Shan State (Burmese: ????????????, pronounced [?a? pjin??]; Shan: ?????????

[m??? t???]) is a state of Burma (Myanmar). Shan State borders China to the
north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative
divisions of Burma in the west. Largest of the 14 administrative divisions b
y land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km2, almost a quarter of the total ar
ea of Burma. The state gets its name from the Shan people, one of several et
hnic groups that inhabit the area. Shan State is largely rural, with only th
ree cities of significant size: Lashio, Kengtung, and the capital, Taunggyi.
[2]

Shan State, with many ethnic groups, is home to several armed ethnic armies
. While the military government has signed ceasefire agreements with most g
roups, vast areas of the state, especially those east of Thanlwin river, re
main outside the central government's control, and in recent years have com
e under heavy ethnic-Chinese economic and political influence, whereas othe
r areas are under the control of military groups such as the Shan State Arm
y.

Shan State is the unitary successor state to the Burmese Shan States, the
princely states that were under some degree of control of Irrawaddy vall
ey-based Burmese kingdoms. (Historical Tai-Shan states extended well beyo
nd the Burmese Shan States, ranging from full fledged kingdoms of Assam i
n the northwest to Lan Xang in the east to Lanna and Ayutthaya in the sou
theast, as well as several petty princely states in between, covering pre
sent day northern Chin State, northern Sagaing Division, Kachin State, Ka
yah State in Myanmar as well as Laos, Thailand and southwestern part of Y
unnan. The definition of Burmese Shan States does not include the Ava Kin
gdom and the Hanthawaddy Kingdom of 13th to 16th centuries although the f
ounders of these kingdoms were Burmanized Shans and Monized Shans, respec
tively.)
[edit] Early history

The first founding of Shan states inside the present day boundaries of B
urma began during period of Pagan Kingdom in the Shan Hills and accelera
ted after the fall of Pagan Kingdom to the Mongols in 1287. The Shans, w
ho came down with the Mongols, stayed and quickly came to dominate much
of northern to eastern arc of Burma?from northwestern Sagaing Division t
o Kachin Hills to the present day Shan Hills. The most powerful Shan sta
tes were Mong Yang (Mohnyin) and Mong Kawng (Mogaung) in present-day Kac
hin State, followed by Hsenwi (Theinni), Hsipaw (Thibaw) and Mong Mit (M
omeik) in present-day northern Shan State.[3] Smaller Shan states like K
ale in northwestern Sagaing Division, Bhamo in Kachin State, Yawnghwe (N
yaungshwe) and Kengtung (Kyaingtong) in Shan State, and Mong Pai (Mobye)
in Kayah State played a precarious game of paying allegiance to more po
werful states, sometimes simultaneously. To be sure, the newly founded S
han States were multi-ethnic states. Although Burmanized Shans founded t
he Ava Kingdom that ruled central Burma, other Shan states, Mohnyin in p
articular, constantly raided Ava territories throughout the years. A Moh
nyin-led confederation of Shan states finally conquered Ava itself in 1527.[4]

[edit] Taungoo and Konbaung periods (1555?1885)

Shan States after 1557, now inside Bayinnaung's Empire

In 1555, King Bayinnaung dislodged the Shan king from Ava, and by 1557, we
nt on to conquer all of what would become known as Burmese Shan States und
er his rule, from Assamese border in the northwest to those in Kachin Hill
s and Shan Hills, including the two most powerful Shan States, Mohnyin and
Mogaung.[5] (Bayinnaung also conquered Lan Na in 1558 but allowed the mor
e established kingdom to retain more autonomy.) The Shan states were reduc
ed to the status of governorships but the Saophas were permitted to retain
their royal regalia and their feudal rights over their own subjects. Bayi
nnaung introduced Burmese customary law, and prohibited all human and anim
al sacrifices. He also required the sons of Saophas to reside in the Burme
se king's palace essentially as hostages for good conduct of their fathers
and to receive valuable training in Burmese court life. This was a policy
followed by Burmese kings right up to the final fall of the kingdom to th
e British in 1885.[6] (Northernmost Shan states in Yunnan had already fall
en to the Ming dynasty of China by the middle of 15th century.[7])

To be sure, the reach of Burmese sovereign waxed and waned along with th
e ability of each Burmese monarch. Shan states became briefly independen
t following the collapse of the first Taungoo dynasty, in 1599. Nonethel
ess, the Restored Taungoo dynasty under King Nyaungyan and King Anaukpet
lun had recovered the Shan states, including the two strongest?Monhyin a
nd Mogaung by 1605 and Lan Na by 1615.[5] Starting in the late 17th cent
ury with the reign of King Minyekyawdin, the rule of Burmese monarchs de
clined gradually, and by the 1730s, Shan States like other areas in the
kingdom were de facto independent.

In the middle of the 18th century, the Burmese Konbaung dynasty's reasser
tion of easternmost boundaries of Burmese Shan States led to a war with t
he Qing dynasty of China, which launched four separate invasions of Burma
in 1765, 1766, 1767?1768 and 1769. For a brief period, after the second
invasion, the Burmese occupied eight Chinese Shan states within Yunnan.[8
] Although the Burmese would give up these Chinese Shan states soon after
, but their success in repelling a numerically far superior Chinese force
laid the foundation for the present day boundary between Burma and China
. The present-day boundary of southern Shan State vis-a-vis Thailand was
also formed shortly after. In 1776, Burma lost much of Lan Na kingdom to
a resurgent Bangkok-based Siam,[9] ending a two century plus Burmese suze
rainty over the region and retaining just Kengtung on the Burmese side. (
Siam would again invade Kengtung in 1804, 1852?1854 and 1942.)

