Fa Ngum founds the Kingdom of Lan Xang in Laos

1353

A Lao prince raised in the Khmer court returned with a Cambodian army and Theravada monks to unify the Mekong valley's fractured muang into a single kingdom, the Land of a Million Elephants. He brought with him the Phra Bang, a golden Buddha image that became the kingdom's sacred palladium. Lan Xang would endure for three centuries, its kings balancing between Siam, Vietnam, and Burma.