Vientiane

Vientiane was a city on the middle Mekong, formerly known as Chantaburi. By the twelfth century it was in the Khmer sphere.

Fa Ngum incorporated Vientiane into Lan Xang in 1354. In 1563 Setthathirath moved his capital there to escape Burmese pressure and built Pha That Luang three years later. Vientiane became a separate kingdom when Lan Xang split in 1707; Siamese forces sacked the city and carried off the Emerald Buddha in 1779. Anouvong's rebellion of 1826 to 1827 ended with the city burned, its people deported and the kingdom destroyed.