The Shan State hilltop kingdom — a walled royal city in the Golden Triangle surrounded by Akha, Lahu, and Wa hill tribe villages and the finest green tea in Myanmar
Kengtung (Kyaingtong in Burmese, Chiang Tung historically) is the capital of Shan State East — a former kingdom of the Eastern Shan that maintained its royal palace (saopha) until Burmese military takeover in 1961. The city occupies a basin surrounded by forested hills at 830m, 180km east of Tachileik on the Thai border — a walled old city of whitewashed Buddhist temples, a colonial-era market, a lake in the centre, and the substantial ruins of the old Shan royal palace. The surrounding villages belong to a dozen distinct hill tribes — Akha, Lahu, Wa, Palaung, Eng — with dress, agricultural,…
Kengtung was the capital of the Khüen (Khün) Shan kingdom, founded in the 13th century by a prince from Chiang Mai — it was one of the most powerful of the Eastern Shan states and controlled trade routes between the Chinese Yunnan, Burma, and Thailand. The British never fully administered the Eastern Shan States, allowing the saophaba (princes) to maintain traditional rule under nominal suzerainty; the last saopha (prince) of Kengtung was deposed by Ne Win in 1961. The city's name 'Chiang Tung' (Walled City on the Tung River) reflects its Tai-language origins; 'Kengtung' is the Burmese pronun…