Lan Xang

Lan Xang, "the Million Elephants", was a Lao kingdom on the middle Mekong that ruled most of what is now Laos, with lands beyond, from its conventional founding by Fa Ngum in 1353 until it split into three kingdoms in 1707. For much of that time it was one of the largest states in mainland Southeast Asia. Its capital was Luang Prabang and, from 1560, Vientiane, and it remains the foundation of Lao national history and culture.

Tai-speaking peoples had been moving south into the region for centuries, and by the early fourteenth century the Mekong towns of Muang Sua (later Luang Prabang) and Vientiane were independent Lao-Tai centres. According to the court chronicles, the prince Fa Ngum grew up in exile at a court usually identified with the Khmer Empire, and around 1349 he returned with an army to claim Muang Sua. He took towns along the middle Mekong, agreed a frontier with Đại Việt along the Annamite mountains, and was crowned in 1353, naming his realm Lan Xang Hom Khao, "the Million Elephants and the White Parasol". By 1357 he had taken Vientiane and much of the Khorat Plateau. Some historians, such as Michel Lorrillard, regard his reign as partly legendary.

Fa Ngum was later deposed in favour of his son Samsenthai, who gained recognition from Ming China in 1402. A period of royal murders followed in the 1420s and 1430s. Around 1479 a large Vietnamese army invaded in the so-called White Elephant War and took Luang Prabang, but the invaders were eventually beaten back with help from Lanna. Peace brought a flowering of culture under King Visoun (1500 to 1520), when Lao literature was first written down and the Phra Bang Buddha image became the kingdom's palladium, giving Luang Prabang its name. His son Photisarath made Theravada Buddhism the state religion and banned spirit worship in 1527.

Photisarath's son Setthathirath was briefly king of Lanna as well as Lan Xang. He moved the capital to Vientiane in 1560, building the Haw Phra Kaew for the Emerald Buddha and renovating That Luang. When the Burmese king Bayinnaung of the Toungoo dynasty invaded in 1565 and again in 1569 and 1570, Setthathirath abandoned Vientiane and wore the invaders down with guerrilla warfare. He vanished on a campaign against the Khmer in the early 1570s, and in 1574 Burma took Vientiane. Lan Xang was a Burmese vassal until 1591, when Setthathirath's son Nokeo Koumane, returned from captivity, restored its independence.

Lan Xang was less a centralised state than a mandala, a network of mueang, walled towns under their own lords bound to the king by tribute. The Mekong was its highway, and its rapids marked the divisions between the regions of Luang Prabang, Vientiane and Champasak. Lowland Lao formed the ruling majority, alongside many upland peoples. Monasteries were centres of learning, while belief in nāga serpents and local spirits continued beside Buddhism. Landlocked, Lan Xang traded forest goods such as benzoin, lac, ivory and deer skins, and gold, through its neighbours.

King Sourigna Vongsa (1637 to 1694) gave the kingdom over half a century of peace, reformed its laws and received the first Dutch trader in 1641 and a Jesuit missionary in 1642. His death without a clear heir set off a succession struggle, and in 1707 Lan Xang divided into the kingdoms of Luang Prabang and Vientiane; Champasak broke away in 1713. The Lao kingdoms became vassals of Siam in 1779, but the monarchy descended from Lan Xang's royal line lasted until 1975.

Our 1492, 1500, 1530 and 1600 maps show Lan Xang under the label Laos, beside Ayutthaya, Lanna, Đại Việt and Ming China.