The Best of Cambodia & Laos

180
LAOS IN DEPTH
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LOOKING BACK
including other ASEAN (Association of
South East Asian Nations), the more
sophisticated they are forced to become in
ensuring they maintain what they see as
social order. They have had a lot of success,
as dissent in Laos is rarely seen.
There are big hydroelectric projects
afoot in Laos to dam the Mekong, which
would free Laos from donor control to
some extent. This move is causing regional
panic since it would severely affect other
countries farther downstream.
EARLY YEARS
Until the advent of European colonialism,
the history of Laos and its neighbors was
largely defined by the ebb and flow of
empires. Like the tides of the sea played
out over the centuries, one ruling civilization
broke the power of its predecessor,
leaving its mark on culture, language, and
buildings.
The earliest defined kingdom or state in
Laos was Chenla, based in what is now
Champasak in the south. There were other
kingdoms, such as Sri Gotapura in central
Laos around what is now Tha Khek and
Chanthaburi in what is now Vientiane.
The original Thai, Shan, and Lao people
were migrants from southern China. They
all practiced wet rice cultivation and they
tended to settle along river valleys. Their
gods in the form of powerful snakes called
ngeuk were believed to live in these rivers.
Many rural Lao people still believe in
them.
Laos can trace its history as a unified
state to the Kingdom of Lane Xang Hon
Khao (“one million elephants under a
white parasol”). Formed in 1353 by an
exiled prince named Fa Ngum, its capital
was Xiang Dong Xiang Thong, later
renamed Luang Prabang, or “Great Prabang,”
in honor of a gold Buddha image
(prabang) given to the kingdom by the
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Laos today is a curious mixture of the
ancient and the modern and the deprived
and the fortunate. Although the cities are
modernizing fast and infrastructure all
over the country is improving, education
levels remain low to nonexistent while
rural poverty remains high. Laos is certainly
moving into the 21st century in its
cities along the Mekong, while many
remoter areas have yet to experience electricity.
court at Angkor. Fa Ngum ran into trouble
with local nobles both because of his
loyalty to Angkor and his habit of trying
to seduce their wives and daughters. He
was deposed in favor of his son, Samsenthai,
and went into exile, dying 5 years
later in the northern Thai town of Nan in
what was then the Kingdom of Lanna.
Samsenthai made overtures to the Thai
kingdoms of both Lanna and Ayutthaya
(the emerging power that supplanted Sukhothai),
marrying princesses from both,
thus reducing dependence on Angkor and
consolidating independence within the
dynastic shifts. Samsenthai was on the
throne for 42 years and after he died
the kingdom was less stable, with Queen
Mathevi successfully murdering a procession
of young kings before taking power
herself. She was then deposed by nobles
and finally drowned in the Mekong as a
sacrifice to the snake god. After these dramatic
events, Samsenthai’s youngest son
took the throne, modestly naming himself
Xainya Chakkaphat, which means “Universal
Ruler.” To be fair he did live up to
his name, and turned out to be a wise and
decent monarch.
At the end of the reign of Xainya Chakkaphat,
Lan Xiang suffered invasion at the
hands of the Vietnamese under their
emperor Le Thanh Tong. The Vietnamese