Nanzhao's significance for the Tai people is…

Nanzhao's significance for the Tai people is twofold.

First, it blocks Chinese influence from the north for many centuries.

Had Nanzhao not existed, the Tai, like most of the originally non-Chinese peoples south of the Chang Jiang, might have been completely assimilated into the Chinese cultural sphere.

Second, Nanzhao had stimulated Tai migration and expansion.

Over several centuries, bands of Tai from Yunnan have moved steadily into Southeast Asia, and by the thirteenth century they have reached as far west as Assam (in present-day India).

Once settled, they become identified in Burma as the Shan and in the upper Mekong region as the Lao.

In Tonkin and Annam, the northern and central portions of present-day Vietnam, the Tai form distinct tribal groupings: Tai Dam (Black Tai), Tai Deng (Red Tai), Tai Khao (White Tai), and Nung.

However, most of the Tai settle on the northern and western fringes of the Khmer Empire.