A number of princely fiefdoms based on wet rice cultivation and associated with the pottery and bronze culture of Ban Chiang developed in the middle Mekong Valley from the first century A.D.
These fiefdoms exercised power over their neighbors, in circumstances of generally sparse populations, through expanding and contracting spheres of influence best described by the term mandala. Commerce, marriage contracts, and warfare served to expand a mandala.

Thus, a plurality of power centers occupied the middle Mekong Valley in early times.
Sikhôttabong was a mandala whose capital was located on the left bank of the Mekong and then moved westward as a result of the expansion of Champa, an Indianized state on the coast of Vietnam founded in 192 A.D.
Cham, descendants of Champa, were present at Champasak (Bassac) in the fifth century.
The Mon kingdom of Candapuri, the earliest name of present-day Vientiane, (Viangchan) was another mandala.
The social structure of Sikhôttabong and Candapuri appears to have been strongly hierarchical, with an aristocracy, a commoner class, and a slave class.

At its peak, another important regional power, Funan, had its mandala incorporate parts of central Laos.
The smaller but also important Mon kingdom of Dvaravati was centered in the lower Menam Valley beginning in the fifth century

In the seventh century, a northwesterly migration of Thais from their region of origin in northwestern Tonkin brought to the Ta-li region in what is present-day Yunnan, China, a successor state to the Ai Lao kingdom.
This new kingdom, Nan-chao, expanded its power by controlling major trading routes, notably the southern Silk Road.

As a result of the expansion and contraction of mandala, places of importance were known by more than one name. Muang Sua was the name of Louangphrabang following its conquest in 698 A.D. by a Thai prince, Khun Lo.
Khun Lo established a dynasty whose fifteen rulers reigned over an independent Muang Sua for the better part of a century.

In the second half of the eighth century, Nan-chao intervened frequently in the affairs of the principalities of the middle Mekong Valley, resulting in the occupation of Muang Sua in 709.
Nan-chao princes replaced the aristocracy of Thai overlords.
Dates of the occupation are not known, but it probably ended well before the northward expansion of the Khmer Empire under Indravarman I (877-89) and extended as far as the territories of Sipsong Panna on the upper Mekong.

In the meantime, the Khmers founded an outpost at Xay Fong near Vientiane, and Champa expanded again in southern Laos, maintaining its presence on the banks of the Mekong until 1070.
Canthaphanit, the local ruler of Xay Fong, moved north to Muang Sua and was accepted peacefully as ruler after the departure of the Nan-chao administrators.
Canthaphanit and his son had long reigns, during which the town became known by the Thai name Xieng Dong Xieng Thong.
The dynasty eventually became involved in the squabbles of a number of principalities. Khun Cuang, a warlike ruler who may have been a Kammu tribesman, extended his territory as a result of the warring of these principalities and probably ruled from 1128 to 1169.
Under Khun Cuang, a single family ruled over a far-flung territory.

Muang Sua experienced a brief period of Khmer suzerainty under Jayavarman VII from 1185 to 1191.
By 1180 the Sipsong Panna had regained their independence from the Khmers, however, and in 1238 an internal uprising in the Khmer outpost of Sukhodaya expelled the Khmer overlords.

Mongol Influence

Recent historical research has shown that the Mongols, who destroyed Nan-chao in 1253 and made the area a province of their empire--naming it Yunnan--exercised a decisive political influence in the middle Mekong Valley for the better part of a century.

In 1271 Panya Lang, founder of a new dynasty headed by rulers bearing the title panya, began his rule over a fully sovereign Muang Sua.

In 1286 Panya Lang's son, Panya Khamphong, was involved in a coup d'état that was probably instigated by the Mongols and that exiled his father. Upon his father's death in 1316, Panya Khamphong assumed his throne.