga serpent… more than seven fathoms long’. At the same time ‘the planet Jupiter appeared like a comet with its tail to the north, which could be seen for a month before disappearing’. The Chronicle interprets these events (with the ease of hindsight) as bad omens, and sure enough one year later, in 1557/58, King Bayinnaung of Taungoo crossed the Salween into North Thailand at the head of his army. On 31 March 1558 he besieged Chiang Mai ‘for three days and three nights’, before taking the city, apparently with little opposition, early in the morning of April 2 1558.
Between 1558 and 1564 Mae Ku continued to govern Chiang Mai, but as a vassal ruler of Bayinnaung. In 1559 he led a military expedition, well documented in the Chiang Mai Chronicle, to subdue provincial lords in Chiang Rai, Phayao and Phrae who remained loyal to Luang Prabang. In 1563, however, Mae Ku ignored Bayinnaung’s orders to assist in an expedition against Ayutthaya, effectively repudiating Burmese sovereignty. This was seen as an act of rebellion by Bayinnaung, who-according to the Chiang Mai Chronicle-brought up an army and took Chiang Mai, capturing Lord Mae Ku and taking him back to Pegu, while leaving Lady Wisuttha Thewi to rule in his place’. Queen Wisuttha Thewi ruled over Chiang Mai as a vassal of the Burmese from 1564 to 1578. On her death Bayinnaung’s son, Nawrahtaminsaw, better known in the Chiang Mai annals as ‘Tharawaddy Prince’, succeeded her, ruling over Lan Na from 1578 to 1607.
We know little of Mae Ku’s life as an exile, but The Glass Palace Chronicle tells us he was treated generously by Bayinnaung, being accorded the same royal status as the defeated Kings of Ava also captured by Bayinnaung and taken to his capital at Pegu. The chronicle also relates that on completion of Bayinnaung’s new royal palace called Kambawzathadi, Mae Ku was given the privilege of residing in a royal residence with a double-tiered roof.
Apart from these small but fascinating details, following his exile Mae Ku disappears from the pages of history but enters the realm of the supernatural. Temple tells us that he reportedly died of dysentery while in captivity, but without revealing his source. Yet somehow, despite his defeat and capture by King Bayinnaung and subsequent mundane and rather inglorious end, Mae Ku became venerated as a Nat. How was this possible? By Temple’s definition, the 37 Nats are overwhelmingly heroic spirits ‘either of former royalty, or of persons connected with royalty’. Nats are also, generally, the spirits of people ‘who have met a violent or tragic death’. As a descendant of King Mangrai and King of Chiang Mai himself, Mae Ku was clearly closely associated with royalty, just as his death in exile in Burma was certainly tragic. But what of his status as hero? Perhaps his expedition against the Lao in 1559, or even his spirited rebellion against Bayinnaung in 1564, made him heroic in Burman eyes. Or perhaps he acquitted himself bravely while in exile in Pegu. It seems unlikely that we shall ever know.

Queen Wisuttha Thewi ruled over Chiang Mai as a vassal of the Burmese from 1564 to 1578.
Burengnong replaced Phra Mekut with Phra Nang Visuti (Wisutthatewi), a younger daughter of Phaya Ket whom he’d married, and the last descendent of Mengrai to rule.

In 1565, just seven years after Bayinnaung’s conquest, the Burmese military commander in Lan Na had a huge bronze Buddha image cast, in cooperation with Queen Wisutthithewi of Chiang Mai. It was named ‘Phra Buddha Müang Rai’, doubtless in honour of King Mangrai, the city’s founder. The image has survived the intervening centuries, and today can be seen at Wat Chai Phra Kiat on the north side of the Old City’s central Ratchadamnoen Avenue, not far from Wat Phra Singh. It is in Lan Na style, and so was certainly cast by local artisans

Upon the termination of Phra Nang Visuddhidevi’s reign, the Burma government sent Burmese nobles and officials to rule Chiang Mai directly.

