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The city of Vientiane is the capital of modern
day Laos, and today it is a city that combines
that feel of a modern Asian city with that of
its spiritual past. The city is mentioned in a
legendary Laotian epic that claims the city was
founded by Prince Thattaradtha, the older of two
royal sons, who was denied the throne of the Lao
kingdom. Whether this is true or not is left to
the imagination, but the city’s founding dates
back to around 1000 AD, and more likely it was a
Khmer settlement.
The area was likely conquered by the Thai and
Lao people’s in the 12th century, and later in
the 14th century would become a major cultural
center of the newly established Kingdom of Lan
Xang. It became this kingdom’s capital city in
1560 and remained so until the fall of the
kingdom at the beginning of the 18th century. It
was an independent city state for the next 70
years until was made a vassal state of the
Siamese.
With the arrival of French colonial ambitions in
the 19th century control of the city passed to
French rule, and it was made capital of the
French protectorate of Laos in 1899.
Following the First Indochina War in 1954 the
city of Vientiane became the capital of an
independent Laos. After the Second Indochina
War, also known as the Vietnam War, the United
States imposed an embargo on Laos, which was
finally lifted in 1995 opening this hidden jewel
of a city to American travelers. |
