The Best of Cambodia & Laos

forces captured and sacked Xiang Dong
Xiang Thong. Xainya Chakkaphat took to
the mountains and jungles with his
remaining forces and, in a precursor to
modern events, mounted a successful
guerrilla campaign against the invaders
who were beaten not only by the force of
arms but also by malaria.
Renewal came under the rule of King
Visoun, who arrived on the throne in
1501 having previously been governor of
Viang Chan. This renewal gained momentum
under his son Pothisarat, and reached
its peak under his grandson Setthathirat. It
was his reign that saw construction of
Laos’s most beautiful wats, including Wat
Xieng Thong in Luang Prabang.
LAND IN TURMOIL
Around this time, the Burmese became a
new and predatory power on the scene and
the region was plunged into turmoil. King
Setthathirat had cultivated ties with Lanna
and Ayutthaya, both of which came under
attack from the Burmese. He moved his
capital to Vieng Chan in 1560. War
against the Burmese was to be his downfall,
eventually bringing in an era of defeat
and turmoil for the next 60 years. Lan
Xang became resurgent in 1638, with the
ascent to the throne of King Suriya
Vongsa. His 57-year reign marked a
golden age of Lao history during which
Lan Xang was not only politically and
militarily powerful but was also a center of
Buddhist learning and the arts.
In 1695, toward the end of Suriya
Vongsa’s reign, a succession crisis ensued.
His son and heir was found guilty of adultery
and the king made no effort to prevent
a sentence of execution being carried out.
After the king died, the fact that there was
no heir caused Lang Xang to fracture into
three disempowered kingdoms. All of them
eventually came under the suzerainty of the
now all-powerful empire of Ayutthaya. The
Burmese sacked Ayutthaya in 1767, but
under General and then King Taksin, they
were driven out. By 1779, all the Lao king-
doms were once again paying fealty to the
Siamese. In 1826, the new king of Vieng
Chan, Chao Anou (who was originally
Siamese educated and Siam sponsored),
attacked the Siamese but was quickly driven
back. Chao Anou died a captive in Bangkok
and Vieng Chan was sacked while its
population was driven into exile en masse
east of the Mekong to Siam, large parts of
which remain heavily Lao in character to
this day. All of Laos was now under the
Thai thumb, but there was also a new factor
to be considered: the French.
THE FRENCH STEP IN
In 1863, France declared Cambodia a
protectorate and shortly afterward the new
colonial power sent boats up the Mekong
on an exploratory expedition. Twenty
years later, Luang Prabang became the
epicenter of an anarchic battle between
Chinese warlords, Siam, and the French.
The town was looted and burned by these
Chinese interlopers and their allies in
1887. The King fled further into the arms
of the French and they offered him their
protection. At this time, confrontation
between French colonial interest and Siamese
power got nasty. The French sent
gunboats to Bangkok. The Thais ceded all
the lands east of the Mekong River to
France and thus Laos became part of a
new empire.
As with Cambodia, the French were
most interested in using Laos as a buffer
state to insulate their lucrative interests in
Vietnam. They established their capital in
Viang Chan, which they changed to the
Francophone name of Vientiane. They
certainly had their eyes set on further conquest,
but that was checked by the buildup
to World War I and a realignment in their
old colonial rivalry with the British. Over
the next 5 decades, the French built many
of the things that give Laos so much of its
character today. It also saw an influx of
Vietnamese who actually outnumbered
locals in some places and still define the
character of towns along the Mekong.
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LAOS IN DEPTH 9
LOOKING BACK