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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2021
In August 1902, the Siamese army occupied the northern township of Phrae after a rebellion by Shan timber workers, miners and traders. The Siamese general who investigated the rebellion claimed that the Shan attack on Phrae was part of a wider plot to restore Prince Myngoon to the Burmese throne. Myngoon was exiled from Burma in 1868 and had been living in Indochina since 1889. Most observers have regarded the so-called ‘Myngoon plot’ as implausible. This article provides the first detailed history of the plot. It argues that the plot was a product of ‘seditious state-making’ in the borderlands of mainland southeast Asia, a region in geopolitical flux. This exploration of the Myngoon plot uncovers a cosmopolitan web of seditious statecraft that extended from India, through Burma and Indochina and into Siam. The Shan rebellion was one outbreak in a region-wide web of Shan agitation dating from the early 1880s. The rebellion took place at the intersection of the competing colonial agendas of Siam, Britain and France, and various actors in this competition had been planting the seeds of a Myngoon-led rising since the 1880s. Myngoon's story was the product of a time when British, French and Siamese colonial agents were still grappling (and colluding) with dispersed and fragmented royal power.
The author would like to thank Alexis Bergantz, Duncan Harte, Soontree Siriinntawong, and Nathaphol Siriwatthanamathangkur who assisted with archival research and translation. I am also very grateful for advice and material from other Myngoon scholars: Natasha Pairaudeau, Aye Mon Kyi and Penny Edwards. Natasha pointed me in some very productive directions and shared some valuable archival material on Myngoon's relations with the French.
Abbreviations used in these footnotes: British Library India Office, Political and Secret Department (BLIO/L/PS); Centre des Archives d'Outre-Mer, Gouvernement Général de l'Indochine or Résidence Supérieur au Laos (CAOM/GGI or RSL); Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Bonin Papers, 26PAAP-11, Dossier concernant le Prince Myngoon 1901–1902 (MAE/Bonin/Myngoon); National Archives of India, Foreign Secret (NAI/FS); National Archives of Myanmar, Chief Secretary's Office, Foreign Department or Political Department (NAM/CSO, FD or PD); National Archives of Thailand (NAT); and The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Foreign Office (TNA/FO).
1 Chief Secretary to Foreign Secretary, 17 Apr. 1902, BLIO/L/PS/7/144/709/Telegraphic correspondence concerning the movements of the Myingun Prince.
2 Tournier to Muang Sing, 18 June 1902, attachment to Monthly Report of Oct. 1902, CAOM/GGI/20714/Rapports mensuels des agents commerciaux de Xieng-Khong et Xieng-Sen.
3 Becket to Archer, 13 Sept. 1900, BLIO/L/PS/3/378/2483/Paraphrase of telegram.
4 The most important primary sources on the attack on Phrae are in ‘Prap ngiaw [Suppression of the Shan]’, in Prachum pongsawadan [Royal chronicles], vols. 46–9 (Bangkok: Ongkan Kha Khong Khurusapha, 1969/70); and TNA/FO/821/30/Shan Rising at Phré.
5 Details of the plot uncovered by the Siamese are provided in Lyle to Beckett, 10, 13, 18 and 27 Oct. 1902, and Beckett to Archer, 25 Oct. 1902, FO/628/23/280/From Chiengmai: Shan Rising.
6 Lyle to Beckett 10 Oct. 1902, FO/628/23/280.
7 Lyle to Beckett 27 Oct. 1902, FO/628/23/280.
8 Lyle to Beckett 18 Oct. 1902, FO/628/23/280.
9 The most important secondary account of the Shan rebellion is chap. 3 of Tej Bunnag, Kabot ror sor 121 [Rebellions of 1902] (Bangkok: Foundation for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbooks Project, 2008). See also Ramsay, Ansil, ‘Modernization and reactionary rebellions in northern Siam’, Journal of Asian Studies 38, 2 (1979): 283–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Ondam, Bantorn, ‘The Phrae rebellion: A structural analysis’, Cornell Journal of Social Relations 6 (1971): 84–97Google Scholar.
