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

Lan Xang Lan Xang () or Lancang was a Lao people, Lao kingdom that held the area of present-day Laos from 1353 to 1707. For three and a half centuries, Lan Xang was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The kingdom is the basis for Laos's nat ...

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; it has symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1802 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas (formally 2 Pallas), ...

Luang Prabang Luang Prabang (Lao language, Lao: wikt:ຫຼວງພະບາງ, ຫຼວງພະບາງ, pronounced ), historically known as Xieng Thong (ຊຽງທອງ) and alternatively spelled Luang Phabang or Louangphabang, is the capital of Lu ...

, the

Phra Bang The Phra Bang (, ; , , "Royal Buddha Image in the Dispelling Fear mudra") is a statue of Buddha in the city of Luang Prabang, Laos; it is the namesake of that city. The statue stands at , with palms facing forward, cast using ''thong'', an alloy ...

, 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 (, ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Laos. Situated on the banks of the Mekong, Mekong River at the Thailand, Thai border, it comprises the five urban districts of Vientiane Prefecture and had a population of 840,000 ...

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 ''Jātaka'' (Sanskrit for "Birth-Related" or "Birth Stories") are a voluminous body of literature native to the Indian subcontinent which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. Jataka stories we ...

'' 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, , "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.

'' and ''

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

'' which is known as the ''

Phra Lak Phra Lam ''Phra Lak Phra Ram'' (ພຣະລັກພຣະຣາມ, pʰrāʔ lāk pʰrāʔ ráːm) is the national epic of the Lao people, an adaptation of the ancient Indian epic ''Ramayana.'' ''Ramayana'' reached Laos much later than Cambodia (''Ream ...

.''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