Keoi Lau Mi in Cantonese or Jū Lóu Mì in the Han Chinese () 唐会要 'Tang Huiyao''(in Chinese) is an ancient kingdom of the

Kuy people The Kuy (, ) are an indigenous ethnic group of mainland Southeast Asia. The native lands of the Kuy range from the southern Khorat Plateau in northeast Thailand east to the banks of the Mekong River in southern Laos and south to north central ...

mentioned in the Chinese text

Tang Huiyao The ''Tang Huiyao'' () is an institutional history of the Tang dynasty compiled by Wang Pu and presented to Emperor Taizu of Song in 961. The book contains 100 volumes and 514 sections; it has an abundant content for the period before 846, and sca ...

. Keoi Lau Mi was mostly inhabited by mountainous people and was rich in elephants, which were raised for use. There are few historical records about this kingdom. Its customs were the same as

Chi Tu Chi Tu (also spelled Chihtu, Chitu or Ch-ih-t'u; Sanskrit: Raktamaritika or Raktamrittika; ; Malay language: ''Tanah Merah'') was an ancient kingdom mentioned in the history of China. The Sui dynasty annals describe an advanced kingdom called Ch ...

and ''Duò Hé Luó'' (;

Dvaravati Dvaravati () was a medieval Mon political principality from the 6th century to the 11th century, located in the region now known as central Thailand, and was speculated to be a succeeding state of Lang-chia or Lang-ya-hsiu (). It was describe ...

). 新唐书 'New Book of Tang''(in Chinese) Keoi Lau Mì sent tributes to the Chinese court once during the reign of Emperor Gaozong in August 656 CE to offering a five-colored parrot. In addition, it also had a good relationship with neighboring countries such as ''Pán Pán Zhì Wù'', ''Pó Lì'', ''Bù Shù'', and

Wen Dan Wén Dān ( zh, 文單; ), proposed Bhavapura, was a group of ancient Mon political entities that existed around the 6th–10th centuries CE in the interior of mainland Southeast Asia scattered around the central Mekong Valley in the present-day ...

Geographic location

Keoi Lau Mi was located to the west of

Champa Champa (Cham language, Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, چمڤا; ; 占城 or 占婆) was a collection of independent Chams, Cham Polity, polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day Central Vietnam, central and southern Vietnam from ...

's Línyì with three months' travel by land, southeast of ''Pán Pán Zhì Wù'' () with one month's travel by water. It met

to the northwest by six days' land travelling, ten days' sailing distance to the south reaching the country of ''Pó Lì'' (), and about five days' sailing to the east meeting the kingdom of ''Bù Shù'' ().

Interpretation

Thai scholar Thongtham Nathchamnong () proposed that Keoi Lau Mì was the ancient kingdom of the

, who settled in the present-day Southern

Isan Northeast Thailand or Isan (Isan language, Isan/, ; ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pāli ''isāna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 provinces in northeastern Thai ...

region of

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

and the northern parts of

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

since the prehistoric era. The term , which is pronounced ''keoi1'' or ''kêu¹'' in

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

, potentially referred to the

. Moreover, its location and norms provided in the Chinese source conforms with the area with a significant Kuy population today. However, its location remains ambiguous since the Chinese texts say Keoi Lau Mì can travel by water to other nearby polities. If

or was located at

Sambhupura Isanapura (), also known as Sambhupura () or Sambor of St'ung Sen, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Chenla. It is located in what is now Kampong Thom Province in Cambodia. The city was founded in about 618 at Leek Sambor Kuk by King ...

as stated by

Paul Pelliot Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 187826 October 1945) was a French sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and the Silk Road regions, and for his acquisition of many important Tibetan Empire-era manuscripts and ...

, ''Keoi Lau Mì'' should be located around the lower Central Highlands in present-day Vietnam. But this contrasts with the fact that the customs of Keoi Lau Mì were roughly similar to

References

{{Thailand topics, state=collapsed Former countries in Thai history Former kingdoms Indianized kingdoms 7th century in Thailand 8th century in Thailand 9th century in Thailand 10th century in Thailand 11th century in Thailand 11th-century disestablishments in Thailand