Le Thanh Tong, Emperor of Vietnam
Le Thanh Tong was emboldened further by his success and sought to expand his territory westward into Laos. An expedition in 1476 against Laotian villages on the Plain of Jars brought the Vietnamese into conflict with Lan Xang - the Land of a Million Elephants - which was the powerful Lao kingdom with its capital at the holy city of Louang Phrabang. The King Lan Xang, Sainyachakaphut, also intended to control the Plain of Jars and warfare became inevitable. The following year, Le Thanh Tong's army conquered Louang Phrabang and forced Sainyachakaphut to flee into exile and died a couple of years later.
Le Thanh Tong was still not satisfied and thought to complete the destruction of the Chams by attacking the Malay state of Melaka, which indicates the resurgent power of the Vietnamese navy, assisted by those Chams who had been conquered. However, the Sultan of Melaka appealed to the Chinese emperor who put pressure on Le Thanh Tong to cease. The Vietnamese emperor was also bogged down in Lan Xang, where the new king Souvanna Banlang was leading a resistance movement that was achieving great success. Vietnamese troops reached as far as the Irrawaddy River but the over-extension meant that the era of Vietnamese expansion was over. Le Thanh Tong continued as Emperor until 1497 and he is regarded as a great hero of Vietnamese history, as conquerors and victors so often are.
As great heroes are supposed to do, he brought fire and the sword to thousands of his neighbours. His legacy in terms of administrative reorganisation is less bloody and perhaps more enduring.
Hall, D.G.E., A History of South-East Asia, fourth edition (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1994).
Stearn, Duncan, Chronology of South-East Asian History, 1400-1996 (Dee Why, NSW: The Mitraphab Centre Pty Ltd., 1997).
Sun Laichen, "Chinese Military Technology and Dai Viet, 1390-1497," ARI Working Paper, No.11 (September 2003), downloaded from: http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/pub/wps.htm.
The copyright of the article Le Thanh Tong, Emperor of Vietnam in East Asian History is owned by John Walsh. Permission to republish Le Thanh Tong, Emperor of Vietnam in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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