Editing History of Laos (section)

==Early Indianised kingdoms==
{{anchor | Indianisation}}
[[File:Indian_cultural_zone.svg|thumb|300px|right|Historic [[Indosphere]] cultural influence zone of [[Greater India]] for transmission of elements of Indian elements such as the [[Indian honorifics|honorific titles]], [[Indian name#Global Indian influence in names|naming of people]], [[Place names in India#Global Indian influence in place name|naming of places]], mottos of organisations and educational institutes and adoption of [[Hinduism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Hindu temple architecture#Southeast Asia as part of Greater India|Indian architecture]], [[Indian martial arts#Influence|martial arts]], [[Music of India#Globalization of Indian music|Indian music and dance]], [[Clothing in India|traditional Indian clothing]], and [[Indian cuisine#Outside India|Indian cuisine]], a process which has been aided by the historic expansion of [[Indian diaspora]].<ref name=diasind1>{{Cite book|title=A history of India|first=Hermann|last=Kulke|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|others=Rothermund, Dietmar 1933–|isbn=0203391268|edition= 4th|location=New York|oclc=57054139}}</ref>]]

===Funan kingdom===
The first indigenous kingdom to emerge in [[Indochina]] was referred to in Chinese histories as the [[Kingdom of Funan]] and encompassed an area of what later is Cambodia, and the coasts of southern Vietnam and southern Thailand since the 1st century CE. Funan was an [[Greater India|Indianised kingdom]],
that had incorporated central aspects of Indian institutions, religion, statecraft, administration, culture, epigraphy, writing and architecture and engaged in profitable Indian Ocean trade.<ref name=funan>{{cite journal |url=https://journals.lib.washington.edu/index.php/BIPPA/article/view/9966/0  |title= Trade and Exchange Networks in Iron Age Cambodia: Preliminary Results from a Compositional Analysis of Glass Beads |last=Carter |first=Alison Kyra |journal=Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association |volume=30 |publisher= Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association |date=2010 |access-date=12 February 2017|doi=10.7152/bippa.v30i0.9966|doi-broken-date= 24 February 2025 }}</ref><ref name="Hal1985">{{cite book|author=Kenneth R. Hal|title=Maritime Trade and State Development in Early Southeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ncqGAAAAIAAJ&q=funan+mountain+kings|year=1985|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-0843-3|page=63}}</ref>

===Champa kingdom===
[[File:Lower Terrace Wat Phu 0509.jpg|thumbnail|Lower terrace of the [[Wat Phu]] mountain complex, [[Champasak Province|Champasak]]|alt=]]
Funan expanded and incorporated the Champasak region by the sixth century CE, when it was replaced by its successor polity [[Chenla]]. Chenla occupied areas of what later is Laos as it accounts for the earliest kingdom on Laotian soil.<ref name="Hal1985"/><ref>National Library of Australia.  [http://www.nla.gov.au/asian/form/coedes2.html Asia's French Connection : George Coedes and the Coedes Collection] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111021052224/http://www.nla.gov.au/asian/form/coedes2.html |date=21 October 2011 }}</ref>

===Chenla kingdom===
By the 8th century CE, Chenla had divided into "{{ill|Land Chenla|km|ចេនឡាដីគោក}}" located in Laos, and "{{ill|Water Chenla|km|ចេនឡាទឹកលិច}}" founded by Mahendravarman near [[Sambor Prei Kuk]] in Cambodia. Land Chenla was known to the Chinese as "Po Lou" or "Wen Dan" and dispatched a trade mission to the [[Tang dynasty]] court in 717 CE. Water Chenla, would come under repeated attack from Champa, the [[Mataram Kingdom|Mataram]] sea kingdoms in Indonesia based in Java, and finally pirates. From the instability the Khmer emerged.<ref name="ljam1">{{cite web |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations by Charles F. W. Higham – Chenla – Chinese histories record that a state called Chenla... |url=http://www.e-reading.club/bookreader.php/142071/Encyclopedia_of_ancient_Asian_civilizations.pdf |access-date=13 July 2015 |publisher=Library of Congress}}</ref>

===Dvaravati city-state kingdoms===
In the area that later is northern and central Laos and northeast Thailand, the [[Mon people]] established their own kingdoms during the 8th century CE, outside the reach of the contracting Chenla kingdoms. By the 6th century in the [[Chao Phraya River]] Valley, Mon peoples had coalesced to create the [[Dvaravati|Dvaravati kingdoms]]. In the north, [[Haripunjaya]] ([[Lamphun]]) emerged as a rival power to the Dvaravati. By the 8th century the Mon had pushed north to create city states, known as "[[muang]]," in Fa Daet (northeast Thailand), Sri Gotapura (Sikhottabong) near modern [[Tha Khek District|Tha Khek]], Laos, [[Muang Sua]] ([[Luang Prabang]]), and Chantaburi ([[Vientiane]]). In the 8th century CE, Sri Gotapura (Sikhottabong) controlled trade throughout the middle Mekong region. The city states introduced [[Therevada Buddhism]] from Sri Lankan missionaries throughout the region.<ref name="Viravond" /><ref name="Manich" />