Chronicle of Sipsong Panna: History and Society of a Tai Lu Kingdom, Twelfth to Twentieth Century

The Tai Lu are a Tai-speaking group closely related to the Khon Muang or Tai Yuan, the dominant ethnic group in Northern Thailand. According to their own historical tradition, the ancestors of the Tai Lu migrated from what is now northwestern Vietnam into the southern part of Yunnan, where they founded their own kingdom in the twelfth century. Today, the Tai Lu are the most important population group within the so-called Economic Quadrangle of the Upper Mekong, which plays an increasingly important economic and geopolitical role.

Chronicle of Sipsong Panna offers the first English translation of four different versions of the Chronicle of Moeng Lu (also known as Sipsong Panna) based on the oldest extant manuscripts. The volume provides a comprehensive analysis of Tai Lu historical sources and a valuable introduction to the history and society of the Upper Mekong region.