Fa Ngum

Fa Ngum ( Lao: ຝ້າ ງູ່ມ / fȁ ː NUM /, also Fa Ngoun, short for Somdet Brhat - Anya Fa Ladhuraniya Si Sadhana Kanayudha Maharaja Brhat Radscharana Si Chudhana Negara, * 1316 in Müang Sua, † 1393 in Nan ) was 1354-1373 first rulers of the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. He came from the dynasty Khun Lo.

Fa Ngum was a grandson of Suvanna Khamphong, the ruler of Chieng Dong Chieng Thong, which in turn is derived from Khun Lo. As a child, Fa Ngum had come into exile at the court of the Khmer kings of Angkor along with his father, possibly because his father one of the concubines Suvanna Khamphongs came too close. Later he married a Khmer princess Nang Keava Lot Fa ( Keo Kaengkanya ), who introduced Theravada Buddhism in the Kingdom.

Historical sources state that Fa Ngum 1350-1351 a larger army of about 10,000 men mustered, who followed him out of Angkor in present-day Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. The army of Fa Ngum fought successfully in Nghe An and Vinh, in the valleys of the Red and the Black River in Vietnam and in today's Isaan in Northeastern Thailand. Between 1352 and 1354 he conquered Müang Sing, Mueang Huom, Chiang Hung, Pak U and Pak Beng. In 1353 he fought the decisive battle against his uncle in Chieng Dong Chieng Thong and conquered. This was the undisputed authority over the land, which he called Lan Xang ( "Land of a Million Elephants "). Lan Xang, however, was not centrally organized empire, but took a leading position among the numerous Müangs, which acted as a kind of fief.

After his wife died in 1368, Fa Ngum was so corrupt that you thought about his replacement. 1373, after a long-standing dispute over the direction of Buddhism, which should apply to Lan Xang, he was replaced as king and replaced by his son Un Hue -an, who took over the regency and was called Samsaenthai and 1393 with the death of his father King was of Lan Xang.