10 It is briefly mentioned, and dismissed, in W.S. Bristowe, Louis and the King of Siam (London: Chatto & Windus, 1976), p. 120. There is also a passing reference in Ratanaporn Sethakul, ‘Political, social, and economic changes in the northern states of Thailand resulting from the Chiang Mai treaties of 1874 and 1883’ (PhD diss., Northern Illinois University, 1989), p. 283.
11 Walker, Andrew, ‘Seditious state-making in the Mekong borderlands: The Shan rebellion of 1902–1904’, Sojourn 29, 3 (2014): 554–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 Tej, Kabot, p. 121; David K. Wyatt, Thailand: A short history (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), pp. 213–14; Pasuk Phongpaichit and Christopher Baker, Thailand: Economy and politics (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 227; Federico Ferrara, The political development of modern Thailand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 48–50.
13 Robert Aldrich, Banished potentates: Dethroning and exiling indigenous monarchs under British and French colonial rule, 1815–1955 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018); Exile in colonial Asia: Kings, convicts, commemoration, ed. Ronit Ricci (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2016).
14 Penny Edwards describes colonial surveillance of Myngoon in ‘Watching the detectives: The elusive exile of Prince Myngoon of Burma’, in Ricci, Exile, pp. 248–78.
15 A detailed first-hand account of the rebellion is provided by Edward Sladen, who was the British agent in Mandalay and who was meeting with King Mindon when the rebels attacked: Sladen to Hildebrand, 22 Aug. 1866, NAM/CSO/1866/715/Political Revolution at Mandalay. For details of Myngoon's arrival in Rangoon see ‘Commissioner of Pegu to Secretary to the Chief Commissioner British Burma’, 29 May 1867, NAM/CSO/715.
16 The best account of Myngoon’s detention in Rangoon and escape is in ‘Commissioner of Pegu to the Secretary to the Chief Commissioner British Burma’, 29 May 1867, NAM/CSO/715.
17 Vivian Ba, ‘Prince Myngoon's odyssey: From documents in the French Foreign Ministry’, Journal of the Burma Research Society 54, 1–2 (1971): 32.
18 Commissioner of Pegu, Memorandum, 14 Aug. 1868, NAM/FD/1868/1275/Proceedings of the Mingoon Prince; Khorat, Pierre, ‘L'odyssée d'un prétendant Birman’, Revue des Deux Mondes 48, 3 (1908): 685Google Scholar; Albert Fytche, Burma, past and present, with personal reminiscences of the country, vol. 2 (London: C. Kegan Paul & Co, 1878), pp. 272–3.
19 Myo Myint, ‘The politics of survival in Burma: Diplomacy and statecraft in the reign of King Mindon, 1853–1878’ (PhD diss., Cornell University, 1987), pp. 271–2; Ni Ni Myint, Selected writings of Ni Ni Myint (Yangon: Myanmar Historical Commission, 2004), pp. 170–71.
20 ‘History of the Myngoon Mintha’, BLIO/L/PS/10/232/843/1912/Burma: the Myingun prince.
21 Ba, ‘Prince Myngoon's odyssey’, p. 32.
22 Ibid., pp. 43–4.
23 Ibid., p. 33.
24 Ibid., p. 33; Ni Ni Myint, Selected writings, p. 182.
25 Charles Lee Keeton, King Thebaw and the ecological rape of Burma: The political and commercial struggle between British India and French Indo-China in Burma, 1878–1886 (Delhi: Manohar, 1974), pp. 131–2.
26 For Myngoon’s movements in this period, see ‘History of the Myngoon Mintha’ and Khorat, ‘L'odyssée’, pp. 691–5.
27 Grattan Geary, Burma, after the conquest; viewed in its political, social and commercial aspects from Mandalay (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1886), pp. 186, 190–91.
28 Myngoon to Ripon, 4 Feb. 1883, in Ba, ‘Prince Myngoon's odyssey’, p. 41.
29 Ni Ni Myint, Selected writings, pp. 179–80.
30 Geary, Burma, p.195.
31 Ni Ni Myint, Selected writings, pp. 180–81.
32 Myngoon to Sladen, 30 June 1885, BLIO/Mss Eur E/290/17/Papers of Col Sir Edward Sladen.
33 The full correspondence is in BLIO/MssEur/E/290/17.
34 Sladen to Bernard, 29 June 1885. BLIO/Mss Eur E/290/17; Geary, Burma, pp. 185–6, 198–9; J. George Scott and J.P. Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan states, part 1, vol. 1 (Rangoon: Government Printing, 1900), p. 118.
