The objectives of this paper were to investigate
the ruling system based on righteousness approach of Phaya Mangrai that favored
glory and civilization to ancient Lanna Kingdom; and to propose the guidelines
for city administration based on “Mangrai Theory”. The authors employed documentary analysis to analyze
documents, books, academic articles, and online anecdotes for reference and
description in this paper. The paper was therefore
sectioned into 3 parts. The first part was an
investigation about royal institution of Lanna Kingdom which originated from
local state. It was found that beliefs and attitudes
towards Lanna state and king were relatively local and simple as they inherited
local traits and beliefs from Buddhism principles. The
administration was also quite relaxed as the capital city did not hold much of
the power. Bonding was a means to hold unity among these
states located in deep. Centralization power of ancient Lanna society was with
the king so key features of ancient Lanna kingship was relatively simple and
the king was not the representative of god or deity. The
second part presented the administration structure of Lanna Kingdom based on
universal principle of ancient states that focused on centralized sovereignty
of the king where capital city was served as the central of the universe and
then surrounded by cascading subordinate states. The third
part outlined key features of “Mangrai Theory” which was considered the oldest law theory existed in Lanna
Kingdom. This law was developed from local regulations,
rituals, religion, and tradition which were systematically inherited from
generations to generations and undergone categorization based on key features. The underlying concepts were similar to those of international
law theories. The law originated from local rituals so it
clearly displayed ways of life of Lanna people. So, Lanna
king righteousness referred to an approach that concentrated on the king who
followed principles based on Buddhism beliefs and performed his way of life in
compliance with these principles. The king therefore
promoted and endorsed Buddhism activities as the king was the greatest Buddhism
supporter in the kingdom. The king also performed his duty
by supporting and promoting dissemination of Buddhism beliefs in this region. Another key feature of Mangrai Theory was the use of rule of
law in administration. This approach was aimed for peace
and stability of people in the kingdom so that the nation could favor security
and reliability for life and property of the people. This
clearly showed that Lanna Kingdom exploited identical administration system of
Sukhothai Kingdom.
