Ngưu Hống Explained

Native Name:Ngưu Hống (Vietnamese) Tóushé Guo (Chinese)
Conventional Long Name:Cobra Kingdom
Life Span:1000?–1416 or 1432
Event Start:First tribute to Dai Viet
Year Start:1067
Event End:Annexed by Dai Viet
Year End:1432
Event1:Mongol invasions
Date Event1:1250s
Event2:Annexed by Ming dynasty
Date Event2:1416
P1:Nanzhao
P2:Muang Then
S1:Jiaozhi Province
S2:Dai Viet
S3:Sip Song Chau Tai
Image Map Caption:Map of the Black River throughout northwest Vietnam
Capital:Mường Mỗi
Common Languages:Black Tai, Vietnamese
Religion:Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, animism
Government Type:Monarchy
Leader1:Lạng Chượng
Year Leader1:11th century–1067
Leader2:Lò Lẹt
Year Leader2:1292–1329
Leader3:Con Mường
Year Leader3:1329–1341
Leader4:Ta Cằm
Year Leader4:1341–1392
Year Leader5:1392–1418
Leader6:Mứn Hằm
Year Leader6:1420–1441

Nguu Hớu (Vietnamese: Ngưu Hống, chữ Hán: 牛吼, lit. Cobra) or Tóushé (Chinese: 頭蛇, lit. Cobra) were names for a medieval Black Tai polity that located in northwest Vietnam, mainly around the Black River. Its territory comprises modern-day provinces of Điện Biên, Lai Châu, Sơn La as well as western parts of Lào Cai and Yên Bái.

Early period

See also: Tai Dam people. Tai peoples have settled in the northwestern parts of what now is Vietnam since the early first millennium CE or, at the latest, the 5th to 8th century. They mainly settled along the Black River (Sông Đà). One Black Tai chiefdom—located at the place today known as Điện Biên Phủ—was named Muang Thaeng, just like the legendary kingdom of Khun Borom, protagonist of a Tai creation myth and believed to be the progenitor of the Lao, Thai, Shan and other Tai peoples, who later spread to the territories of modern Laos, Thailand, Burma, northeast India and the south of China's Yunnan province.

In early eleventh century, Lạng Chượng, leader of the Black Tai, led his people from Mường Lò, westward toward Mường Chiềng An (Mường La District), Mường Thanh (Điện Biên Phủ), and set up a new kingdom. The chronicle Đại Việt sử lược called this polity Ngưu Hống (cobra). In 1067 they sent a tribute gift to Dai Viet court of king Ly Thanh Tong (r. 1054–1072): gold, silver, aromatic woods, rhinoceros horns and elephant tusks. A Chinese source in 12th century identified this chiefdom as Heishou Guo (Black River Kingdom), and its location was between Dali and Dai Viet kingdoms. During late 13th/early 14th century, Lò Lẹt, the Black Thai ruler, went conflict with Dai Viet ruler Trần Minh Tông on the Black River (Xoong nạp tát tè).

Ming and Later Lê conquest

Following the Ming conquest of Dai Viet in 1407, the Chinese subjugated the Black Tai kingdom in 1416. However the Chinese rule was short-lived. After driving out the Chinese in 1427, the Vietnamese emperor Lê Lợi sent two campaigns in 1431 and 1432 into the region and incorporated Black Tai territories in Dai Viet's province of Hưng Hoá. The old independence polity experienced population expansion during the 15th century. In Gia Hưng District (Sơn La and Lai Châu), the number of villages grew by five times. The incorporation of Black Tai lands into Dai Viet's territories provided significant economic benefits: Cobalt salts, the main ingredient for Vietnamese blue-white ceramics, were sneaked in large quantity from Yunnanese mines to Dai Viet through Hưng Hoá, which before 1433 the cobalt salts had to be imported from Middle East.

References

Work cited

. David K. Wyatt . Thailand: A Short History . 2nd . Silkworm Books . 2004 . 974-9575-44-X .