35 Cited in Myo Myint, ‘The politics of survival’, p. 272.
36 Ni Ni Myint, Selected writings, pp. 183; Bernard to Grant, 31 Oct. 1884, and Bernard to Durand, 30 Nov. 1884, BLIO/MssEur/E/290/16.
37 Gould to Bernard, 20 Oct. 1884, BLIO/MssEur/E/290/16.
38 Ni Ni Myint, Selected writings, p. 188.
39 Ni Ni Myint, Burma's struggle against British imperialism 1885–1895 (Rangoon: The Universities Press, 1983), p. 32.
40 Copies of letters attached to Twomey to the Secretary to the Government of India, 2 Feb. 1889, NAI/FS/310-366/Mar. 1889/Emissaries sent by the Myingun Prince to the Shan states.
41 Quoted messages are from Myngoon’s letters of 24 Oct. 1887, ibid.
42 In Pondicherry Myngoon spent some time with associates of Duleep Singh, the Punjab prince who had embarked on an improbable quest to mobilise Russian support against the British: NAI/FS/Jul.1889/192–198/Movements of the Mingun and three Sikh Sardars.
43 Ni Ni Myint, Selected writings, p. 100.
44 Details of his escape and journey to Saigon are in NAI/FS/153–244/Jan. 1890/The Mingun Prince. See also Khorat, ‘L'odyssée’, pp. 698–9; and ‘The Mingoon Prince and the French’, Hawkes's Bay Herald, 13 Jan. 1892, p. 2.
45 ‘Curiosity’ is from ‘The Mingoon Prince and the French’; ‘driving’ is from ‘History of the Myngoon Mintha’.
46 Françoise Deloncle, ‘Lâchez le Myng-Goun’, L'Avenir du Tonkin, 553, 13 Sept. 1893, pp. 1–2; Keeton, Thebaw, pp. 123–5.
47 Myngoon to Piquet, NAI/FS/109–123/Mar. 1890/The Mingun Prince in Saigon; Consul in Saigon to Viceroy 4 Nov. 1889, NAI/FS/153–244/Jan. 1890.
48 For Myngoon's contacts in Saigon see NAI/FS/109–123/Mar. 1890/The Mingun Prince in Saigon; Pierre Lefèvre-Pontalis, Travels in upper Laos and on the borders of Yunnan and Burma (Bangkok: White Lotus, 2000), p. 101; ‘Mingoon Prince and the French’; Khorat, ‘L’odyssée’, p. 701.
49 HD to Secretary, 26 Aug. 1894, NAI/F/S/68-71/Sept. 1894/Report that the headman appointed at Chieng Khong by the French has announced that the Myingun Prince would be sent to govern them; Deloncle, ‘Lâchez le Myng-Goun’.
50 Chandran Jeshurun, The contest for Siam 1889–1902: A study in diplomatic rivalry (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 1977), p. 71.
51 Ibid., pp. 99–100; Patrick J.N. Tuck, The French wolf and the Siamese lamb: The French threat to Siamese independence, 1858–1907 (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1995), pp. 137–8.
52 Scott to Kimberley, 26 Aug. 1894, NAI/FS/269-372/Oct. 1894/ Proceedings of M. Pavie in Chieng Khong. For an indication that this had Deloncle's support, see HD to Secretary, 26 Aug. 1894, NAI/FS/68-71/Sept. 1894.
53 Statement by Sang Suna in Chiang Mai, 13 Nov. 1894, NAI/FS/1-42/Feb. 1895/French movements in the Mekong Valley; Beckett to DeBunsen, 24 Sept. 1896, NAI/FS/9-11/Nov. 1896/Movements of the Myingun Prince.
54 See the various reports in NAI/FS/1-42/Feb. 1895.
55 Jones to Chief Commissioner of Burma, 6 Jan. 1891, NAI/FS/124-5/May 1891/Activity of the emissaries of the Mingun Prince.
