Laos - The Royal Cities of Asia

The Book

Before the arrival of the French in the 19th century, Laos consisted of three kingdoms founded along the undulating folds of the Mekong River. Luang Prabang, situated in a majestic river valley encircled by mountains, enjoyed a royal lineage dating back to King Fa Ngum, the first Lao king and founder of legendary Lan Xang, the "Kingdom of a Million Elephants". Considered the centre of 'high' Lao culture today, Luang Prabang commanded the nation's last royal throne before the 1975 Lao Revolution. Vientiane, cradled on a bend in the Mekong's middle reach, at times competed with Luang Prabang but at other times served as an alternate royal capital. Straddling the Mekong's turbulent lower reaches, Champasak remained aloof from the two northern kingdoms and cultivated its own royal lineage. Today all three cities contain fascinating cultural and architectural vestiges of their regal pasts, from royal cuisines to the villas and palaces of their former jao or princes.

The Author

Joe Cummings, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley in South-East Asia Studies with a concentration in art history, has produced over 30 guidebooks, phrasebooks and atlases for countries in Asia and North America. As a freelance journalist he has written for periodicals such as Ambassador, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Geographical, The Independent on Sunday and the South China Morning Post. Cummings was a recipient of the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Gold Award in 1993 and 1995. He knows Laos intimately, and is fluent in Thai and Lao.