History Of Laos By Maha Sila Viravong Translated From The Laotian By The Us Joint Publications Investigation Service New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp, 1964 147 $850 The Journal Of Asian Research
His successor then set about consolidating his energy through army recruitment and by marrying into the royal families of Ayutthaya and Chiang Mai. The first Westerners in Laos, visiting in the 1640s, left accounts of a peaceful and prosperous kingdom, a hospitable population, and a capital richly ornamented with religious buildings. A Dutch merchant noted that Buddhist monks in Vientiane were “more a lot of than the armies of the German Emperor.” Nonetheless, by 1700, the kingdom had broken into…