A monument for 14th century Shan king whose dominion reached as for as India’s Assam in the west, China’s Dali in the north, western Laos in the east, northern Thailand in the south and most of Burma today, has been under construction in Ruili, Yunnan province, opposite Muse, Shan State, since 2010, according to sources from the Sino-Burmese border. It is to be completed by 2014.
The $ 15 million project is headed by the highly respected monk Visutthinyana Teun Tai, the abbot of Wat Haw Kham, and funded by the Chinese government. The project site is about 2 miles north of the border from Muse.
“The purpose is two-fold,” wrote the monk to SHAN:
- To keep alive important historic events
- To support the Chinese government’s tourism industry
Hso Khan Fa (1291-1364), according to Chinese history, was a Shan who successfully rebelled against Mongolian rule. Three offensives by the Mongols were all beaten off by him. A list of countries and cities conquered by him is recorded in J.G. Scott’s Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States. He had also shown shrewd diplomacy when he sent his son as envoy to Beijing in the wake of its third offensive.
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