Ngueak, and the nāga which have been "tamed" by Buddhism, were believed to bring rains, or change shape, and nāga in particular were believed to be protection spirits which inhabited the cities of Vientiane and Luang Prabang in Lan Xang. Nāga have endured as common motifs not only in myth and legend, but also on Lao temples, and silk weavings. Nāga became a potent symbol of the kingdom of Lan Xang, so much so that when Thailand was forced to cede the territories which would become Laos in 1893, the kings of Thailand ordered new state seals which showed the garuda symbol of Thailand feeding on the nāga of Lan Xang as a thinly veiled threat that the territorial loss had not been forgotten.