56 HD to Secretary, 26 Aug. 1894, NAI/FS/68-71/Sept. 1894.
57 Note on Mg Saw Hla Pru, NAM/Colonial Period/3437/Proposal of Mg Saw Hla Prue to be permitted to pay a visit to Saigon.
58 Chief Secretary to Foreign Secretary, 30 Aug. 1894, NAI/FS/68-71/Sept. 1894.
59 A.H. Hilderbrand, Report on the Administration of the Southern Shan states for the year 1894–95 (Rangoon: Government Printing, 1895), appendix D.
60 Press extracts attached to Archer to Government of India, 4 Mar. 1897, BLIO/L/PS/3/357/1860/Flight of the Myingun Prince from Saigon; see also Khorat, ‘L'odyssée’, pp. 704–7.
61 Archer to Government of India, 4 Mar. 1897, BLIO/L/PS/3/357/1860.
62 Fryer to Viceroy, 18 Feb. 1897, NAI/FS/9-34/Apr. 1897/Flight of the Myingun Prince from Saigon.
63 Monson, 15 Feb. 1897, BLIO/L/PS 3/356/1735/Escape of the Myingoon Prince.
64 Salisbury to Monson, 16 Mar. 1897, L/PS/3/357/1857/Arrest of Myngun Prince.
65 Carlisle to Tower, 17 Mar. 1902, BLIO/L/PS/7/144/709.
66 Damrong to Devawongse, 10 June 1902, BLIO/L/PS/3/392/2448/Enrolment of Shans by the French authorities and the intrigues of the Myingun Prince.
67 Ibid.
68 For Zayadagazima in Pailin see Carlisle to Tower, 17 Mar. 1902, BLIO/L/PS/7/144/709; for the timber business see Myngoon to Chief of Political Bureau, 14 Dec. 1902, MAE/Bonin/Myngoon/Myngoon renseignements.
69 Myngoon to Governor General, 17 Aug. 1903, CAOM/GGI/42079/Demande d'exploitation de tecks au Laos.
70 BLIO/LPS/7/127/1155 Rumours of Native Rising in Chiang Mai; BLIO/LPS/7/128/1297; ‘conciliate or suppress’ is from Becket to Archer, 13 Sept. 1900, BLIO/LPS/3/378/2483.
71 Consul in Saigon to Viceroy, 24 Feb. 1902,BLIO/L/PS/7/142/449/Movements of the Myingun Prince.
72 Chief Secretary to Foreign Secretary, 17, 26 and 29 Apr. 1902, BLIO/L/PS/7/144/709.
73 Damrong to Devawongse, 13 June 1902, BLIO/L/PS/3/392/2448.
74 Phudet Seansa, ‘Kabot ngiaw’ [Shan rebellion]. Available online at http://phrae-family.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/blog-post.html.
75 Clementi to Gascoigne, 19 May 1902, BLIO/L/PS/7/146/978/The Myingun Prince at Hanoi.
76 Details of the plot uncovered by the Siamese are provided in Lyle to Beckett, 10, 13, 18 and 27 Oct. 1902, and Beckett to Archer, 25 Oct. 1902, FO/628/23/280.
77 Lyle to Beckett, 27 Oct. 1902, TNA/FO/628/23/280; Lyle to Beckett, 4 May 1903, NAM/PD/6323/Incident on the Franco-Siamese Frontier.
78 Prachum pongsawawadan, vol. 46, pp. 245–6.
79 Lyle to Beckett, 4 May 1903, NAM/PD/6323.
80 Beckett to Archer, 2 Nov. 1902, TNA/FO/628/23/280.
81 Surasak to Damrong, 7 Nov. 1902 [Siamese year 121], NAT/R5/M63.8/jad kaan prap pram phu ray ngiaw muang phrae [suppression of the Shan criminals in Phrae].
82 Lyle to Beckett, 27 Oct. 1902, TNA/FO/628/23/280.
83 Commissioner in Nan 1903, 22 Oct. 1902 [Siamese year 121], TNA/FO/821/30.
84 Lyle to Beckett, 10 Oct. 1902, TNA/FO/628/23/280.
85 See the reports in NAT/R5/M48/148/Phraya chaywong muang naan kap phraya phrae ti songsay wa ja pai khao kap farangset [Chawaong in Nan and the chief of Phrae suspected of going over to the French]. Lugan was the French Consul in Nan, and Tournier was the leading official in Luang Phrabang. For details of their membership in the Mission Pavie, see Auguste Pavie, Pavie Mission exploration work: Laos, Cambodia, Siam, Yunnan, and Vietnam (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1999), pp. 87–97.
