He named Muang Sua as his capital, and so it remained until 1563, when the Laotian capital moved to Vientiane.
But it also means Vientiane looks to Hanoi for policy direction - even when it should look elsewhere.
But even Vientiane-based diplomats were startled last year when they received frantic phone calls from normally mellow Laotian officials.
At the same time, Vientiane is moving closer to Hanoi's old foe Beijing.
But for my money the best explanation for the bombing campaign came from one of the few Western diplomats in Vientiane.
The charges filed against the group say that they had hired mercenaries to blow up government buildings in the capital, Vientiane.
ECONOMIST: America foils a coup plot against one of its former enemies
Vientiane, as I had heard, was beautiful and romantic ten years ago, a mix of French Colonial architecture and temples with quiet, leafy streets.
The generals make most of their cash from logging, and recently opened a casino north of Vientiane with a Malaysian partner.
Security camera footage shows Sombath Somphone being taken away by unidentified men after he was stopped by police in the capital Vientiane.
BBC: Sombath Somphone: US concern over missing Laos campaigner
According to the North's official Korean Central News Agency, a delegation from the Laotian capital of Vientiane visited North Korea on May 20.
One Western diplomat in Vientiane said they believe Mr Sombath was now caught in a power struggle between conservatives and reformers within the Lao government.
No one likes to talk about Hanoi's political domination of Vientiane.
Mr Sombath was a key part of the organising committee and helped run a regional discussion process that then contributed at the international meeting in Vientiane.
This provincial rule has not changed and as Laos develops it pushes a large financial wedge between the provincial governments and the central party in Vientiane.
Last week three lawmakers from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines visited Vientiane and concluded that they were not satisfied with explanations they had received about the disappearance from officials.
BBC: Sombath Somphone: US concern over missing Laos campaigner
As Thailand and others pressure Vientiane to open up, Hanoi leans on it to keep the communist faith - and Laos lurches to and fro along the road to reform.
Other residents in Vientiane believe that the explosions have been orchestrated by a clique within the government that wants to strengthen ties to China at the expense of those with Vietnam.
The Secretary-General left Vientiane in the late afternoon of Saturday, 11 April, for New York via a stopover in Bangkok, where at the airport he met with Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand.
From there he joined the Foreign Office, and made a distinguished contribution in posts held in Washington, DC, The Hague, Cairo (where he was involved in property negotiations arising from the Suez crisis), Tunis, Brussels and Vientiane (around the time of Saigon's fall to the North Vietnamese).
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