ABSTRACT
Th e ancient city of Luang Prabang has been known by three different names in the course of its history. The earliest, Meuang Sua, dated probably from the eleventh century. The site was renamed Xieng Dong Xieng Thong after becoming the center of the first localized Lao kingdom on the upper Mekong in the thirteenth century; it retained that name during the two centuries it was capital of the extensive Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang. When the capital was moved to Vientiane, Xieng Dong Xieng Thong was renamed Luang Prabang, meaning "City of the Lord (Buddha) of Fine Gold," in honor of the famous Phra Bang Buddha image that was the palla dium of both the kingdom and the city, and is still the most revered Buddha image in Laos today.
