Siu-ka-pha, or Chao-lung Siu-ka-pha (Siu-ka-pha the Great Prince) was the son of Chao Chang-ngyeo, a direct descendant of Khun-lung, the legendary king. His mother Nang Mong Blok Kham Seng was a princess of the Mong Mao royal family. He was born in 1191 A.D. and brought up at Mong Mao to succeed his uncle (mother’s elder broter) King Pa-meo-pung who had no issue. But after a long time a son was born to Pa-meo-pung’s queen who succeeded to the Mong Mao throne at an early age. In the meantime Siu-ka-pha’s father died and his uncle too died. Siu-ka-pha did not go back to his father’s kingdom rather decided to march towards west to rule a western state called Mong Pa-kam now identified with the eastern part of Kamarupa.

Siu-ka-pha left King-Sen Mao-Lung, the capital of Mong Mao kingdom in 1215 A.D. Hr was accompanied by his three queens, two sons, several nobles and their families, other officials and families, and soldiers totaling more than nine thousand persons. He also took with him two elephants and three hundred Yunnanese pack mules.

The party followed an ancient route that passed through Myit-kyiena, Mogaung, Hukwang in the Upper Irrawady basin to reach the Patkai hill range in 1227. The slow movement took him 13 years on the route. In the Patkai region he founded a province called Kham-jang where he placed a governor called Thao-mong Kham-jang. Kham-jang thus formed an integral part of the Ahom kingdom and it remained so for the next 600 hundred years.(Kham-jang is now within the Sagaing Division of Myanmar)

From the Patkai he came to the Upper Buri-Dihing region where he founded another province and placed a governor. He then followed the Buri-Dihing called Nam Jin by the Tai by raft and came to Tipam near Naharkatiya where he stayed for several years and appointed a governor there. Thereafter he moved downstream the Buri-Dihing and after reaching the mouth of the Buri-Sihing he came to Habung. At Habung he stayed three years and did cultivation.

Thereafter he moved downstream the Brahmaputra (called Nam Ti-lao by the Tai) and came to the mouth of the Dikhow called Nam-Sao by the Ahom. From there he traveled upstream that river and came to the mouth of the Disang (called Nam Khun) where he weighted the water of that river and found it heavier than that of the Dikhow. He therefore went upstream the Dikhow and came to Simaluguri where stayed for several years. From there he went to Santak.

He finally moved to Charaideo where he found the soil most suitable for habitation and wet-rice cultivation. After making survey of the area he founded his capital at Charaideo in about 1253 A.D. Charaideo is called Che-rai-doi or Che-tam-doi, or Che Kham-run. From Charaideo Siu-ka-pha sent messengers with presents to the Mao King informing his safe arrival in Mong Pa-kam.

He remained there till his death in 1268 A.D.

Charaideo thus became the capital of the new Ahom kingdom and remained so for the next 145 years. At first Siu-ka-pha’s kingdom was bounded by the Brahmaputra, the Buri-Dihing, the Dikhow and the Hills on the south now called Naga Hills. Later it was expanded to cover the whole of the Brahmaputra valley.

(Based on original Ahom chronicles written in Ahom language)