Lan Xang

Lan Xang ('Land of a Million Elephants and the White Parasol', Lan Xang Hom Khao) was the first unified Lao kingdom, founded in 1353 when Fa Ngum, a Lao prince raised at the Khmer court of Angkor, raised an army in Cambodia, conquered the Mekong principalities, took Muang Swa (Luang Prabang), and proclaimed himself king.

At its height the kingdom stretched from the Sipsong Panna near China south to the Mekong rapids at Khong Island, and from the Annamite Range bordering Vietnam to the western edge of the Khorat Plateau, making it for three and a half centuries one of the largest states in mainland Southeast Asia. Fa Ngum introduced Theravada Buddhism and the revered Phra Bang Buddha image, and the faith was formally declared the state religion under King Photisarath in 1527. The capital lay at Luang Prabang until King Setthathirath moved it to Vientiane in 1560 to better defend against Burmese expansion. The kingdom reached a cultural and political golden age under King Sourigna Vongsa in the 17th century, but after his death in 1694 a succession dispute fractured the realm, and by 1707 it split into the rival kingdoms of Luang Prabang and Vientiane, soon joined by Champasak. Lan Xang remains the foundation of Lao national, historical, and cultural identity.