What is "mueang"

Mueang ( mɯ̄ang, ), Muang ( mɯ́ang, ), Mường or Mong ( mə́ŋ, ) were pre-modern semi-independent city-states or principalities in Indochina, adjacent regions of Northeast India and Southern China, including what is now Thailand, Laos, Burma, Cambodia, parts of northern Vietnam, southern Yunnan, western Guangxi and Assam.

Mueang was originally a Thai term for a town having a defensive wall and a ruler with at least the Thai noble rank of khun , together with its dependent villages. The Mandala model of political organisation organised states in collective hierarchy such that smaller mueang were subordinate to more powerful neighboring ones, which in turn were subordinate to a central king or other leader. The more powerful mueang (generally designated as chiang, wiang, nakhon or krung — with Bangkok as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon) occasionally tried to liberate themselves from their suzerain and could enjoy periods of relative independence. Mueang large and small often shifted allegiance, and frequently paid tribute to more than one powerful neighbor — the most powerful of the period being the Ming of Imperial China.

Following Kubla Khan's defeat of the Bai Kingdom of Dali in AD 1253, new mueang were founded widely throughout the Shan States and adjoining regions — though the common description of this as a "mass migration" is disputed. Following historical Chinese practice, tribal leaders principally in Yunnan were recognized by the Yuan as imperial officials, in an arrangement generally known as the Native Chieftain System. Ming and Qing-era dynasties replaced native chieftains with non-native Chinese government officials. In the 19th century, Thailand's Chakri Dynasty and Burma's colonial and subsequent military rulers did much the same with their lesser mueang; but, while the petty kingdoms are gone, the place names remain.