500 BC to 799

The Plain of Jars

Long before the Lao arrive, the uplands are home to peoples speaking Mon-Khmer languages, ancestors of groups such as the Khmu. On the Xieng Khouang plateau, Iron Age communities leave thousands of great stone jars, the Plain of Jars, most likely linked to funerals, between about 500 BC and 500 AD. In the far south, the Chenla kingdom rises around Champasak.