In 1641 the King of Laos had an audience with a Dutch merchant in the That Luang temple.
What went on? What was the context? What was the impact of this meeting?
These questions and many others will be answered based on the journal the VOC merchant Van Wuysthoff wrote during his travels up and down the Mekong in 1641 and 1642. He was sent by the VOC (Dutch East India Company) to investigate trading possibilities with the landlocked Lao Kingdom.

Experts on Van Wuysthoff’s journal, on the Lan Xang Kingdom, the Dutch East India Company as well as on the Japanese policy towards strangers and the seventeenth century trade in the East have been brought together to shine their light on these and related issues.
Among the contributors are professor in linguistics Jean-Claude Lejosne, the foremost expert on Van Wuysthoff, who describes how the Dutch and the Lao perceived each other during this intercultural encounter. Lawyer Mayoury Ngaosrivathana, one of the leading Lao authors on Lao history deals with other early European accounts on Laos. And Martin Stuart-Fox, the former history professor and leading scholar on Lao history writes about the Lan Xang Kingdom during the reign of King Suriyavongsa, the king Van Wuysthoff had the honour to meet with.

Juliette van Krieken-Pieters, an art historian with a LL.M, spent two years in Laos. During that time she organized a symposium on the meeting between Van Wuysthoff and the Lao king Suriyavongsa. The book also contains the features of an exhibition on this theme she made in the Lao National Museum.

Van Krieken-Pieters published widely on Asian art, cultural heritage protection and illicit trade.
Her Volume on Afghanistan (published with Brill, Leiden & Boston, 2006) is widely acclaimed.
As the International Journal of Cultural Property wrote:
‘Art and Archeology of Afghanistan, its Fall and Survival helps fill a scholarly gap with a gratifying blend of informative scientific and legal commentary.’

This book on Laos is no different. It is accessible to all interested in the history and well-being of Laos, - the student, the expert, the lay-man and the tourist alike, also thanks to the magnificent illustrations.