Upper Burma
In the early 16th century, the present-day Myanmar (Burma) comprised several small kingdoms. The Ava Kingdom, the principal power in Upper Burma in the 14th and 15th centuries, had been fighting a long losing war against an alliance of its former vassal states: the Confederation of Shan States and Prome (Pyay). Another former vassal state Toungoo (Taungoo), hemmed in by the Bago Yoma range in the west and the Shan Hills in the east, stayed out of the internecine warfare raging in Upper Burma. As the only peaceful state in Upper Burma, Toungoo had received a steady stream of refugees.