This city was founded by the French as an administrative outpost in 1905, and was formerly the capital of the Lao Kingdom of Champasak until 1946 when the Kingdom of Laos was formed.
Grad su 1905. godine utemeljili francuzi kao administrativno središte, bio je glavni grad laoskog Kraljevstva Champasak dok ono nije 1946. ušlo u sastav Kraljevstva Laos.