Mueang in the context of "Shan States"

The term mandala (Sanskrit: मंडल, romanized: maṇḍala, lit. 'circle') is used to describe a model of decentralized political systems in the early historical era of medieval Southeast Asia. At that time, authority radiated from a core centre rather than being defined by fixed territorial boundaries. This model emphasizes the fluid distribution of power among the networks of Mueang and Kedatuan city-states or principalities, in contrast to modern concepts of centralized nation-states.

The mandala model was adopted by 20th-century historians as a way to analyse traditional structures (such as federations of kingdoms or tributary states) without imposing preconceived notions of statehood. Unlike Chinese and European models of a state, with fixed borders and centralized bureaucracies, most Southeast Asian polities operated by means of overlapping spheres of influence. Their sovereignty was derived from an ability to attract allegiance using cultural, economic, or military prestige, rather than by means of land control. These dynamic systems could incorporate multiple subordinate centres, while maintaining a symbolic "centre of domination". The centre was often embodied by a ruler's court or sacred site.

The Kingdom of Asam now known as Ahom kingdom (/ˈɑːhɔːm/; 1228–1826) was a late medieval kingdom in the Brahmaputra Valley (present-day Assam) that retained its independence for nearly 600 years despite encountering Mughal expansion in Northeast India. Established by Sukaphaa, a Tai prince from Möng Mao (present-day Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, China), it began as a möng in the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra based on wet rice agriculture. It expanded suddenly under Suhungmung in the 16th century and became multi-ethnic in character, casting a profound effect on the political and social life of the entire Brahmaputra valley. The kingdom became weaker with the rise of the Moamoria rebellion, and subsequently fell to repeated Burmese invasions of Assam. With the defeat of the Burmese after the First Anglo-Burmese War and the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826, control of the kingdom passed into East India Company hands.

Though it came to be called the Ahom kingdom in the colonial and subsequent times, it was largely multi-ethnic, with the ethnic Tai-Ahom people constituting less than 10% of the population toward the end.People from different ethnic groups became a part of the Ahom population due to the process known as Ahomisation. The identity of the Ahom people in this kingdom was fluid, with the king controlling who belonged to it and who did not. The Ahoms initially called their kingdom Mong Dun Shun Kham till 1401 (Assamese: xunor-xophura; English: casket of gold), but adopted Assam in later times. The British-controlled province after 1838 and later the Indian state of Assam came to be known by this name. The kingdom maintained close political ties with other Tai-states especially with Mong Kwang (Nara) till the end of its rule in the 19th century.

The Kingdom of Champasak (Lao: ຈຳປາສັກ [tɕàmpàːsák]) or Bassac, (1713–1904) was a Lao kingdom that emerged under King Nokasad, a grandson of King Sourigna Vongsa, the last king of Lan Xang. Bassac and the neighboring principalities of Attapeu and Stung Treng emerged as power centers as a mandala.

The kingdom was sited on the eastern or Left Bank of the Mekong, south of the Right Bank principality of Khong Chiam where the Mun River joins; and east of where the Mekong makes a sharp bend to the west to return abruptly and flow southeasterly down to what is now Cambodia.

The Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom (Thai: อาณาจักรนครศรีธรรมราช RTGS: Anachak Nakhon Si Thammarat), Nagara Sri Dharmaraja or the Kingdom of Ligor, was one of the major constituent city states (mueang) of the Siamese kingdoms of Sukhothai and later Ayutthaya and controlled a sizeable part of the Malay Peninsula. Its capital was the eponymous city of Nakhon Si Thammarat in what is now Southern Thailand.

The old Pahang kingdom (Malay: Kerajaan Pahang Tua) was a historical Malay polity centred in the Pahang region on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. The polity appeared in foreign records from as early as the 5th century and at its height, covered much of modern state of Pahang and the entire southern part of the peninsula. Throughout its pre-Melakan history, Pahang was established as a mueang or naksat of some major regional Malayic mandalas including Langkasuka, Srivijaya and Ligor. Around the middle of the 15th century, it was brought into the orbit of Melaka Sultanate and subsequently established as a vassal Muslim Sultanate in 1470, following the coronation of the grandson of the former Maharaja as the first Sultan of Pahang.

Northern Thai (Thai: ภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือ), also called Kam Mueang (Northern Thai: ᨣᩴᩤᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ กำเมือง), Lanna or Tai Yuan, is the language spoken by the Northern Thai people of Thailand. It is a Southwestern Tai language. The language has approximately six million speakers, most of whom live in Northern Thailand, with a smaller community of speakers in northwestern Laos.

Speakers of this language generally consider the name "Tai Yuan" to be pejorative. They refer to themselves as Khon Mueang (ᨤᩫ᩠ᨶᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ, คนเมือง, [kʰon˧.mɯaŋ˧] – literally "people of Mueang" meaning "city dwellers"), Lanna, or Northern Thai. The language is also sometimes referred to as Phayap (พายัพ, Thai pronunciation: [pʰāː.jáp]), "Northwestern (speech)".

Si Inthrathit (Thai: ศรีอินทราทิตย์, pronounced [sǐː ʔīn.tʰrāː.tʰít]; also spelt Śrī Indrāditya) was the first king of the Sukhothai Kingdom, a historical polity in what is now Thailand. He reigned from 1238 until around 1270 and is credited as the founder of the Phra Ruang dynasty, regarded as the first historical Siamese dynasty. His dynasty holds a dual claim to this distinction—having originated in the very region later designated by foreigners as "Siam", and for being the royal house that liberated the Thai principalities from the Khmer Empire.

Hiran Nakhon Ngoenyang (Northern Thai: ᩉᩥᩁᩢᨬ᩠ᨬᨶᨣᩬᩁᨦᩮᩥ᩠ᨶᨿᩣ᩠ᨦᨩ᩠ᨿᨦᩈᩯ᩠ᨶ; Thai: หิรัญนครเงินยาง), also known as Chayaworanakhon Chiang Lao, Hiranyanakhon Ngoenyang Chiang Saen, Nakhon Yangkapura, or Thasai Ngoenyang was an early mueang or kingdom of the Northern Thai people from the 7th through 13th centuries AD and was originally centered on Hiran, formerly Wiang Prueksa, in modern-day Thailand near today's Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai, and later on Ngoenyang or Chiang Saen. King Mangrai, the 25th king of Ngoenyang, went on to found Lanna.

In contrast to most contemporary Tai states, Ngoenyang was mentioned in local chronicles, which provide some information about its history.