Lanna continued to be troubled by attacks from Shans, and in 1578 Visuti died. Her successor was a son of Burengnong by someone else, Mangnorathacho (Min Noratha, prince of Therawaddy).
Bayinnaung appointed his son, Minthasit (born 1551), to rule over Chiang Mai. At the time Minthasit was administering the Burmese district of Tharyarwaddy, near Pegu, and hence was known as Tharyarwaddy Min, or “the Tharyawaddy Prince”. In 1576, two years before he assumed the throne of Chiang Mai, he successfully put down rebellions against his father’s rule in Mogaung and Mohnyin, as a consequence of which he was given the title Nawrahtaminsaw, the name by which he is best known as the first Burmese ruler of the Lanna Kingdom. He was to rule over Chiang Mai from 1578 to 1607.
In 1578 when Nawrahtaminsaw journeyed to Chiang he brought with him his wife, Queen Hsinbyushinme, the “Lady of the White Elephant”.
http://www.cpamedia.com/research/hsinbyushinme/
It is clear that these new rulers of Chiang Mai were no ingénues. Rather, they were educated sophisticates of their time. Nawrahtaminsaw was a poet and patron of the arts, as well as a warrior prince. For her part Hsinbyushinme was a sophisticated court lady and princess, well suited to rule over-and grow to love-her new home, the city of Chiang Mai.
Hsinbyushinme was a skilled composer of yadu poems, a Burmese verse-form where three stanzas are linked by the rhyming of their last lines. According to Ni Ni Myint, the Director of the Universities Historical Research Centre at Yangon and the skilled linguist who first translated Hsinbyushinme’s verses on Chiang Mai into English, yadu poems generally evoke ‘a mood of wistful sadness through the contemplation of nature in the changing seasons or the yearning for a loved one temporarily separated’.
Hsinbyushinme was the daughter of Thado Dhamma Raja, King of Pyay, a younger brother of King Bayinnaung, and Narapati Medaw, a Burmese lady of high birth. As a young girl Hsinbyushinme learned the art of yadu verses from the great poet Nawade. Nawade even composed an ayegyin song celebrating Hsinbyushinme’s virtues and beauty:
Endowed with the Five Virtues
Exceedingly clear and unblemished
Like a vein of lightning peeping
Lady of the White Elephant
Hsinbyushinme was married to her cousin Minthasit, the future Nawrahtaminsaw, in 1574. On being appointed King of Chiang Mai by Bayinnaung, Nawrahtaminsaw set out with Hsinbyushinme from Pegu in April, 1579. During their journey Hsinbyushinme gave birth to a son at Doi Luang, naming him Tu Luang after the place of his birth. The family arrived at Chiang Mai in July, 1579, and assumed their positions as King and Queen of Lanna. But Nawrahtaminsaw was a warrior prince who loyally served the interests of his father, King Bayinnaung, and was destined to be absent from both Chiang Mai and his beloved wife Hsinbyushinme on many occasions.
How do we know Hsinbyushinme was so loved by Nawrahtaminsaw? Because the latter was also a skilled composer of yadu verse. In one such poem which begins ‘Golden Yun, pleasant country’ (Yun being an old Burmese name for Chiang Mai and its people) he writes of Hsinbyushinme:
None there be in the thousand lands Though should I search
Let alone an equal I will find none
To match a strand of her hair
Fragrant as attar of jasmine
Sweet-voiced, pleasant of expression
Generous of thought, lovely of disposition
My heap of life
The warm nest of my sight
For her part, Hsinbyushinme stayed behind in Chiang Mai when Nawrahtaminsaw was away campaigning. She clearly grew to love her new home and its verdant surroundings. A pious Buddhist, she drew comfort during her husband’s absences by worshipping at various Chiang Mai temples, most notably venerating the Phra Kaew (Emerald Buddha) image at Wat Chedi Luang (now in Bangkok) and the Phra Singh image at Wat Phra Singh. Sometimes she would make the more arduous journey out of town to Doi Suthep, where she would pray at the shrine there and enjoy the view across the country of which she was queen.
In March, 1583, when Nawrahtaminsaw was away campaigning in Yunnan, Hsinbyushinme composed a yadu poem characterised by its translator, Ni Ni Myint, as ‘poetry of grace and fluency’. Across more than four centuries, her love not just for her husband, but also for her adopted city of Chiang Mai, remains clear, genuine and moving:
Victory Land of Golden Yun, Our Home
Thronged pleasantly like paradise.
The clear waters moving without cease
The forests teeming with singing birds
The breezes replace the sere leaves
As buds peep and petals spread
ingyin, yinma, thawka, tharaphi
gangaw, swedaw, fragrant hpetsut
anan, thazin, gamone, balmy in bloom
Luxuriantly scenting the air in the early summer…
Yet my love is not here to enjoy
I in loneliness watch the delights
In this season of diverse scents
In Yun City, created by you, lord
And await your return
Topmost of the royal lineage of the sun
Brilliant like the flame of the sun
Ever-triumphant conqueror of the foes
My husband marches boldly to far-off China and Lan Chang
To clear the enveloping enemies…
Sadly I nurse my loneliness
Clear the enemy before [the month of] Tagu!
All enemies bow to Chiang Mai City
Encircled by cool waters and wall-like hills
Unequalled Lord of Golden Yun…
My topmost lineage of the sun
Now that the south wind blows, the sere leaf falls
The golden laburnum flutters, liquid emerald
I do not know how to wear
Fragrant flowers in my top-hair
Since my lion-hearted husband marched to war
I guard my mind and kneeling
Before Buddha’s images
Of Phra Kaew, Phra Singh, golden Maha Chedi
And the famous Phra Suthep
Images bright as sun
On western hill-top beyond the city, and within
With reverence I say my prayers
Rising glory of the lineage of the sun
Nawrahtaminsaw did indeed return ‘to the Palace of Pleasant Victorious Yun’, ruling over Chiang Mai for 28 years. Hsinbyushinme bore him four children, two of whom-Min Ye Dibba (1607-1613?) and Thado Kyaw (1613-1614?)-succeeded their father as kings of Chiang Mai, albeit more briefly and with less glory. Little is known of Hsinbyushinme’s later life, but it seems likely she stayed at Nawrahtaminsaw’s side until her death in the adopted city she loved so much.
Unfortunately no chedi are known definitely to contain the remains of Nawrahtaminsaw or Hsinbyushinme, though it is possible-even likely-that ashes of both monarchs were interred in the “water melon stupa” of Wat Ku Tao, which was erected in 1613, six years after Nawrahtaminsaw’s death. Be this as it may, as Ni Ni Myint points out: ‘The cool waters and wall-like hills around Chiang Mai which Hsinbyushinme once viewed still remain. The fragrant flowers which she loved to wear in her hair when her husband was with her still bloom in their season. Although Phra Kaew has been moved (to Wat Phra Kaeo in Bangkok), Phra Singh and Phra Suthep, before which she knelt and worshipped with great devotion, still attract devotees. And as these things which she loved and reverenced endure, the presence of Hsinbyushinme lingers in this Victory Land of Golden Yun as it does also in her graceful poetry’.

