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Gerrit Van Wuysthoff
Gerrit van Wuysthoff (also Geraerd Wuesthoff; lived in the 17th century) was a Dutch merchant and served the Dutch East India Company. According to sources, he was the first European to visit what is now Laos, one year before Jesuit missionary Giovanni Maria Leria. Biography: the first Westerner in Laos In 1641, Wuysthoff undertook an exploration trip from the then capital of Cambodia, Longvek, to Vientiane in northern Laos on behalf of the Cambodian trading post of the East India Company. His companions were a barber who also worked as a field clerk, an interpreter, two porters and a group of Laotian merchants. The journey began during the rainy monsoon season on July 20, 1641, with a collection of goods and gifts to the King of Lan Xang, Sourigna Vongsa, who resided in Vientiane. A total of 30 people went up the Mekong in 12 boats. Wuysthoff's trip was determined by two reasons: first the Dutch East India Company wanted to find out how profitable the trade with Lan Xang co ...
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Dutch People
The Dutch (Dutch: ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Netherlands. They share a common history and culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Aruba, Suriname, Guyana, Curaçao, Argentina, Brazil, Canada,Based on Statistics Canada, Canada 2001 Censusbr>Linkto Canadian statistics. Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States.According tFactfinder.census.gov The Low Countries were situated around the border of France and the Holy Roman Empire, forming a part of their respective peripheries and the various territories of which they consisted had become virtually autonomous by the 13th century. Under the Habsburgs, the Netherlands were organised into a single administrative unit, and in the 16th and 17th centuries the Northern Netherlands gained independence from Spain as the Dutch Republic. The high degree of urbanization characteristic of Dutch society was attained at a ...
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Lacquer
Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be called "true lacquer", are objects coated with the treated, dyed and dried sap of ''Toxicodendron vernicifluum'' or related trees, applied in several coats to a base that is usually wood. This dries to a very hard and smooth surface layer which is durable, waterproof, and attractive in feel and look. Asian lacquer is sometimes painted with pictures, inlaid with shell and other materials, or carved, as well as dusted with gold and given other further decorative treatments. In modern techniques, lacquer means a range of clear or pigmented coatings that dry by solvent evaporation to produce a hard, durable finish. The finish can be of any sheen level from ultra matte to high gloss, and it can be further polished as required. Lacquer finishes ...
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17th Century In Cambodia
17 (seventeen) is the natural number following 16 and preceding 18. It is a prime number. Seventeen is the sum of the first four prime numbers. In mathematics 17 is the seventh prime number, which makes seventeen the fourth super-prime, as seven is itself prime. The next prime is 19, with which it forms a twin prime. It is a cousin prime with 13 and a sexy prime with 11 and 23. It is an emirp, and more specifically a permutable prime with 71, both of which are also supersingular primes. Seventeen is the sixth Mersenne prime exponent, yielding 131,071. Seventeen is the only prime number which is the sum of four consecutive primes: 2, 3, 5, 7. Any other four consecutive primes summed would always produce an even number, thereby divisible by 2 and so not prime. Seventeen can be written in the form x^y + y^x and x^y - y^x, and, as such, it is a Leyland prime and Leyland prime of the second kind: :17=2^+3^=3^-4^. 17 is one of seven lucky numbers of Euler which produc ...
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History Of Laos
Evidence for modern human presence in the northern and central highlands of Indochina, that constitute the territories of the modern Laotian nation-state dates back to the Lower Paleolithic. These earliest human migrants are Australo-Melanesians—associated with the Hoabinhian culture—and have populated the highlands and the interior, less accessible regions of Laos and all of South-east Asia to this day. The subsequent Austroasiatic and Austronesian marine migration waves affected landlocked Laos only marginally and direct Chinese and Indian cultural contact had a greater impact on the country.Pittayaporn, Pittayawat (2014). Layers of Chinese loanwords in Proto-Southwe ...
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Travel Guide
A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying detail and historical and cultural information are often included. Different kinds of guide books exist, focusing on different aspects of travel, from adventure travel to relaxation, or aimed at travelers with different incomes, or focusing on sexual orientation or types of diet. Travel guides can also take the form of travel websites. History Antiquity A forerunner of the guidebook was the ''periplus'', an itinerary from landmark to landmark of the ports along a coast. A ''periplus'' such as the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' was a manuscript document that listed, in order, the ports and coastal landmarks, with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. This work was possibly ...
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Travel Diary
The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period, James Boswell's ''Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides'' (1786) helped shape travel memoir as a genre. History Early examples of travel literature include the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered a 1st century CE work; authorship is debated), Pausanias' ''Description of Greece'' in the 2nd century CE, '' Safarnama'' (Book of Travels) by Nasir Khusraw (1003-1077), the '' Journey Through Wales'' (1191) and '' Description of Wales'' (1194) by Gerald of Wales, and the travel journals of Ibn Jubayr (1145–1214), Marco Polo (1254–1354), and Ibn Battuta (1304–1377), all of whom recorded their travels across the known world in detail. As early as the 2nd century CE, Lucian of Samosata discussed history and ...
