Abstract. – This article in historical anthropology concerns a traditional kingdom in the Shan States of upper Burma. It discusses the nature of Shan kingship in relation to cultural grammars of political articulation. The problem addressed is how a ruler of foreign extraction who has usurped power can exercise a dominance that is acceptable on moral grounds, an acceptance we refer to as authority. The conciliation between power and authority lay in the writing of a series of political contracts. In Kengtung these contracts have been given the shape of a historical chronicle of early events in the development of the country. In Kengtung, as in so many other polities in the region, the king’s ability stems from his superiority of descent, his ancestry being linked with the gods of the higher sphere of existence. What he can do on earth depends on what contracts and agreements he can enter with spiritual forces that emanate from the terrain and underground. Iconic grammars organise instrumental idioms from an array of social relations, which are not givens but need symbolic construction. The ultimate political contract in the Shan States is Buddhism. [Burma, Shan States, symbolism, sacred kingship, authority, political contract]