Min Ye Dibba (1607-1613?) son of Nawrahtaminsaw

Thado Kyaw (1613-1614?) son of Nawrahtaminsaw

In 1628 Burma relocated the center for administration of Lanna to Chiang Saen.

About 1660 Chinese troops invaded northern Burma in search of the emperor Yung-lei (or Yunhli), last of the Ming dynasty. The governor of Chiang Mai, aware of the Burmese army’s defeat and afraid of a Chinese invasion, asked for Ayudhaya’s protection. King Narai sent an army, but as it approached, Chiang Mai pulled away its men. Narai’s force took Lampang but not Chiang Mai. Soon after, Narai sent a much larger army, led by the best of his generals. This force was successful, seizing much of value including the famed Sihinga Buddha image of Wat Phra Sing. In 1664, a local revolt drove the Siamese back out.
When the Chinese had taken Yung-lei off, the Burmese started a harder line of impositions on Lanna. Burmese princes were regularly sent to Chiang Mai as viceroys for the region, and for half a century, Lanna peoples suffered heavy taxation and conscription into the Burmese army, with corvée duties far away.

1661 King Narai (r.1656-1688) of Ayutthaya captured and briefly held Chiang Mai.

1672 The Burmese regain control of the kingdom.

1672 – 1675 Ingsemang Burmese ruler.
9. Uparaj Uang Sae (Ava City) B.E. 2215-2218 (A.D. 1672-1675)

1675 – 1707 Chephutarai Burmese ruler.
10. Cheputrai (son of Chao Chekutra) B.E. 2218- ? (A.D. 1675- ?)

In 1628 Burma relocated the center for administration of Lanna to Chiang Saen. Chiang Saen suffered repeated invasions, and in 1717 the Mae Khong River flooded the town to a depth of five feet. Still, as Chiang Saen was favored by the Burmese, it came under direct administration from Ava, the Burmese capital. It was strongly held, and the last area retaken from Burma, in 1804 (and then only with assistance from independent Nan Kingdom). By 1705, Chiang Mai and southern Lanna were ruled as a military-controlled vassal state. The over two centuries of rebellion, shifting alliances and recurrent warfare resultant from Burmese failure to control, consumed all Lanna, limiting material access, destroying cities and towns and displacing much of the population.

Burmese–Siamese War (1563–1564)

War with Burma (1563)

Second Siege of Ayutthaya

Burmese victory

Siam becomes Burmese vassal (1564–1568)

After the war of 1548, Maha Chakkrapat insisted on battling Burmese armies near Ayutthaya, so he heavily fortified the city. He, however, de-fortified other cities in order to prevent the Burmese from taking them as bases. The census was taken to derive all available manpower to war. The arms and horses and elephants (white elephants) was caught and accumulated in the full-scale preparation for war.

King Chakkraphat (r. 1548-1569) captured a lot of white elephants during his reign and this news crossed the borders quickly.

In 1563 AD, the successor of Tabinshweti, King Bhueng Noreng invaded for another time Ayuthaya Kingdom after he had taken Chiang Mai in 1556 AD / 2 April 1558.

