The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s2.158

v3.c29.s2.158

Yet it was not the Tartars who destroyed the overlordship of Pagān. They did not wish to upset existing conditions, and gave the dynasty every support in re-establishing itself. It was washed away by a wave of migration which was beyond the control of a purely dynastic government. What we are now to witness is not so much a series of internal squabbles as a racial movement affecting all Indo-China: the Shāns swarm south, east, and west. In 1229 they founded the Āhom kingdom of Assam along the Brāhmaputra river; about the same time they made themselves felt in Tenasserim, and in 1350 they founded the kingdom of Siam—Siam is the same word as Shān, and she is simply the greatest of Shān states. In Burma they overran the entire country, swamping Burman and Talaing alike. To-day they are the most numerous race in Indo-China, numbering eighteen millions¹.