Chronicle of Sipsong Panna : History and Society of a Tai Lÿ Kingdom Twelfth to Mid-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 Pannaoffers 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. Foon Ming Liew-Herresis the author of Treatises on Military Affairs of the Ming Dynastic History. Volker Grabowskyis professor of Thai studies at the University of Hamburg. He is co-author with Renoo Wichasin of Chronicles of Chiang Khaeng: A Tai Lu Principality of the Upper Mekong.

Foon Ming Liew-Herres was a Habil. Privatdozent of the University of Hamburg. She is a Sinologist specializing in the history of the Ming dynasty and Ming historiography, and the author of Annotated Sources of Ming History: Including Southern Ming and Works on Neighbouring Lands, 1368-1661 (2011). Her field of research has in the last decade extended to Sino-Tai relations in Yunnan and mainland Southeast Asia. Volker Grabowsky, Professor of Thai Studies at the University of Hamburg, has published extensively on the history of the Tai polities in the Upper Mekong basin. Renoo Wichasin was Associate Professor of Thai Philology at Chiang Mai University. She is one of the leading experts in Tai manuscript cultures. Together with Volker Grabowsky she has co-authored Chronicles of Chiang Khaeng. A Tai L Principality of the Upper Mekong (2008).