Lao king of Lan Xang during its golden age of prosperity, who welcomed the first European visitors to Laos.

Suliyavongsa came to the throne in 1637 at a time of dynastic conflict and instability and authoritatively restored peace and delimited Lan Xang's frontiers with its neighbours. Dutch visitors to his capital, Vientiane, in the 1640s, and Italian Jesuits in the 1660s, described a vigorous, powerful, and prosperous kingdom. Suliyavongsa's execution of his crown prince for a romantic indiscretion left the kingdom without an immediate heir to the throne, and Lan Xang soon was divided between rival claimants.