สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

104 The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume III - 2011 104 The Dhamma Script Cultural Domain as a Contested Space in the Tai Lao World over the formally separate principalities of Lampang and Lamphun. Like Chiang Mai, the latter two vassal states were ruled by members of the Kawila clan. Chiang Mai was the political centre in the western half of Lan Na. 10 In the eastern half, close to the Lao border, the principality of Nan played a similar role vis-a-vis the small vassal state of Phrae. Early nineteenth-century European reports confirm that both Nan and Phrae entertained close relations with Luang Prabang. Very few Westerners visited Phrae and Nan before the end of the nineteenth century. A British map of 1870 still shows the territories east of Lampang as çunexploredé. Neither David Richardson nor William Courperous McLeod, the first European who ever visited Chiang Tung and Chiang Rung, were able to travel to Phrae, Nan, and even Luang Prabang further to the east. In 1837, McLeod mentions a lack of interest in Nan and Phrae on the part of the Chiang Mai prince, çwho is now the controlling authority over the territories of Labong (Lamphun) and Lagong (Lampang)é whereas Nan and Phrae were completely independent from Chiang Mai, maintaining close relations with Luang Prabang. 11 The differences between Nan, Phrae, and Luang Prabang on the one hand and Chiang Mai, Lamphun, and Lampang on the other hand were evident to most contemporary Western observers. Thus in the early nineteenth century, when almost the whole DSCD had come under Siamese suzerainty, the region was grouped into four clusters of polities: a.) Chiang Tung and Chiang Rung (Sipsong Panna): They were Burmese and/or Chinese vassals. b.) Chiang Mai, Lamphun and Lampang: They were Siamese vassals. c.) Luang Prabang, Nan, and Phrae: They were Siamese vassals; Luang Prabang maintained, at least in the first half of the nineteenth century, also ties with China. d.) Vientiane and Champasak (until their demotion in 1829): They were Siamese vassals and › in the case of Vientiane › maintained at the same time tributary relations with the Vietnamese imperial court at Hue. e.) Lao hua mueang of the inner region of the Khorat Plateau (such as Kalasin and Khon Kaen): Siamese dependencies supervised by the governor of Khorat. 10 Ibid. 150›154. 11 Grabowsky and Turton 2003: 7. ´ 98-112_mac9 5/9/12, 11:20 PM 104