Throughout the Burmese feudal era, Shan states supplied much manpower in
the service of Burmese kings. Without Shan manpower, it would have been
difficult, if not impossible, for the Burmans alone to achieve their mu
ch vaunted victories in Lower Burma, Siam, and elsewhere. Shans were a m
ajor part of Burmese forces in the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824?1826,
and fought valiantly?a fact even the British commanders acknowledged.[10]

After the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, the Burmese kingdom was reduce
d to Upper Burma alone. The Shan states?especially those east of the Salwe
en, were essentially autonomous entities, just paying token tribute to the
king. In 1875, King Mindon, in order to avoid certain defeat, ceded Karen
ni states, long part of Shan states, to the British.[8] When the last king
of Burma, King Thibaw--coincidentally a half Shan?ascended the throne in
1878, the rule of central government was so weak that Thibaw had to send t
housands of troops to tame a rebellion in the Shan state of Mongnai and ot
her eastern Shan states for the remainder of his 6 year reign.[11]
[edit] Colonial period (1886?1948)

On 28 November 1885, the British captured Mandalay, officially ending the

Third Anglo-Burmese War in just 11 days. But it was only in 1890 that the
British were able to subdue all of Shan states. Under the British colonial
administration, established in 1887, the Shan states were ruled by their
saophas as feudatories of the British Crown. The British however placed Ka
chin Hills inside Mandalay Division and northwestern Shan areas under Saga
ing Division. In October 1922, the Shan states, and Karenni states were me
rged to create the Federated Shan States,[12] under a commissioner who als
o administered the Wa State. This arrangement survived the constitutional
changes of 1923 and 1937.

During World War II, most of Shan States came under the Japanese occupat
ion. Chinese Kuomingtang (KMT) forces came down to northeastern Shan sta
tes to face the Japanese. Thai forces, allied with the Japanese, occupie
d Kengtung and surrounding areas in 1942.[13]

After the war, the British returned and many Chinese KMT forces stayed ins
ide Burmese Shan states. Negotiations leading to independence at the Pangl
ong Conference in February 1947 secured a unitary Shan State including for
mer Wa states, but without the Karenni states.[14] More importantly, Shan
State also gained the right of secession in 10 years from independence.
[edit] Independence (1948?present)

Soon after gaining independence in January 1948, the central government l

ed by U Nu faced several armed rebellions. The most serious was the Chine
se Nationalist KMT invasion of Shan State in 1950. Driven out by the Chin
ese Communist forces, Nationalist KMT armies planned to use the region ea
st of the Salween river as a base from which to regain their homeland. In
March 1953, the KMT forces with US assistance were on the verge of takin
g the entire Shan State, and within a day's march of the state capital Ta
unggyi.[15] The Burmese army drove back the invaders east across the Salw
een but much of the KMT army and their progeny would remain in the easter
n Shan State under various guises to the present day. The Burmese army's
heavy handedness fueled resentment.[15]

In 1961, Shan saophas led by the first president of Burma and saopha of Y
awnghwe Sao Shwe Thaik proposed a new federal system of government for gr
eater autonomy even though the Shans had the constitutional right to sece
de. Though Shan leaders promised not to exercise the right, it was seen b
y the Burmese army led by Gen. Ne Win as secessionist.[15] Gen. Ne Win's
coup d'etat in 1962 brought an end to the Burmese experiment with democra
cy and with it, the call for greater autonomy for ethnic minorities. The
coup fueled the Shan rebellion, started in 1958 by a small group called N
um Hsuk Han (Young Warriors), now joined by the Shan State Army (SSA).

By the early 1960s, eastern Shan State, festered with several insurgencies
and warlords, emerged as a major opium growing area, part of the so-calle
d Golden Triangle. Narcotics trafficking became a vital source of revenue
for all insurgencies. Major forces consisted of the SSA, Communist Party o
f Burma (CPB) as well as those of drug lords Khun Sa, and Lo Hsing Han. By
the mid-1960s, CPB had begun receiving open support from China. Thailand
also began a decades-long policy of support for non-Communist Burmese rebe
ls. Families of insurgent leaders were allowed to live in Thailand, and in
surgent armies were free to buy arms, ammunition, and other supplies.[16]

In the late 1980s and 1990s, the military government signed ceasefire agre
ements with 17 groups, including all major players in Shan State. An uneas
y truce has ensued but all forces remain heavily armed. Today, the 20,000
strong United Wa State Army (UWSA) is the largest armed group, and heavily
involved narcotics trade. In the 2008 Constitution, endorsed by the Burme
se junta, certain UWSA controlled areas were given the status of an autono
mous region.[17]

In recent decades, Chinese state and ethnic Chinese involvement in Shan St

ate has deepened. Hundreds of thousands of illegal Chinese immigrants have
flooded Upper Burma since the 1990s.[18][19] Chinese investment in the st
ate has funded everything from hydropower and mining projects to rubber pl
antations, illegal logging, and illegal wildlife trafficking.[20] Wa and K
okang regions, led by ethnic Chinese, openly use the yuan and operate on C
hinese Standard Time.
[edit] Geography