30 Lan Xang kingdom [1353-1713](Laos)

Lan Xang kingdom  [1353-1713](Laos)

Recorded Laotian history begins with Fa Ngum, the ruler who founded the first Laotian state, Lan Xang, with the help of the Khmer  sovereign at Angkor. Fa Ngum was a great warrior and, between 1353 and 1371, he conquered territories that included all of present-day Laos and much of what is today northern and eastern Thailand. He extended the Indo-Khmer civilization to the upper Mekong River and introduced Theravada Buddhism, which had been preached by Khmer missionaries from Angkor. In 1373 Fa Ngum was succeeded by his son Oun Hueun, who did much to organize the pattern of administration and defense for the kingdom. After his death in 1416, a long period of calm, broken only by a Vietnamese invasion in 1479, allowed his successors to complete the work of organizing Lan Xang.

This period of peace and tranquility ended with Photisarath (ruled 1520-48), who involved Lan Xang in a struggle against Myanmar  and the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya that lasted two centuries. Photisarath waged three wars against Ayutthaya and succeeded in placing his son Setthathirath on the throne of the Thai state of Chiang Mai (Lan Na), marking Lan Xang's maximum territorial expansion. On Photisarath's death, his son returned to rule Lan Xang as Setthathirath I (ruled 1548-71). His reign was marked by the loss of Chiang Mai to the Myanma, by the transfer of the capital from Luang Prabang to Vientiane(Vien Chan), and by the repulsion of two Myanma invasions that took place about 1565 and 1570.

Shortly after he died (1571), the Myanma seized Vientiane and ravaged the country, which lapsed into anarchy until Souligna Vongsa ascended the throne in 1637 and restored order. He fixed the frontiers with Vietnam and Thailand by means of treaties. A defender of Buddhism and a patron of the arts, he embellished Vientiane and made it a vibrant intellectual centre. His reign is considered by Laotians to be a golden age.

When Souligna Vongsa died in 1694, one of his nephews seized the throne with the help of a Vietnamese army, thus placing Lan Xang under Vietnamese rule and initiating a period of chaos that ended in the partition of the kingdom of Lan Xang. Other members of the royal family refused to accept Vietnamese vassalage. With the northern provinces under their control, they declared themselves independent in 1707 and established the separate kingdoms of Luang Prabang and Vientiane. The south seceded in turn and set itself up as the kingdom of Champassak in 1713. Split into three rival kingdoms, Lan Xang ceased to exist.

Lan Xang

The Lao kingdom of Lan Xang Hom Khao^[a] (Lao: ລ້ານຊ້າງຮົ່ມຂາວ Lanxanghômkhao /laːn˥˧ saːŋ˥˧ hom˧ khaːw˥/, from ລ້ານ"million" + ຊ້າງ "elephants" + "[under] the white parasol"; Sanskrit Srī Sattanāganahuta; Thai: ล้านช้างร่มขาว, rtgs: Lan Chang Rom Khao;; Burmese: လင်ဇင်း; Vietnamese: Vạn Tượng; Khmer: លានជាង, លានដំរី, ស្រីសតនាគនហុត) existed as a unified kingdom from 1354 to 1707.

For three and a half centuries, Lan Xang was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The "million elephants under the white parasol" of the kingdom's name alludes to the power of the kingship and formidable war machine of the early kingdom.^[1] The kingdom is the precursor for the country of Laos and the basis for the national historic and cultural identity.

Origins[edit]

The geography Lan Xang would occupy had been originally settled by indigenous Austroasiatic-speaking tribes which gave rise to the Bronze Age cultures in Ban Chiang (today part of Isan, Thailand) and the Đông Sơn culture as well as Iron Age peoples nearXiangkhoang Plateau on the Plain of Jars, Funan, and Chenla Kingdom (near Vat Phou in Champasak Province). ^[4] [5][6]

The Han dynasty's chronicles of the southward expansion of the Han dynasty provide the first written accounts of Tai–Kadai speaking peoples or Ai Lao who inhabited the areas of modern Yunnan and Guangxi, China. The Tai peoples migrated south in a series of waves beginning in the 7th century with fall of Nanzhao to the Han and accelerated following the Mongol Invasions ofYunnan (1253–1256) into the northern reaches of what would become the kingdom of Lan Xang.^[7][8]

The fertile northern Mekong valleys were occupied by the Dvaravati culture of the Mon people and subsequently by the Khmer, where the principal city-state in the north was known then as Muang Sua and alternately as Xieng Dong Xieng Thong "The City of Flame Trees beside the River Dong", (modern city of Luang Prabang).^[7][8]

With the rise of the Sukhothai Kingdom the principal city-states of Muang Sua (Luang Prabang) and south to the twin cities ofVieng Chan Vieng Kham (Vientiane), came increasingly under Tai influence.^[9] Following the death of the Sukhothai king Ram Khamhaeng, and internal disputes within the kingdom of Lan Na, both Vieng Chan Vieng Kham (Vientiane) and Muang Sua (Luang Prabang) were independent Lao-Tai mandalas until the founding of Lan Xang in 1354.