The Emerald Buddha reappeared in a chance discovery in Chiang Rai, Lanna in 1434, after a lightning storm struck a temple. The Buddha statue fell down and was chipped. The storm had washed away some of its mud plaster covering (mud coat or stucco used to be laid to safeguard valuable Buddha images). The monks, after removing the plaster around the statue, discovered that the image was a perfectly made Buddha image from a solid piece of Jade, a precious stone. After that, the image moved around a few temples in Lanna. It was then moved to Chiang Rai, then Chiang Mai, from where it was removed by prince Chao Chaiyasetthathirat to Luang Prabang, when his father died and he ascended the throne of both Lanna and Lan Xang, in 1551. The statue remained there for twelve years. King Chaiyasetthathirat then shifted it to his new capital of Lan Xang in Vientiane in the 1560s. He took the Emerald Buddha with him and thereafter the image remained in Vientiane for two hundred and fifteen years until 1778. In the early 18th century, the Kingdom of Lan Xang was divided into 3 different kingdoms; Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and Champassak