Surinyavongsa (or Sourignavongsa, or Soulignavongsa…) is a sovereign of the Lao kingdom, i.e. current Laos then called Lan Xang , which goes up on the throne in 1637 and dies in 1694.

Lan Xang before Surinyavongsa

After the death of the king Xetthathirat (or Setthathirat), in 1571, Lane Xang knew one period disturbed enough and marked by frequent interventions of the Burmeses that Xetthathirat had known to contain. Thammikarath (1596-1623), a legitimate sovereign, had entered in war against his/her oldest son Upanyuvarath who made carry out his father. Between 1627 and 1637, there were 3 sovereigns. Surinyakhuman, which took the name of Surinyavongsa was the small son of Upanyuvarath

The reign of Surinyavongsa (1637-1694)

Surinyavongsa means “solar line”. This is why, one often calls it in French “the Sun king”. It was also contemporary of Louis XIV. They is at that time that the first Western travellers visited the kingdom lao and were struck by the magnificence of the capital Vieng chan (Vientiane).

With the difference of its French counterpart, after it had constrained his brother Som Phou to take refuge with Hué at the court of the lords Nguyen, Surinyavongsa was characterized by its pacifism, that it could assume thanks to a powerful army, a rigorous administration and an agreement with its neighbors on the layout of the borders. Nevertheless, it assembled two military forwardings against the vassal kingdom of Xieng-Khouang to obtain the hand of the girl of the King. An absolute respect of the law let this absolute monarch condemn to dead his oldest son, crown prince, due to adultery. It followed one period of war civil, of interventions étragères, and finally, the dismemberment of the kingdom.

Relations of the Western travellers

The Italian Jesuit De Marini and the Dutch merchant Geritt Van Wuysthoff visited the kingdom of Surinyavongsa between 1641 and 1647 and testimonys of great interest left us:

De Marini, in Vieng Chan (Vientiane):

the Palais Royal of which the structure and symmetry are admirable paroist of fort far. Of vray, it is of extraordinary wide and so large that one would take it for a city… The apartment of Roy, which is decorated of a superb fort and splendid gate, and quantity of beautiful rooms, accompanied by a big room, are very out of incorruptible wood, and decorated outside and inside with low-reliefs exelens… I ferois a whole volume if I undertook to describe the other parts of the Palate…

Van Wuysthoff, describing the festivities of the That Luang:

“One made us wait during one hour. Then, the king, sitted on an white elephant, arrived from the city and passed in front of our tents… it is an young man of approximately 23 years. Behind him approximately 300 soldiers with lances and rifles walked; behind him, elephants with armed men; followed behind some musicians; after, there were two more thousand soldiers, follow-ups of 16 elephants carrying the five women of the king…. ”

And in connection with the bonzes of Vientiane, more than the soldiers of the emperor of Germany :

“Nowhere there were such rich churches and so much of holy men, as they are called them-even, than on their premises science is developed much and than because of that, the priests of Kampuchea and Siam come every year and remain there from ten to twelve years in order to finish their studies. ”

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