Louangphrabang Luang Prabang Laos

A northwesterly migration of Thais from their region of origin in northwestern Tonkin had brought to the Ta-li region (in what is present-day Yunnan, China) a successor state to the Ai Lao kingdom In the seventh century.

This new kingdom, Nanzhao, expands its power by controlling major trading routes, notably the southern Silk Road.

Culturally, this polyethnic, hierarchical, and militarized state is to have a great influence on later societies in Indochina, transmitting the Tantric Buddhism of Bengal to Laos, Thailand, the Shan state, and possibly Cambodia, as well as the political ideology of the maharaja (protector of Buddhism).

Nanzhao is organized administratively into ten prefectures called kien.

This term seems to be the origin of place-names keng (for example, Kengtung), chiang (for example, Chiang Mai), and xiang (for example, Xiangkhoang).

Moreover, the population and army of Nanzhao are organized in units of 100, 1,000, and 10,000, a form later found in Indochina.

Also, the title chao (prince) appears to have been of Nanzhao origin.

Another branch of this same migration begins at the headwaters of the Nam Ou and follows it downstream to Louangphrabang, continuing on through Xaignabouri to Chiang Mai.

As a result of the expansion and contraction of mandala, places of importance are known by more than one name.

Muang Sua is the name of Louangphrabang following its conquest in 698 by a Thai prince, Khun Lo, who seizes his opportunity when Nanzhao is engaged elsewhere.

Khun Lo had been awarded the town by his father, Khun Borom, who is associated with the Lao legend of the creation of the world, which the Lao share with the Shan and other peoples of the region.

Khun Lo establishes a dynasty whose fifteen rulers will reign over an independent Muang Sua for the better part of a century.

Nanzhao intervenes frequently in the affairs of the principalities of the middle Mekong Valley in the later half of the eighth century, resulting in the occupation of Muang Sua in 809.

Nanzhao princes or administrators replace the aristocracy of Thai overlords.

Dates of the occupation are not known, but it probably ends well before the northward expansion of the Khmer Empire under Indravarman I (r. 877- 89) and extends as far as the territories of Sipsong Panna on the upper Mekong.

The Khmers had founded an outpost at Xay Fong near Vientiane, and Champa had expanded again in southern Laos, maintaining its presence on the banks of the Mekong until 1070.

Canthaphanit, the local ruler of Xay Fong, moves north to Muang Sua and is accepted peacefully as ruler after the departure of the Nanzhao administrators.

Canthaphanit and his son have long reigns, during which the town becomes known by the Thai name Xieng Dong Xieng Thong.

The dynasty eventually becomes involved in the squabbles of a number of principalities

Khun Cuang, a warlike ruler who may have been a Kammu (alternate spellings include Khamu and Khmu) tribesman, extends his territory as a result of the warring of these principalities and probably rules from 1128 to 1169.

Under Khun Cuang, a single family rules over a far-flung territory and reinstitutes the Siamese administrative system of the seventh century.

Muang Sua next becomes the Kingdom of Sri Sattanak, a name connected with the legend of the naga (mythical snake or water dragon) who is said to have dug the Mekong riverbed.

At this time, Theravada Buddhism is subsumed by Mahayana Buddhism.

Muang Sua experiences a brief period of Khmer suzerainty under Jayavarman VII from 1185 to 1191.

By 1180 the Sipsong Panna have regained their independence from the Khmers, however, and in 1238 an internal uprising in the Khmer outpost of Sukhodaya expels the Khmer overlords.

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.

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.

Recent historical research has shown that the Mongols, who destroy the Dali Kingdom—the successor state to Nanzhao—in 1253 and make the area a province of their empire—naming it Yunnan—exercise a decisive political influence in the middle Mekong Valley for the better part of a century.

In 1271 Panya Lang, founder of a new dynasty headed by rulers bearing the title panya, begins his rule over a fully sovereign Muang Sua.

In 1286 Panya Lang's son, Panya Khamphong, is involved in a coup d'etat that is probably instigated by the Mongols and results in the exile of his father.

Upon his father's death in 1316, Panya Khamphong assumes the throne.

The Kingdom of Lan Xang—the name still carries associations of cultural kinship among the Lao—is established as a result of these family conflicts.

The younger brother, Fa Ngum, marries one of the king's daughters and in 1349 sets out from Angkor at the head of a ten thousand-member Khmer army.

His conquest of the territories to the north of Angkor over the next six years reopens Mongol communications with this place, which had been cut off.

Fa Ngum organizes the conquered principalities into provinces (muang), and reclaims Muang Sua from his father and elder brother.

Fa Ngum is crowned king of Lan Xang at Vientiane, the site of one of his victories, in June 1354.

Lan Xang extends from the border of China to Sambor below the Mekong rapids at Khong Island and from the Vietnamese border to the western escarpment of the Khorat Plateau.

Setthathirat’s anti-Burmese alliance with the Shans disintegrates in 1559.