No Lao monastery of 1200 can be named, and none should be invented.
The wats of Luang Prabang that a visitor sees are of the 16th century and later (from memory, not re-read). The one holy place the campaign board names is the cave shrine in the limestone cliff at Pak Ou, where the Nam Ou joins the Mekong above Muang Sua; the images that fill it belong to later centuries. The religion of the valley on this morning is, on the evidence, a cult of the spirits of river, hill and ancestors among Tai and Kha villages, with a Buddhism that may have come by the Nam Ou road from Dali, down the river from the Khmer side, or not at all; no source we read shows which.
A cult of the phi is ethnography of later centuries, not a source for 1200. A GM who needs a priest, a monk or a shrine here writes a local man with a headman and a stockade, not a monastery with an abbot.
Who holds it
- Title
- None attested
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia (Pak Ou Caves): hundreds of very small, mostly damaged wooden Buddha figures on shelves in caves in the cliff at the Nam Ou mouth; the page gives no date for the caves or the images and says nothing of an earlier cult. The campaign board: the caves are a holy place, but the images that fill them belong to later centuries.
Overlord
The chao muang of Muang Sua, if any (see his record); no overlord attested.
What it holds
- The cave shrine at the Nam Ou mouth (the images are later)
How things stand that morning
Holy ground of an unknown form; no monastery.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry pak-ou-nam-ou-mouth: the caves are a holy place; the English Wikipedia page for the caves gives no history. The statement that a spirit cult preceded the Buddha images is the campaign board's and general; we found no dated source.
Evidence: Geography and the campaign board; the only page read gives no date.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A small disc; the form of the holy place on this morning is not known.
Primary sources for Lao muang of the middle Mekong
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma, The Royal Historical Commission of King Bagyidaw (Monywe Sayadaw and others), drawing on U Kala's Maha Yazawin (about 1724) and earlier chronicles (1829 to 1832). The standard Burmese court chronicle, compiled six centuries after 1200 from older chronicles now lost. Read online
- The later Tai, Lao and Mon chronicles of the north, Ratanapanna (Jinakalamali); Bodhiramsi (Chamadevivamsa); anonymous monks and court scribes (the Chamadevivamsa about 1410; the Jinakalamali 1516 to 1528; the Chiang Mai Chronicle in its surviving form 1827; the Nithan Khun Borom 16th to 17th century). There is no text of 1200 for the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, the Tai muang of Ngoenyang (Chiang Saen), Chiang Rung, the Yom and Nan valleys, or the Lao middle Mekong.
- Inscriptions of Pagan, Pinya and Ava; Inscriptions of Burma, Various (the Pagan kings, queens, ministers and donors), edited by Tun Nyein, Taw Sein Ko, G. H. Luce and Pe Maung Tin (inscriptions of the 11th to 14th centuries; editions 1899 and 1933 to 1956). The dedicatory inscriptions of Pagan are the only contemporary texts for the kingdom of Narapatisithu (reigning 1174 to 1211). Read online
- The Inscriptions of Cambodia, Various (the Khmer kings and their officers), edited by George Coedes (inscriptions of the 6th to 14th centuries; edited 1937 to 1966). The Khmer empire of 1200 is known almost entirely from the great foundation stelae of Jayavarman VII (reigning from 1181), which Coedes edited: the Ta Prohm stele of 1186 (K. Read online
Sources and studies
- English Wikipedia, Pak Ou Caves
- English Wikipedia, Muang Sua
- OMNIA board notes for the Khmer and Lao area (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.