Laos for six centuries

The exact founding date of the city is rather fuzzy. The area may have been settled as long as 2,000 years ago. What is known is that the city became the capital of a small Lao principality sometime in the thirteenth century. A hundred years later, in the mid-fourteenth century, it became a kingdom in its own right. 'Lan Xang Hom Khao' - the land of a million elephants and the white parasol - as it was called, was founded by Fa Ngum, whose family went on to rule Laos for six centuries.