King Bayinnuang, takes control of the situation, crushes all opposition and sets about colonizing all neighboring states. Chiangmai (which was not part of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya) and all of northern Thailand fall to the colonizing Burmese forces and King Bayinnuang soon becomes known as “The Conqueror of Ten Directions”

Bayinnaug (now king), upon hearing about the seven “lucky” white elephants, demands two for himself. As Maha Chakkrapat refused to give off his elephant this time, Bayinnaung marched to Ayutthaya.

King Bayinnuang, who knew Siam from his campaigns with Tabinshweti, leads a vast army through Three Pagodas Pass. A further army comes through Mae Lamow Pass (Tak Province). It is reported that the armies number 120,000 men (including 2,000 Portuguese mercenaries), 18,000 cavalry and 8,500 war elephants. On the way, the town of Pitsanuloke has to be taken but the Governor, Phra Mahathamraja , proved a “turncoat” and, after signing a treaty of friendship with King Bayinnuang, joins forces with the Burmese King.

Bayinnaung had captured the whole kingdom of Lanna in 1558. With auxiliary troops from Lanna, Bayinnaung marched a mass army into Sukhothai kingdom. Maha Thammarachathirat then realised the greatness of Bayinnuang army and readily surrendered, giving up Phitsanulok to Bayinnuang and became Burmese tributary.

Maha Thammarachathirat, the King of Phitsanulok and Maha Chakkrapat’s handful noble, had allied himself with Bayinnuang in 1563.

At Chainat, Bayinnaung clashed with Prince Ramesuan‘s army but was able to break through.

First he seized the towns of Sawankalok and Pijai and then he turned his full attention on the capital. As the troops of 200,000 Burmese and vassal state warriors clearly outnumber the Thais, King Chakraphat has no other option than to agree on the Burmese peace conditions.

Bayinnaung reached Ayutthaya and laid siege on the city – bombarding the city so immensely that Maha Chakkrapat sued for peace in 1564. Maha Chakkrapat gave white elephants and his son Prince Ramesuan as a captive to Bayinnaung.

Wat Na Phra Men or the “Monastery in Front of the Funeral Pyre” sometimes called Wat Na Phra Meru has marked a historical event in the reign of King Maha Jakrapad. He chose it as a meeting place to stop the war with King of Burma, Bayinnaung in A.D 1563.

King Chakkraphat saw that the Burmese army largely outnumbered his and decided to resolve the issue through parleys. He ordered to erect a royal building with two thrones, equal in height in the area between the Phra Meru Rachikaram Monastery and the Hatdawat Monastery. Then he had a jeweled-adorned throne prepared higher than the royal thrones, and had a Buddha image to preside over the meeting. The terms imposed by the King of Burma were onerous. Prince Ramesuen, Phya Chakri and Phya Sunthorn Songkhram, the leaders of the war party, were to be delivered up as hostages, an annual tribute of thirty elephants and three hundred catties of silver was to be sent to Burma, and the Burmese were to be granted the right to collect and retain the customs duties of  the port of Mergui – then the chief emporium of foreign trade. In addition to this, four white elephants were to be handed over, instead of the two originally demanded. Phra Mahathamraja is to remain as ruler of Pitsanuloke and Viceroy of Siam.

King Chakkraphat had no choice than deliver up to keep a truce. All Siamese prisoners were released and the Burmese army returned.

The Burmese War of 1563 was also called the War of White Elephant.

Htihlaing Shin ထီးလႈိင္ရွင္ Kyansittha က်န္စစ္သား / ကလန္ စစ္သား by Nyi Win

King of Burma

Reign 1084–1113 (28 years)

Kyansittha (Burmese: က်န္စစ္သား / ကလန္ စစ္သား, pronounced [tɕàɴsɪʔθá]; also Kyanzittha; 1041–1113) was king of Pagan dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1084 to 1113, and is considered one of the greatest Burmese monarchs.

In his early life, Kyansittha was a popular and successful general who led Anawrahta’s major military campaigns that founded the Pagan Empire. He was exiled twice in the 1070s and 1080s for his affair with Queen Manisanda. Kyansittha ascended to the Pagan throne in 1084 after suppressing a major Mon rebellion that killed King Sawlu.

Kyansittha is one of the most famous monarchs in Burmese history. His life stories and exploits are still retold in Burmese literature, theater, and cinema.

Early life

Much of Kyansittha’s early life, like much of early Pagan history, is shrouded in legend, and should be treated as such. Many of the stories given in the Burmese Chronicles attributed to Kyansittha are legends, with a heavy touch of literary flourish.

In one version, Kyansittha was a commoner from Pareinma village ပရိမၼေက်းရြာ and became a trusted general in Anawratha’s army. ကလန္ စစ္သား

ႈIn another version, Kyansittha was born in 1041 to Princess Pyinsa Kalayani of Wethali and Anawarahta, then a senior prince at the court of King Sokkate of Pagan. (Wethali is believed to be in the present-day Rakhine State or in Bengal.

