The first few years of Fa Ngum's…

The first few years of Fa Ngum's rule from his capital Muang Sua are uneventful.

The next six years (1362-68), however, are troubled by religious conflict between Fa Ngum's lamaistic Buddhism and the region's traditional Theravada Buddhism.

He severely represses popular agitation that has anti-Mongol overtones and has many pagodas torn down.

In 1368 Fa Ngum's Khmer wife dies.

He subsequently marries the ruler of Ayutthaya's daughter, who seems to have had a pacifying influence.

For example, she is instrumental in welcoming a religious and artistic mission that brings with it a statue of the Buddha, the phrabang, which becomes the palladium of the kingdom.

Popular resentment continues to build, however, and in 1373 Fa Ngum withdraws to Muang Nan.

His son, Oun Huan, who had been in exile in southern Yunnan, returns to assume the regency of the empire his father had created.

Oun Huan ascends to the throne in 1393 when his father dies, ending Mongol overlordship of the middle Mekong Valley.