LASHIO, the headquarters of the superintendent, northern Shan States, Burma, situated in 22° 56´ N. and 97° 45´ E. at an altitude of 3100 ft., on a low spur overlooking the valley of the Nam Yao. It is the present terminus of the Mandalay-Kun Long railway and of the government cart road from Mandalay, from which it is 178 m. distant. It consists of the European station, with court house and quarters for the civil officers; the military police post, the headquarters of the Lashio battalion of military police; the native station, in which the various nationalities, Shans, Burmans, Hindus and Mahommedans, are divided into separate quarters, with reserves for government servants and for the temporary residences of the five sawbwas of the northern Shan States; and a bazaar. Under Burmese rule Lashio was also the centre of authority for the northern Shan States, but the Burmese post in the valley was close to the Nam Yao, in an old Chinese fortified camp. The Lashio valley was formerly very populous; but a rebellion, started by the sawbwa of Hsenwi, about ten years before the British occupation, ruined it, and it is only slowly approaching the prosperity it formerly enjoyed; pop. (1901) 2565. The annual rainfall averages 54 in. The average maximum temperature is 80.5° and the average minimum 55.5°. Entry: LASHIO
KENG TUNG, the most extensive of the Shan States in the province of Burma. It is in the southern Shan States' charge and lies almost entirely east of the Salween river. The area of the state is rather over 12,000 sq. m. It is bounded N. by the states of Mang Lön, Möng Lem and Keng Hung (Hsip Hsawng Panna), the two latter under Chinese control; E. by the Mekong river, on the farther side of which is French Lao territory; S. by the Siamese Shan States, and W. in a general way by the Salween river, though it overlaps it in some places. The state is known to the Chinese as Mêng Kêng, and was frequently called by the Burmese "the 32 cities of the Gôn" (Hkön). Keng Tung has expanded very considerably since the establishment of British control, by the inclusion of the districts of Hsen Yawt, Hsen Mawng, Möng Hsat, Möng Pu, and the cis-Mekong portions of Keng Cheng, which in Burmese times were separate charges. The "classical" name of the state is Khemarata or Khemarata Tungkapuri. About 63% of the area lies in the basin of the Mekong river and 37% in the Salween drainage area. The watershed is a high and generally continuous range. Some of its peaks rise to over 7000 ft., and the elevation is nowhere much below 5000 ft. Parallel to this successive hill ranges run north and south. Mountainous country so greatly predominates that the scattered valleys are but as islands in a sea of rugged hills. The chief rivers, tributaries of the Salween, are the Nam Hka, the Hwe Lông, Nam Pu, and the Nam Hsim. The first and last are very considerable rivers. The Nam Hka rises in the Wa or Vü states, the Nam Hsim on the watershed range in the centre of the state. Rocks and rapids make both unnavigable, but much timber goes down the Nam Hsim. The lower part of both rivers forms the boundary of Keng Tung state. The chief tributaries of the Mekong are the Nam Nga, the Nam Lwe, the Nam Yawng, Nam Lin, Nam Hôk and Nam Kôk. Of these the chief is the Nam Lwe, which is navigable in the interior of the state, but enters the Mekong by a gorge broken up by rocks. The Nam Lin and the Nam Kôk are also considerable streams. The lower course of the latter passes by Chieng Rai in Siamese territory. The lower Nam Hôk or Me Huak forms the boundary with Siam. Entry: KENG