According to the chronicles, he grew up away from Anawrahta’s court after Anawrahta banished his mother who was pregnant with him to the countryside because Anawrahta was led to believe that she was not of royal blood. The chronicles also speculate that Kyansittha’s real father might not be Anawrahta but Yazataman, the Pagan official who guarded Pyinsa Kalayani during her journey to Pagan.

The chronicle stories here are filled with many inconsistencies. The chronicles claim that Anawrahta was already king when Pyinsa Kalayni was sent. But Anawrahta did not become king until 1044. Kyansittha was born circa 1041. Moreover, it was unlikely that the ruler of Wethali would have sent his daughter to Anawrahta who until 1044 was a prince but not to Sokkate, the king himself. The chronicles also claim that Anawrahta tried to kill off all babies in the year that Kyansittha was born because his astrologers predicted that a new born would be king. Again, Anawrahta was not the king.

Kyansittha was born at Pareinma village ပရိမၼေက်းရြာ on the bank of Chindwin river. 

Kyansittha grew up in relative obscurity until Anawrahta recalled his son at a later point (likely by his early teens).

The meaning of the name Kyansittha

Kyansittha’s birth name is lost to history. According to the Shwezigon Pagoda inscriptions dedicated by Kyansittha himself, the name Kyansittha is a title given by Anawrahta. The king gave him the title Kyansittha which means “the remaining/last standing soldier” because of the latter’s knack for surviving in the battlefield.

But according to historian George Coedes, it is a corruption of the Pali word, kalan cacsa ကလန္ စစ္သား, meaning “soldier-official”

Military career (1057–1070s)

At Anawrahta’s court, he was a minor prince under the shadow of his elder half-brother Sawlu, and served as a royal cadet in the Pagan army. Anawrahta soon recognized the ability of his son. In 1057, the king made his 15-year-old son one of four lead commanders in his invasion of Thaton Kingdom. (Anawrahta’s appointment of Kyansittha as commander at such an early age indicates that Anawrahta considered Kyansittha his offspring. During the Burmese feudal era, only the royalty were allowed to assume a senior position in the army at an early age. Commoners, who had to earn that privilege over years of service, were never that young.) Pagan’s forces captured Thaton after a 3-months’ siege. Kyansittha became famous as one of the Four Paladins

Anawrahta went on found the Pagan Empire (also known as the First Burmese Empire) expanding his authority in all directions: northern Arakan in the west, Shan Hills in the north and east, and Tenasserim in the south. Kyansittha partook in all of Anawrahta’s expeditions including one to the Nanzhao Kingdom, and in some cases (such as the Tenasserim campaign against the Khmer Empire) led them. Soon after the Thaton conquest, Kyansittha along with his three other “Paladins” were sent to take control of Tenasserim. The Four Paladins defeated the Khmer army, and Tenasserim became part of Pagan Empire from then on

In the early 1070s, Kyansittha was called into service to defend Pegu (Bago) against the raiders from the direction of Chiang Mai_(ဂြ်မ္းစစ္သည္ / Khmer warriors). The Pagan army easily drove out the raiders. The ruler of Pegu, whom Anawrahta had allowed to remain as viceroy for his cooperation in the 1057 conquest of Thaton, sent his young daughter, the lady Khin U, jewels and hair relics as presents for Anawrahta.

On the journey to Pagan, Khin U was borne in a curtained litter, and Kyansittha rode at her side. During the long journey, they fell in love with each other so violently that the matter had to be reported to Anawrahta. It was the end of Kyansittha’s career. He was sent into exile by the king.

The Burmese chronicles report his exile with a touch of literary flourish. Kyansittha was brought bound into the presence, and Anawrahta taunted him for a time until with his anger rising, he hurled his fairy spear Areindama. But Kyansittha’s hour had not yet come. The spear missed, grazing his skin and severing the ropes that bound him. He picked up the famous spear and fled never to return. His flight over hill and dale still forms a favorite subject of Burmese theater.

Exile years (1070s–1084)

Kyansittha fled west, and at a time, he earned a living by tending horses. He finally settled at Kaungbyu (likely in the Sagaing District), and got married to Thanbula, niece of the head abbot of the local monastery. He was in his early 30s. He lived there for the remainder of Anawrahta’s reign until 1077.

In 1077, Anawrahta died, and his eldest son Sawlu succeeded. Sawlu, who had always viewed Kyansittha as a rival, reluctantly recalled Kyansittha to Pagan, at the urging of Shin Arahan, primate of Pagan, to help administer the kingdom. Kyansittha left a pregnant Thanbula at Kaungbyu. At Pagan, he soon renewed his affair with Khin U (now with the title of Manisanda), who was now a queen of Sawlu. Kyansittha was promptly exiled again, this time much farther away to Dala (modern-day Yangon).

