Visoun (Vixoun also Visunarat or Vixounarath) was the king of

Lan Xang existed as a unified kingdom from 1353 to 1707. For three and a half centuries, Lan Xang was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The meaning of the kingdom's name alludes to the power of the kingship and formidable war machine of the ea ...

from 1500 until 1520. He was the seventh son of King Sai Tia Kaphut, King of Lan Xang. He was appointed as Governor of Vientiane in 1480 and as Chief Minister with the title of Phya Sena Muang in 1491 with the reign name of Visoun (Lightning). He served as Regent for his minor nephew from 1495 to 1497. He deposed his nephew and was proclaimed as King in 1500. He ascended the throne and was crowned King in 1501. His reign was prosperous and peaceful with a large number of shrines and monuments being constructed, including the Maha Vihara of Wat Visoun, which he built to house the

palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself ...

Luang Prabang Luang Phabang, ( Lao: ຫລວງພະບາງ/ ຫຼວງພະບາງ) or ''Louangphabang'' (pronounced ), commonly transliterated into Western languages from the pre-1975 Lao spelling ຫຼວງພຣະບາງ (ຣ = silent r ...

, the

Phra Bang The Phra Bang ("Royal Buddha Image in the Dispelling Fear mudra"), Lao ( ພະ + ບາງ) is the palladium of Laos. The Lao-language name for the image has been transliterated in a number of ways, including "Pra Bang," "Prabang," "Phabang" and ...

, which had been at Vientiane since 1359. A number of important religious texts and literary works were composed or translated into Lao during his reign. He died at

Vientiane Vientiane ( , ; lo, ວຽງຈັນ, ''Viangchan'', ) is the capital and largest city of Laos. Vientiane is divided administratively into 9 cities with a total area of only approx. 3,920 square kilometres and is located on the banks of ...

in 1520.

Literature during his reign

During his reign, Visoun invited learned monks to stay in Xiang Dong Xiang Thong (

). At that time, Buddhist and Hindu literature were copied and translated. Lao monks extended the ''

Jatakas The Jātakas (meaning "Birth Story", "related to a birth") are a voluminous body of literature native to India which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. According to Peter Skilling, this genre is ...

'' to be the Lao version. The Lao version of ''Jatakas'' called Ha Sip Xat contains 27 stories which are not in the original ''Jatakas.'' Moreover, the Lao monks produced the Lao version of ''

Panchatantra The ''Panchatantra'' (IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, sa, पञ्चतन्त्र, "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story ...

'' and ''

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...

'' which is known as the ''

Phra Lak Phra Lam Phra Lak Phra Ram (ພຣະລັກພຣະຣາມ, pʰrāʔ lāk pʰrāʔ ráːm) is the national novel of the Lao people, and is the Lao adaptation of the Dasaratha Jataka, a story narrating one of the previous life of Buddha as a Bodhisa ...

.''John Holt (2009). Page 58. Spirits of the Place: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture. University of Hawaii Press.

References

Kings of Lan Xang 1465 births 1520 deaths 16th-century Laotian people 16th-century monarchs in Asia Laotian Theravada Buddhists 1510s in Asia 1520s in Asia 15th-century Laotian people {{laos-hist-stub