Phayao Kingdom

The Phayao Kingdom was a Tai state centred on the city of Phayao in the Yom River basin of what is now northern Thailand, flourishing from roughly the eleventh to the fourteenth century. The Phayao Chronicle describes an older polity called Phukamyao and credits its refoundation to Chomtham, a prince sent from Ngoenyang to occupy its vacant throne. The first ruler attested outside the chronicles is Ngammueang, who came to power in 1258 and presided over the kingdom's golden age. He allied with Mangrai of Ngoenyang and Ramkhamhaeng of Sukhothai, and in 1263 conquered Pua, the capital of the Nan kingdom, installing his own family there. Phayao's territory stretched across parts of modern Chiang Rai, Phayao, Lampang, Phrae and Nan provinces and into Laos. Its independence ended in 1338, when Khamfu of Chiang Saen and Phanong of Nan sacked its twin capitals; Khamfu annexed the kingdom to Lanna while Nan took the eastern cities along the upper Yom.