Magnates and their honours · The Lao muang of the middle Mekong · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Muang Phuan

The high grassland east of the Mekong, ringed by the stone jar fields of a much older people, is in this period a Phuan chiefdom.

It sits on the road between the Mekong and the Vietnamese coast through the Nghe An passes, and the iron and the ponies of the uplands come from here. Burials continue at the jar sites into the 13th century (English Wikipedia), so the plateau was lived in and used in 1200. No source names a chief, a seat or a tribute. The old Khmer, Cham and Vietnamese routes cross it, and Dai Viet's chronicles speak of the Ai Lao beyond the passes (from memory, not re-read).

Who he is

Title
Chao muang of the Phuan (Chao Phuan; the chronicle's Khun Cheung or Khun Chueang is a legendary giant)
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
Not known. The legend of Khun Cheung (the jars as his rice-wine vessels) has no date.
Confidence
low

English Wikipedia (Plain of Jars): the jars are dated as early as 1240 to 660 BC (optically stimulated luminescence); secondary burials at Site 1 date from the 8th to the 13th century, and Jar 1 at Site 75 to 890 to 1160 CE; two principal iron ore deposits in Laos both lie in Xiangkhouang. The page does not mention Muang Phuan or the Phuan people, so the Phuan chiefdom rests on the campaign board and the brief.

Overlord

None attested; the campaign board says the chiefdom 'owes whatever it owes to whoever is nearest'.

What it holds

  • The Xieng Khouang plateau and its villages
  • Iron from the plateau ore
  • The jar sites as burial grounds (secondary burials to the 13th century)
  • The passes east towards Nghe An

How things stand that morning

Unrecorded. A chiefdom with iron and a pass road; no overlord named.

Wealth

Iron, ponies, forest goods.

Places of note

  • Plain of Jars Site 1: Jar field and burial ground.

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry muang-phuan-plain-of-jars: coordinates 19.433, 103.15 are the Site 1 point (English Wikipedia 19.43, 103.15); the Phuan seat is not located by any source.

Evidence: Archaeology only; no ruler.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: A block round the plateau.

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

  1. English Wikipedia, Plain of Jars
  2. English Wikipedia, Muang Phuan
  3. 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.