In 1882 the Sawbwa of Möngnai and the chiefs of several neighbouring States revolted against Thebaw and found a safe refuge in Kengtung. Möngnai is one of the most important of the States. It contains nearly three thousand square miles. The River Salween is the boundary on the east, and divides it from Kengtung. It has been already mentioned that a Burman Bo-hmu, or Resident, with an armed force, was stationed in Möngnai, which derived dignity from being the centre of Burmese power in the Shan States, and suffered proportionately. The exactions of the King's Government at last became intolerable. The Sawbwa, Kun Kyi, was summoned, with other defaulters, to Mandalay, and imprisoned there until the sums demanded were paid. About 1882 Kun Kyi was again summoned to appear. He preferred to revolt. While the Burmese subordinate official (the Resident had just died) was preparing to seize him, he raised his people, led them against the King's garrison, and destroyed it. On the news reaching Mandalay, a large force was dispatched to avenge this outrage, and the Sawbwa, with several other chiefs in like straits, took refuge in Kengtung. One, Twet Nga Lu, with the assistance of the Burmese officials, took possession of Möngnai. Twet Nga Lu was an unfrocked monk, a native of Kengtawng, a sub-State of Möngnai, who signalized his return to a worldly life by making himself unpleasant to his neighbours. He had made an attack on Möngnai, but was driven off. A younger brother of the Möngnai Sawbwa had married a lady named Nang U, by whom he had a son. Whether this nobleman died, or was dismissed by Nang U, is uncertain. However that may be, she espoused Twet Nga Lu, and thereupon her minor son was appointed by the King to be magistrate of Kengtawng with the unfrocked monk as guardian. This arrangement had taken place before the retirement of the Sawbwa, Kun Kyi, to Kengtung, and was very distasteful to him. It came about thus, that the Sawbwa of Möngnai, the premier chief in the Shan country with Lawksawk and several others, all suffering from the King's tyranny, found themselves in Kengtung.