86 Phudet, ‘Kabot ngiaw’.
87 Resident Superior to Governor General, 6 Dec. 1902, CAOM/GGI/20714.
88 Tournier to Commissioner in Muang Sing, 18 June 1902, CAOM/GGI/20714. ‘Honest merchant’ is from Myngoon to Head of Political Bureau, 21 Oct. 1901, MAE/Bonin/Myngoon/Pièces communiquées par M. Chanbout.
89 Chevalier, Report May 1902 and Resident Superior of Laos to Governor General, 21 June 1902, CAOM/GGI/20714.
90 Chevalier, Monthly report Oct. 1902, CAOM/GGI 20714.
91 Chevalier, Political report of 15 Nov. 1903, CAOM/RSL/F1.
92 Briggs to Beckett, 16 Oct. 1902, TNA/FO/628/23/280.
93 Chamberg to RSL, 9 Feb. 1903, CAOM/RSL/F1.
94 Bonin, ‘Réorganisation administrative et défensive des territories du Haut-Mékong’, CAOM/RSL/E11/Ban Houei Sai, 1896–1938.
95 Chamberg to RSL, 9 Feb. 1903, CAOM/RSL/F1.
96 Bonin, ‘Réorganisation’.
97 Ibos, Copie de la note remis au Prince Myngoon par le capitaine Ibos, par ordre de général Coronnat, MAE/Bonin/Myngoon/Myngoon Renseignements.
98 Chief of Muang Sing to Myngoon, 14 Nov. 1902, MAE/Bonin/Myngoon/Teleg communique par la poste.
99 Becket to Secretary of Government, 15 Jan. 1903, NAM/PD/6322/Incident on the Franco-Siamese Frontier.
100 Chevalier, Political report of 15 Nov. 1903.
101 See the letters in CAOM/GGI/20843/Pétitions des autorities de Muong-Theung, Kieng-Kham, Xieng-Long tendant à être placé sous le protectorat Français.
102 Chamberg to RSL, 9 Feb. 1903, CAOM/RSL/F1.
103 Myngoon to chiefs (in Burmese), MAE/Bonin/Myngoon/Myngoon Renseignements; Muong Simong to Myngoon, 5 Dec. 1902, MAE/Bonin/Myngoon/Teleg communiquer par la poste; Myngoon to Muang Sing, 19 Nov. 1902, MAE/Bonin/Myngoon/Pièces communiquées par M. Chanbout.
104 ‘Politics’ is from Myngoon to Muang Sing, 19 Nov. 1902 in MAE/Bonin/Myngoon/Pièces communiquées par M. Chanbout; ‘bad people’ is from Myngoon to Khoussagney, 8 Dec. 1902, MAE/Bonin Papers/26PAAP-11/Dossier concernant le Prince Myngoon 1901–1902/Teleg communiquer par la poste.
105 British Consul to Viceroy, 23 Jan. 1903, BLIO/L/PS/7/151/271/Arrival at Saigon of the Myingun Prince.
106 Wood to Lyle, BLIO/LPS/10/232/1907–1923/Burma: the Myingun Prince.
107 ‘Peacock ring’ and ‘silver sword’ are from Myngoon to local chief (in Burmese), MAE/Bonin/Myngoon/Myngoon Renseignements; ‘exploding bullets’ is from Scott to Chief Secretary, 12 Apr. 1903, NAM/CSO/6322.
108 Wood to Lyle, 13 Oct. 1914, BLIO/L/PS/10/232/843/Burma: the Myingun Prince.
109 Harper, Tim, ‘Singapore, 1915, and the birth of the Asian underground’, Modern Asian Studies 47, 6 (2013): 1793–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; NAI/FPS/21-22/July 1915/Information regarding an attempt by German Agents to cause trouble in Burma through the Myingun Mintha.