Pegu rebellion (1084)

In 1084, Sawlu faced a serious rebellion by his childhood friend Yamankan, whom he had appointed governor of Pegu. The king recalled Kyansittha to put down the rebellion. At a battle near Magwe မေကြး (at Pyidawthar Kyunn ျပည္ေတာ္သာကြ်န္း, near current day MiChaung Yae မိေခ်ာင္းရဲ), Sawlu was captured. Ministers offered Kyansittha the crown. But he refused. Instead he personally tried to rescue Sawlu by breaking into the enemy camp at night. Seated on Kyansittha’s shoulders and well on the way to safety, Sawlu thought Kyansittha was stealing him to kill him. After all, he had never treated Kyansittha well, and could not believe that Kyansittha would risk his life to rescue someone who had treated him badly. Yamankan on the other hand was his childhood friend, and son of his wet nurse.

Sawlu yelled out “Kyansittha is stealing me“. Kyansittha exclaiming, “Then die, thou fool; die the death of a dog at the hands of these scum” မင္းဆိုး မင္းညစ္၊ တလိုင္းတို့ လက္တြင္ ေနရစ္ေပေလာ့ , flung him down, and ran for his life. He swam across the Irrawaddy, and eventually made back to safety.

Yamankan promptly executed Sawlu, and marched to Pagan. Unable to blockade the fortified walls of Pagan, his army drifted north to near the present-day Ava (Inwa).

Kyansittha went to the Kyaukse region, the breadbasket of Pagan, to raise an army. He received allegiance from the chief of Htihlaing, who helped him raise men. With his army, Kyansittha drove Yamankan out. Yamankan’s army fled south while Yamankan fled on a barge full of gold and gems he had looted down the Irrawaddy. Kyansittha and his army followed up on the retreating Peguan forces. Midway to the Pegu country, Kyansittha’s advance forces caught up with Yamankan near Myingyan. Yamankan, who was blind in one eye, was killed by an arrow through his remaining good eye.

Ascension to throne

At Pagan, Kyansittha was once proclaimed king. He ascended to the throne with the title Sri Tribhuwanaditya Dhammaraja. The title’s meaning is “Fortunate Buddhist King, Sun of the Three Worlds”. He was joined by his three queens:

• Apeyadana, his first wife, with whom he had a daughter Shwe Einsi
• Khin Tan, daughter of chief of Htihlaing
• Manisanda, the lady Khin U for whom he had endured exile twice

His wife from his first exile Thanbula was not present. She would later come and see him with their son Yazakumar later.

Rule of Pagan Empire

Kyansittha strengthened the foundations of Pagan Empire which Anawrahta had built. Although he suppressed the Mon rebellion, he pursued a conciliatory policy towards the Mon. Having spent seven years in the Mon country in exile, the king had a genuine a great respect for the Mon culture, and kept Mon scholars at his court. The language of most of his epigraphs is Mon (likely because the Burmese script was still coming into its own). The Mon language was widely used among the ruling elite, and the Pyu language continued to be a cultural force as well.

His policy proved effective. The rest of his reign saw no more rebellions in the south. Elsewhere too was largely peaceful. (He did send an expedition to northern Arakan because the tributary kingdom in the west had come under attack by the lord of southern Arakan. His troops repelled the attack but could not catch the lord.)

Pagan’s power did not go unnoticed. The Khmer Empire, the other Southeast Asian power, stopped raiding southern Pagan territory. When Pagan sent an embassy to the Chinese Song court in 1106, the Chinese met the Burmese envoys with the full rites accorded only sovereign kingdoms

Gradual growth of Burmese language

The use of Burmese vernacular continued to gain strength among the populace although it was still junior to more established languages of Pyu and Mon. (Pali had already replaced Sanskrit as the liturgical language since 1057.) The earliest evidence of a more settled Burmese script was the Myazedi inscription, dedicated to him in 1113 when the king was on his deathbed. The use of Pyu began to decline.

The first ever mention of the word “Myanmar” (the literary name of the Burmans (Bamar)) appeared in the epigraph of his new palace, built between December 1101 and April 1102.

Succession

Kyansittha appointed his grandson Sithu (later Alaungsithu) as heir apparent because he thought he did not have a son. It turned out that he had forgotten the pregnant wife he left in Kaungbyu when he first recalled to Pagan in 1077. Thanbula gave birth to a boy, and did not learn of Kyansittha’s ascent to the throne right away. When she finally came to the Pagan to meet Kyansittha with their son, the king did not want to go back on his word. Instead he appointed the boy the titular lord of Arakan with the title of Yazakumar (Pali: Rajakumar, lit. King’s son).

Kyansittha died in early 1103 at 71. Alaungsithu succeeded him.

