Kun Lo

The Kun Lo dynasty was the royal house of Muang Sua, on the site of later Luang Prabang. It traced its line to Khun Lo, the legendary first Lao king, said to have seized Muang Sua and died in 780.

In the fourteenth century Phraya Khamphong ruled Muang Sua. His son Phi Fa was exiled to the Khmer court, where his son Fa Ngum was born around 1316 and raised. With Khmer troops, Fa Ngum conquered the Lao mueangs and in 1353 founded Lan Xang Hom Khao, the Land of a Million Elephants and the White Parasol. He made Theravada Buddhism the state faith and the Phra Bang image the kingdom's palladium.

Driven out in 1372, Fa Ngum was succeeded by his son Samsenethai, who secured Ming recognition in 1402. The house ruled Lan Xang until its partition into Luang Prabang, Vientiane and Champasak in 1707.