Palma's Place

Luang Prabang, Laos

The cultural capital and ancient seat of power for the first Lao Kingdom , Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage site.  It had a population of about 15,000 in the mid 1990s, growing 50% over the last 100 years or so.  Thirty two historic temples survive in the town.  Luang Prabang is located on the eastern bank of the Mekong River , bordered on the north and east by the Nam Kam River , sitting in a mountain rimmed valley at 700m above sea level.  It is about 200 Kilometers north of Vientiane , the capital of Laos , and about 225 kilometers south of the border with China .

The Tai peoples began migrating into Laos in the 7^th century from the Nanzhao kingdom (centered in Yunnan in southern China) and Dien Bien Phu in north-western Vietnam (approx. 150 kilometers from Luang Prabang) and then into Thailand.  A Tai prince from Dien Bien Phu conquered the city in 698 and named in Muang Sawa.  For the next 600 years, various Tai-Lao, Nanzhao, and Mon-Khmer kingdoms ruled from Muang Sawa, until the Angkor kingdom took control in the 12 century.  By the late 13^th century, Luang Prabang was a part of Lan Na (Million Thai Rice Fields), a Tai kingdom based in Northern Thailand at Chiang Rai, and then fell under control of the Sukhothai kingdom, which drove the Khmer and Cham from Laos .  Fa Ngum, a Luang Prabang prince raised in Angkor court, conquered the region in the 1350s and founded an independent Lao kingdom, Lan Xang (Land of a million Elephants).  Lan Xang, including Laos , northern Cambodia and eastern Thailand , prospered until the 1700s when it fell under Thailand ’s control. 

Here is a map of Laos and map of Luang Prabang