Earliest Pyu settlements and the ancient India China trade route through Myanmar

Tagaung has always been considered as the first Pyu city state (Myanmar began with Tagaung ျမန္မာ အစ တေကာင္းက) according to Myanmar chronicles but the evidence of pre Bagan artifacts were only discovered not long ago.

Lae Kaing လယ္ကိုင္း in Minbu မင္းဘူး – SaKu စကု township / ThunarParanta Taing သုနာပရ ႏၲ တိုင္း  has been mentioned in Myanmar chronicles to be in existence even earlier than Tagaung which was established first by AhBi Yarzar အဘိရာဇာ in the 15^th century B.C. Pyu king Thambula of ThunarParanta / Lae Kaing was taken away by Dhanyawaddy army and there was no one to ascend the throne and rule at the time KanYarzarGyi ကံရာဇာၾကီး son of AhBi Yarzar arrived at the area.

Pyu artifacts have been found in Mann oil field near Minbu and recently a gold Pyu bracelet was found in Lae Kaing.

On 8-May 2012, a gold bracelet of Pyu era was found at Khin Kone village, (2 miles northwest of) Let Khote Pin village tract, Minbu – SaKu township. The place is near Lae Kaing, where Kyaung Taw Yar ေက်ာင္းေတာ္ရာ is situated. Kyaung Taw Yar was where Buddha stayed during His visit to the area and it is not far from the Shwe Set Taw ေရႊစက္ေတာ္ where Buddha left 2 foot imprints.

 

KanYarzarGyi was the elder son of king AhBi Yarzar who arrived from Mizzimadesh in northern India and established the kingdom of Tagaung on the banks of the upper Ayeyarwaddy. It was in the 15^th century B.C., long before the time of Buddha (6^th century B.C.). After AhBi Yarzar passed away without having a crown prince named, his 2 sons KanYarzarGyi and KanYarzarNge both wanted the throne and were about to wage war. To settle the problem peacefully, the ministers intervened and held a contest to decide who will be king. The princes had to build a Man-dat / temporary hall within a day. KanYarzarGyi built it with wood while KanYarzarNge built it with bamboo. KanYarzarNge finished first and won the kingdom of Tagaung.

KanYarzarGyi and his entourage left Tagaung down the Ayeyarwaddy and went to Kale Taung Nyo where he stayed for 6 months before moving on to Kyauk Padaung (near Paletwa, on the Kaladan river) and finally to Dhanyawaddy in 1483 BC.. During his stay in Kale Taung Nyo, the Pyu from ThunarParanta / Lae Kaing requested him to ascend their throne but he only had his son Dusetta rule there while he went to better established places.

All these migrations occurred along the ancient trade routes between India and China across Myanmar which was from Mizzimadesh_ the area that include Kapilavastu in Nepal and Rajgir, Gaya, Banares and Kosala of India_ to the Chinese capital at the time at Xi An, formerly Chang’an.

The route was along the Ganges and up the Bhramaputra river (an eastern tributary of the Ganges), through the Hukawn pass to reach either the Chindwin or the upper Ayeyarwaddy, and then up the Tarpein river (which entered the Ayeyarwaddy near Bhamo) to reach Dali Yunnan, and then onwards to Xi An. There are several possible routes within Myanmar.

The one used in preference during the time of AhBi Yarzar would pass directly to the upper Ayeyarwaddy through present day Tanaing and Myitkyina or down the Chindwin and up the upper Ayeyarwaddy. AhBi Yarzar established his kingdom at Tagaung on the upper Ayeyarwaddy below where Tarpein River joined the Ayeyarwaddy.

Another earlier route from Mizzimadesh is along the Kispanadi / Kaladan river through Kyauk Padaung near Paletwa and Dhanyawaddy near Kyauktaw in Rakhine and across the Ann pass to reach the Ayeyarwaddy near Lae Kaing in Minbu – SaKu township.

There is also a coastal trade route from eastern coast of India to reach Dhanyawaddy near Kyauktaw (and later to Mrauk U) in Rakhine.

Lae Kaing in Minbu – SaKu township seems to be the one of the earliest Pyu settlements in Myanmar even earlier than Tagaung and it existed along the ancient India China trade route.

Kale Taung Nyo on the Chindwin was also a well established place on the trade route by the time of KanYarzarGyi.

Similarly, Kyauk Padaung (near Paletwa, on the Kaladan) and Dhanyawaddy (Marayu an Indian prince, came down the Kaladan river and established the first city of Dhanyawaddy on the east bank of the Kaladan and began to rule Rakhine from 3325 BC) were also well in existence by the time.

All the Arakan Chronicles mention the coming to Arakan of Indo-Aryan peoples from the Ganges valley and the founding of the cities of Dhanyawaddy and Vesali by their kings. The Indian chiefs who came over probably ruled over the the native population, gradually impressing on them their culture and religion.