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Ayutthaya Kingdom
The Ayutthaya Kingdom (; th, อยุธยา, , IAST: or , ) was a Siamese kingdom that existed in Southeast Asia from 1351 to 1767, centered around the city of Ayutthaya, in Siam, or present-day Thailand. The Ayutthaya Kingdom is considered to be the precursor of modern Thailand and its developments are an important part of the History of Thailand. The Ayutthaya Kingdom emerged from the mandala of city-states on the Lower Chao Phraya Valley in the late fourteenth century during the decline of the Khmer Empire. After a century of territorial expansions, Ayutthaya became centralized and rose as a major power in Southeast Asia. Ayutthaya faced invasions from the Toungoo dynasty of Burma, starting a centuries' old rivalry between the two regional powers, resulting in the First Fall of Ayutthaya in 1569. However, Naresuan ( 1590–1605) freed Ayutthaya from brief Burmese rule and expanded Ayutthaya militarily. By 1600, the kingdom's vassals included some city-states in the M ...
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Sangha
Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context to denote a governing assembly in a republic or a kingdom, and has long been used by religious associations including the Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. Given this history, some Buddhists have said the tradition of the ''sangha'' represents humanity's oldest surviving democratic institution. In Buddhism, ''sangha'' refers to the monastic community of ''bhikkhu'' (monks) and '' bhikkhuni'' (nuns). These communities are traditionally referred to as the ''bhikkhu-sangha'' or ''bhikkhuni-sangha''. As a separate category, those who have attained any of the four stages of enlightenment, whether or not they are members of the monastic community, are referred to as the ''āryasaṅgha'' ("noble Sangha"). According to the Theravada school and Nichir ...
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Benzoin (resin)
Benzoin or benjamin (corrupted pronunciation) is a balsamic resin obtained from the bark of several species of trees in the genus ''Styrax''. It is used in perfumes and some kinds of incense and as a flavoring and medicine (see tincture of benzoin). It is distinct from the chemical compound Benzoin (organic compound), benzoin, which is ultimately derived chemically from benzoin resin; the resin, however, does not contain this compound. Benzoin is sometimes called gum benzoin or gum benjamin, and in India ''Sambrani or'' loban, though loban is, via Arabic language, Arabic ''lubān'', a generic term for frankincense-type incense, e.g., fragrant tree resin. Benzoin is also called storax, not to be confused with the storax balsam, balsam of the same name obtained from the Hamamelidaceae family. Benzoin is a common ingredient in incense-making and perfumery because of its sweet vanilla-like aroma and fixative (perfumery), fixative properties. Gum benzoin is a major component of the ...
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Mekong
The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of rivers by length, twelfth longest river and List of longest rivers of Asia, the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annually. From the Tibetan Plateau the river runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult. Even so, the river is a major trade route between western China and Southeast Asia. Names The Mekong was originally called ''Mae Nam Khong'' from a contracted form of Tai language, Tai shortened to ''Mae Khong''. In Thai and Lao, ''Mae Nam'' ("Mother of Water[s]") is used for large rivers and ''Khong'' is the proper name referred to as "River Khong". However, ''Khong'' is an archaic word meaning "river", loaned from Austroasiatic languages, such as Vietnamese ...
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Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock company in the world, granting it a 21-year monopoly to carry out trade activities in Asia. Shares in the company could be bought by any resident of the United Provinces and then subsequently bought and sold in open-air secondary markets (one of which became the Amsterdam Stock Exchange). It is sometimes considered to have been the first multinational corporation. It was a powerful company, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, strike its own coins, and establish colonies. They are also known for their international slave trade. Statistically, the VOC eclipsed all of its rivals in the Asia trade. Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sent almost a million Eur ...
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Sourigna Vongsa
Souligna Vongsa (ສຸຣິຍະວົງສາທັມມິກຣາດ ) was the king of Lan Xang whose reign is considered the golden age of Laos. He ascended to the throne in 1637. King of Lan Xang In 1637, Sourigna Vongsa ascended the throne after the nobles elected him over his two older brothers. King Sourigna Vongsa reigned for 57 years during which Laos experienced "The Golden Age" with regard to territory, prestige and power. He assured stability by immediately banishing any possible rivals, sending one of his brothers to Vietnam and the other one into a solitary priesthood, and sending his cousins west, towards Siam. He was a strict and austere monarch, and ran the country according to firm laws. He was greatly respected as a ruler, and within five years of his ascension, his reputation reached the Dutch representatives of the Dutch East India Company who were in Phnom Penh. The Jesuit Giovanni Maria Leria arrived in Vientiane at the same time as the Dutch merc ...
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