Video by ArnuShawn, Xiang Miang is one of the most popular folktales in Laos. This is part I and the beginning of the story. It narrated by Mr. Akkasith and translated by Nye Noona. Special Thanks to both of them that make this film possible.
The following is the brief introduction of Xiang Miang written by Nye Noona:
Once long ago, there was a kingdom by the name of Muang Tavaravadee, where all lived in harmony and abundance, but the king was lacking the heir to the throne. The queen later gave birth to a little prince, with such gift, the king called upon the court astrologer to make a prediction of the prince’s future and the prediction was that it’d be very difficult to raise him due to illness at the age of 12, and to solve this problem, he must be raised alongside another boy that was born the same day and the same time as the little prince, so the search began.
The search came to an end when they found a poor woman with a child. She was rewarded with gold and silver, and in return took her son back to the palace, he was named Kham (gold) after his natural mother’s name, Kham Hang. The king was delighted, and raised Kham alongside the prince, Kham showed his wit and intelligence from the age of three.
Sadly the king passed away when the prince was seventeen, Kham was ordained to be a novice monk during the royal funeral, this was to make merit and lead the king to his afterlife. After the funeral, the prince became king and Kham remained a novice monk, and this is the story of how he got his name, Xiang Miang, and other stories of this notorious trickster.
Nye Noonaz 
As a kid, I remember looking forward to my dad telling us stories about Xiang Miang . He was known to outwit anyone while being kind and honest too.
Thanks for sharing the video. I will check it out soon!
Salat, it’s an old way of telling Lao Folktales, but in this case with a modern twist, showing it on the Internet. ArnuShawn did a good job with the film and I’m glad that he had asked me to translate this for him.