A group led by Marayu an Indian prince, came down the Kaladan river and subdued the savages. He then established the first city of Dhanyawaddy on the east bank of the Kaladan and began to rule Rakhine from 3325 BC. The dynasty set up by Marayu kept the throne till 1059 BC. During this period there were 3 instances of disposition with 7 rulers outside the dynasty ruling for 23 years. In Arakanese chronicles, Dhanyawaddy existed 3325 BC – 788 AD. But Shitethaung temple Anandacandra inscription dated the founding of Vesali to 350 / 370 AD. So Dhanyawaddy existed until 350 or 370 AD.

In 1531 BC, another migratory wave from Kamarupa (Assam) under Kammaraja came and settled at Kyauk-Badaung (near Paletwa, on the Kaladan). 24 years later the king came downstream and set up the second city of Dhnyawaddy in 1483 BC.

1st Tagaung Established by AbiYarzar who came from India. Succeeded by younger son KanYarzarNge. KanYarzarGyi went to KaleTaunNyo and stayed for 6 mths. During the period Pyus, Kanyans asked for king and his son Dusetta was installed in ThunarParanta. KanYarzarGyi moved to Rakhine.

Dusetta, son of Kanyarzargyi, ruled ThuNarParanta (LeKaing-SaKu) after Pyu king Thambula was taken away by Dhanyawaddy army.

Kyauk Padaung 1507-1483 B.C. Kanyarzargyi from Tagaung settled and married 2 daughters of last Rakhine Queen. 4300 ft above sea level, 14 m E of Paletwa (near Paletwa, on the Kaladan). 24 years later the king came downstream and set up the second city of Dhnyawaddy in 1483 BC.

Then came Kanrazagri and his twenty eight kingly descendents. He founded the second city of Dhanyawadi.

the second Dynyawaddy (1483-580 B.C.) by King Kanrazagree;

2nd Dhanyawaddy 1483-580 B.C. KanYarzarGyi moved to old site of Dhanyawaddy. 28 kings 927 yrs

During 33rd king Beindaka‘s rule (Buddha’s time), Chinese / Tayoke invaded and destroyed 1st Tagaung. Beindaka retreated to MaLe chaung and died there.

2nd Tagaung. Built during Buddha’s time by DazaYarzar who came from India. Married Nargasein queen of last king of 1st Tagaung. 17kings. 17th king ThadoeMahaRaza had 2 sons MahaThambawa and SulaThambawa

Ancient Trade Routes across Myanmar

We were taught that Myanmar’s mountainous boundaries prevented Myanmar from being occupied until the British, yet, there were trade routes to and from and across Myanmar since the stone age and bronze age cultures.

The India – China trade route across upper Myanmar had been recorded by Roman and Chinese geographers and it was along this route that Roman ambassadors to China passed through.

The Pyu coins, now known to be from Oc-Eo are found all through the Oc-Eo (present day Vietnam, but a sea port of the Chenla nation at the time before the Vietnamese migrate down the coast) Thailand, Kayah, Pyu cities, Dhanyawaddy, Vesali and this is the transAsia trade route at the time with sea ports at both ends.

Sriksetra is at the crossroads of this trade route with the North India – China trade route.

The Jyun (Khmer) army reached Bago during the time of Anawratha and was repelled by the 4 generals of Bagan.

Nan Chao invaded and destroyed the Pyu capital

The Mongols invaded Myanmar and occupied Bagan which was deserted ahead of their arrival

Xi’an

Xi’an is more than 3,000 years old and was known as Chang’an in ancient times. For 1,000 years, the city was the capital for 13 dynasties, and a total of 73 emperors ruled here. Xi’an is the undisputed root of Chinese civilization having served as the capital city for the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties.

The two Chinese characters “西安” in the name Xi’an literally mean “Western Peace”. During the Zhou Dynasty, the area was called Fenghao, with the portion of the city on the west bank of the Feng River called Feng and the portion on the east called Hao. It was renamed Chang’an, meaning “Perpetual Peace”, during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). It changed in 581 CE to Daxing (大興) during the Sui Dynasty then again became Chang’an from 618 CE during the Tang Dynasty. During the Yuan Dynasty (1270-1368 CE), the city was first given the name Fengyuan (奉元), followed by Anxi (安西) then Jingzhao (京兆). It finally became Xi’an in the year 1369 CE at the time of the Ming Dynasty. This name remained until 1928, then in 1930 it was renamed Xijing (西京), or “Western Capital”. The city’s name once again reverted to its Ming-era designation of Xi’an in the year 1943.

Xi’an is abbreviated in Chinese to either Hao or Tang (唐). The former abbreviation is derived from the Zhou Dynasty name Haojing, whilst the latter comes from the name of the Tang Dynasty.