Lao people

A Thai army captures Angkor in 1353.

It is recaptured by the Khmer, but wars continue and the capital is looted several times.

During the same period, Khmer territory north of the present Laotian border is lost to the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang.

The Thai have traditionally regarded the founding of the kingdom of Sukhothai as marking their emergence as a distinct nation.

Tradition sets 1238 as the date when Tai chieftains overthrew the Khmer at Sukhothai, capital of Angkor's outlying northwestern province, and established a Tai kingdom.

A flood of migration resulting from Kublai Khan's conquest of Nanzhao furthers the consolidation of independent Tai states.

Tai warriors, fleeing the Mongol invaders, reinforce Sukhothai against the Khmer, ensuring its supremacy in the central plain.

In the north, other Tai war parties conquer the old Mon state of Haripunjaya and in 1296 found the kingdom of Lan Na with its capital at Chiang Ma.

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.

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.

Ram Khamhaeng, an early ruler of the new Thai dynasty in Sukhothai, makes himself the agent of Mongol interests, and from 1282 to 1284 eliminates the vestiges of Khmer and Cham power in central Laos.

Ramkhamhaeng obtains the allegiance of Muang Sua and the mountainous country to the northeast.

Between 1286 and 1297, Panya Khamphong's lieutenants, acting for Ram Khamhaeng and the Mongols, pacify vast territories.

From 1297 to 1301, Lao troops under Mongol command invade Dai Viet but are repulsed by the Vietnamese.

Troops from Muang Sua conquer Muang Phuan in 1292-97.

In 1308 Panya Khamphong seizes the ruler of Muang Phuan, and by 1312 this principality is a vassal state of Muang Sua.

Ram Khamhaeng, ruler of the new Thai dynasty in Sukhothai, had made himself the agent of Mongol interests, and in 1282-84 had eliminated the vestiges of Khmer and Cham power in what is today central Laos.

Ramkhamhaeng obtains the allegiance of the Lao kingdom of Muang Sua and the mountainous country to the northeast.

Panya Leng, king of Muang Sa, is overthrown n 1286 n a coup d'état led by his son Panya Khamphong, which is likely to have been supported by the regionally dominant Mongol Yuan Dynasty of China.

Le Thanh Tong (1460-97), the greatest of the Le dynasty rulers, reorganizes the administrative divisions of the country and upgrades the civil service system.

He orders a census of people and landholdings to be taken every six years, revises the tax system, and commissions the writing of a national history.

During his reign he accomplishes the conquest of Champa in 1471, the suppression of Lao-led insurrections in the western border area, and the continuation of diplomatic relations with China through tribute missions established under Le Thai To.

Le Thanh Tong also orders the formulation of the Hong Due legal code, which is based on Chinese law but includes distinctly Vietnamese features, such as recognition of the higher position of women in Vietnamese society than in Chinese society.

Under the new code, parental consent is not required for marriage, and daughters are granted equal inheritance rights with sons.

Le Thanh Tong also initiates the construction and repair of granaries, dispatches his troops to rebuild irrigation works following floods, and provides for medical aid during epidemics.

A noted writer and poet himself, he encourages and emphasizes employment of the Confucian examination system.

A great period of southward expansion also begins under Le Thanh Tong.

The don dien system of land settlement, borrowed from the Chinese, is used extensively to occupy and develop territory wrested from Champa.

Under this system, military colonies are established in which soldiers and landless peasants clear a new area, begin rice production on the new land, establish a village, and serve as a militia to defend it.

After three years, the village is incorporated into the Vietnamese administrative system, a communal village meeting house (dinh) is built, and the workers are given an opportunity to share in the communal lands given by the state to each village.

The remainder of the land belongs to the state.

As each area is cleared and a village established, the soldiers of the don dien move on to clear more land.

This method contributes greatly to the success of Vietnam's southward expansion.

The Le rulers had ordered widespread land distribution, but many peasants remain landless, while the nobility, government officials, and military leaders continue to acquire vast tracts.

The final conquest of Champa in 1471 eases the situation somewhat as peasants advance steadily southward along the coast into state-owned communal lands.

However, most of the new land is set aside for government officials and, although the country grows wealthier, the social structure remains the same.

Following the decline of the Le dynasty, landlessness is a major factor leading to a turbulent period during which the peasantry question the mandate of their rulers.

The Thai capture Angkor Thom in 1431.

Hereafter, the Angkorian region will not again encompass a royal capital, except for a brief period in the third quarter of the sixteenth century.