[3] After the conquest by Fa Ngum around 1350,[4] Muang Phuan belonged to the mandala (sphere of influence) of Lan Xang most of the time.

[5] After the division of Lan Xang in 1707, Muang Phuan was the subject of battles for supremacy between Siam, Vietnam and the Laotian states in the 19th century.

Thousands of Phuan families were deported as workers by the victorious armies, including to the Central Laotian Mekong Valley in today's Bolikhamsai Province and to northeast Thailand.

The British Vice Consul in Chiang Mai, Edward Blencowe Gould, described the forced relocation of Phuan from the Plain of Jars in 1876:[6] The captives were hurried mercilessly along, many weighted by burdens strapped to their backs, the men, who had no wives or children with them and were therefore capable of attempting escape, were tied together by a rope pursed through a sort of wooden collar.

[7] As a result of the Laotian Civil War, in which the province of Xieng Khouang was devastated by fighting and American area bombing, many Phuan moved to Vientiane.

[3] The Phuan are known for handwoven textiles, especially the striped and patterned pakama, a short sarong worn by men, and a pasin tin jok, a longer women's skirt.