History of Kengtung

Kengtung was founded by the grandson of King Mangrai on the location of an older city of the Lawa people, the original inhabitants of the region. 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 Kengtung having a different type of Tai population from the rest of the Shan State.

Kengtung, like other major towns in the Shan Plateau, was home to a Shan Saopha. Kengtung was the base of the Kengtung Sawbwanate, and had a Sawbwa palace, built