Far East Kingdoms

Yonoknapan (Thais)
c.AD 700 - ?

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Modern Thailand occupies much of the Indochinese peninsula in South-East Asia. It is bordered by Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Burma. From the twelfth century onwards Thais expanded outwards, predominantly southwards into the Malay-Thai peninsula. State-building swiftly followed in Early Thailand to create a patchwork of kingdoms and minor principalities.

The early medieval state of Yonoknapan was most likely located in the far north of what is now Thailand. Details for this state are extremely few, but its general location later became part of the territory of a late medieval principality known as Chiang Saen. This state was situated within the vicinity of an older Lao principality named Ngoenyang, the state which preceded the founding of Lan Na.

History and prehistory in this region are poorly understood. Stone tools and potsherds which have been found in the area indicate that local human habitation is likely to have been part of the Hoabinhian tradition. Legends and dynastic chronicles point to the later settling here of groups between the ninth and thirteenth centuries AD, but such early settlements are not currently supported by archaeological evidence.

Stories relate the arrival of a group which was led by a ruler named Singhanawat, somewhere in northern Thailand or a southern China which had yet to be unified to today's extent. Perhaps around AD 700 they founded Yonoknapan and carved out a territory by defeating the 'Khom' - possibly the Khmer. Their state developed and steadily expanded and was constantly at war with these 'Khom'.

That early medieval state was eventually abandoned, however, following a major Shan attack. Much of South-East Asia at this time was a shifting pattern of minor city states and the pre-formation phases of later larger states, especially the Khmer empire. Migration and settlement was still very fluid so it is not surprising that some early states experienced relatively short lives and then were largely forgotten.

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(Information by John De Cleene and the John De Cleene Archive, with additional information from The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, G Coedès (Walter F Vella, ed, Susan Brown Cowing, trans, University Press of Hawaii, 1968), and from External Links: Ayutthaya Historical Research, and Chiangsaen National Museum, and Cultural Resource Management and Archaeology at Chiang Saen, Northern Thailand, Sawang Lertrit (Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, March 2000, available via JSTOR), and On the History of Chiang Rai, Hans Penth (Siam Society, PDF) and Thailand (World Statesmen), and The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, George Coedès (Walter F Vella (Ed), Susan Brown Cowing (Trans), University of Hawaii Press, 1968, and available online via the Internet Archive).)

after AD 600s

According to one legend, early Thai people under the leadership of Sanghanawat arrive in the area from Nakhon Thai. They defeat the 'Khom' (possibly the early Khmer or their immediate predecessors), and establish a state with a capital at Yonoknapan, thought to be the later city of Chiang Saen.

fl c.700?

King of an early medieval Yonoknapan state.

?

Successor king, but no genealogy or relationship known.

?

After a number of successor kings, the Thai-related Thai Yai (Shan) attack the city, and Chaisiri is forced to flee. The people kill and eat a forbidden white eel, and the town is flooded and abandoned to terminate the state (an act which is often attributed to an earthquake). Its successor in the fourteenth century is Chiang Saen.

The moat and city wall of Chiang Saen is shown here where it protected the city on its northern, western, and southern sides while, to the east, the Reiver Mekong shielded it and earthen walls beneath the later brick have revealed that there was a settlement on the site before the city was founded, potentially the core of Yonoknapan