Hkamti Lông

Hkamti Lông (also spelled Khamti Long; Chinese: 坎底), also known as Khandigyi (Burmese: ခန္တီးကြီး) was a Shan state in what is today Burma. It was an outlying territory, located by the Mali River, north of Myitkyina District, away from the main Shan State area in present-day Kachin State. The main town was Putao.

Hkamti Lông
State of the Shan States
c. 1796–20th century
Hkamti Lông in a map from In farthest Burma - the record of an arduous journey of exploration and research through the unknown frontier territory of Burma and Tibet (1921)
Area
• (estimate)	2,330 km2 (900 sq mi)
Population
• (estimate)	11,000
History
• Established	c. 1796
• Abdication of the last Saopha	20th century
Succeeded by British Burma

History

Hkamti Lông began as an outlying territory of the Shan state of Möng Kawng and was settled by the Hkamti, a sub-group of the Shan people. The name means "Great Place of Gold" in the Hkamti language.^[1] Hkamti Lông emerged as a rump state of Möng Kawng, which had been annexed by the Konbaung dynasty in 1796.^[2][3]

It was made up of seven small principalities: Lokhun, Mansi, Lon Kyein, Manse-Hkun, Mannu, Langdao, Mong Yak and Langnu which were under the Hkamti Lông was beyond the borders of the British Mandalay Division and was never brought under direct British rule, after the Shan states submitted to British rule after the fall of the Konbaung dynasty.

Hkamti Lông was visited by traveller Thomas Thornville Cooper, British Agent at Bhamo, where he was murdered in 1878;^[4] later also by colonels Macgregor and Woodthorpe in 1884-1885, by Errol Gray in 1892-1893, and by Prince Henry of Orleans in 1893.^[5]

Towards the end of the 19th century the inhabitants were still mostly Shan, but they ended up being absorbed or expelled by the Kachin people and other dominant ethnic groups of the region.^[6]

Rulers

The rulers of Hkamti Lông bore the title of Saopha.^[7]

Saophas

• c.1860 - c.1862 ...
• c.1862 - 1910 San Nwe Cho (b. 1837 - d. 1910)
• 1910 - 1915 San Nwe No (b. 1855 - d. 1915)
• 13 Aug 1915 - 19.. Sao Hpa Hkan (b. c.1854 - d. 19..)