Lavo Kingdom

The Lavo Kingdom was the mandala of the lower Chao Phraya basin from the seventh century until 1388, centred on Lavapura, the modern Lopburi, until the 1080s, when the seat moved to Ayodhya. Before the ninth century it stood among the supra-regional centres of Dvaravati with Si Thep and Nakhon Pathom; set in the east toward the Angkorian world while Suphannaphum faced the Mon west, it traded, minted and built in Mon, Khmer and Tai idioms by turn. Lavo and Ayodhya sent separate embassies to the Chinese court in the late 1200s and may already have been distinct states. Long ruled at times by the Khmer, its monuments carry the Khmer stamp that later ages called the Lopburi period. The rise of Ayutthaya eclipsed the old mandala, though the town lived on: Narai built his palace there and ruled the kingdom from it, and Mongkut refounded it as a royal city in the nineteenth century.