The Kingdom of Lan Na, historically called Mueang Lanna, meaning country of a million rice fields, was a Tai kingdom centered on present-day northern Thailand, founded by Mangrai around 1292 to 1296 and ruled from its capital at Chiang Mai from 1296 onward as a loose confederation known as a mandala kingdom, with territory extending into what are now Myanmar and China. It was a Theravada Buddhist state whose common languages included Lanna, Tai Lue, Shan and Burmese and which used cowrie shells as currency, reaching its military peak under Tilokaraj between 1441 and 1487 before entering a long decline. Lan Na became a vassal state successively of Burma from 1558 to 1596, of Siam from 1596 to 1615, and of Burma again from 1615, until Siam under King Taksin conquered it in 1775 and incorporated its territory into the Siamese state.
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