Village Life in Lao
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2006
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46
55
Trip End
Oct 05, 2008
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Luang Prabang,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Saturday, August 23, 2008
I arrived to the quaint little town of Luang Prabang in northern Lao on Tuesday and have really been enjoying my time here! Luang Prabang like many of the major tourist towns in SE Asia has the classic main street with bars, restaurants and enough travel agents to book anything you might need. But instantly it has a different much more laid back and quiet energy, even with all the tourist! I have felt since I arrived here that this is definitely a place I could live. Though learning to speak Lao would be quite a challenge since it is a tonal language, but completely necessary to survival here since most people do not speak English.
Before a share a little about my last two days trekking and spending two nights in a village with a host family I want to give a bit of a Lao history lesson. I think of all the countries in SE Asia Lao is often the forgotten one. I sure did not know much about their history until I decided to come here and read a little.
If this part of my blog seems boring feel free to skip reading, but it might give you a better context for some of my observations to follow.
(From Lonely Planet web-site)
Pre-20th-Century History
The country has long been occupied by migrating Thais (including Shans, Siamese and Lao) and Hmong/Mien hill tribes. The first Lao principalities were consolidated in the 13th century following the invasion of southwest China by Kublai Khan's Mongol hordes. In the mid-14th century, a Khmer-sponsored warlord, Fa Ngum, combined a number of scattered principalities around Luang Prabang to form his own kingdom, Lan Xang ('a million elephants'). The kingdom initially prospered, but internal divisions and pressure from neighbors caused it to split in the 17th century into three warring kingdoms centered on Luang Prabang, Wieng Chan (Vientiane) and Champasak.
By the end of the 18th century, most of Laos came under Siamese (Thai) suzerainty but the territory was also being pressured by Vietnam. Unable or unwilling to serve two masters, the country went to war with Siam in the 1820s. This disastrous ploy led to all three kingdoms falling under Thai control. By the late 19th century, France had established French Indochina in the Vietnamese provinces of Tonkin and Annam. The Thais eventually ceded all of Laos to the French, who were content to use the territory merely as a buffer between its colonial holdings and Siam.
Modern History
During WWII, the Japanese occupied Indochina and a Lao resistance group, Lao Issara, was formed to prevent the return of the French. Independence was achieved in 1953 but conflict persisted between royalist, neutralist and communist factions. The USA began bombing North Vietnamese troops on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in eastern Laos in 1964, escalating conflict between the royalist Vientiane government and the communist Pathet Lao, who fought alongside the North Vietnamese. It is important to add that this was the largest US bombing campaign in history! By the time a ceasefire was negotiated in 1973, Laos had the dubious distinction of being the most bombed country in the history of warfare.
A coalition government was formed, but when Saigon fell in 1975, most of the royalists left Laos. The Pathet Lao peacefully took control of the country and the Lao People's Democratic Republic came into being in December 1975. Laos remained closely allied with the Vietnamese communists throughout the 1980s. Laos cemented ties with its neighbors when it was welcomed into ASEAN in July 1997.
By the late 1990s, the economy was in such poor shape - having experienced inflation of over 100% and a depreciation of the kip by more than 500% - that the resolutely socialist country did something they'd never done before. They devised a 'Visit Laos' campaign in order to attract the tourist dollar. Although it was not a huge success, the kip was dragged back from its death bed and inflation was reined in a little.
The economic crisis sparked some political unrest. A small student demonstration against the monopoly of political power by the LPRP was ruthlessly crushed and its leaders given long prison sentences. Lao dissidents in Thailand attacked a border customs post, provoking a swift Lao military response. A series of small bombings in Vientiane and southern Laos was also blamed on expatriate dissidents, while Hmong 'brigands' attacked transport in the north. The government responded by increasing security and by 2004 the Hmong insurgency had all but collapsed.
Present day Lao is in a sate of peace and a large tourist boob with over one million tourists visiting the country each year, many of which are Thais.
Ok, end of history lesson back to my last two days spent trekking and staying with a host family in a village. Because, of the work I did the last two years in the Philippines I am trying to be very conscious of what tourist groups I support and wanting to make sure that they are sustainable environmentally conscious organizations that have direct financial benefits to the locals. After doing some research I found out about Tiger Trails a rather large outdoor adventure tour operator but they seem to have the best community based tourism model. 30% of all the money tourist pay goes directly to the local villages and I can almost guarantee this is a better rate then the random travel groups that line the streets here.
On Thursday myself, Raffie (Brit also on the trip) and our guide Kam began our journey. We took a short drive outside of the city proper to the banks of the Mekong River where we loaded into a rickety old boat and headed east along the Mekong. Lao and a large part of northeastern Thailand have been flooded the last week due to heavy rains so had we been any heavier our boat might have sank! The Mekong River was at record heights last week! The scenery along the river was fantastic with lush green mountains all around and some really beautiful trees. I of course was asking Kam what the name of all the trees where and most are endemic to Lao. Though I did see quite a few that I recognized from the Philippines. After a quick boat ride we started the trek and in the extreme heat of a clear Lao day it was not easy. We slowly but surely worked our way up, up and up into the mountains. Again the scenery was beautiful and other then all the mud we were trudging through we hiked for about five hours and arrived to the small Khmu Village at about 3:30 pm that day.
You never would think there was a village with 75 homes tucked back into the mountains but there was and it was beautiful! Lao is made up of many different ethnic tribes and the Khmu, descendants of the Khmer in Cambodia, are one of the many. Each of these tribes has their unique practices and language. The Khmu people are known for their cotton products and hand sown beddings. The village we stayed in is all subsistence dry rice farmers, practicing slash and burn sloping agriculture. While I knew farming was hard work from my last two years in the Philippines, I had never worked in rice fields and especially on such intense slopes! We spent yesterday in the fields with our host family helping them weed the rice. Although we only worked maybe two of the five hours we were out there (I am sure they work more when tourists are not visiting) it was fun to get our hands dirty and help out a bit!
My favorite moment of staying with our host family was spending yesterday evening lying on the mats on the dirt floor singing songs with the kids. I have said it before, and I proved it yet again last night, that ice breakers cross all language and cultural barriers! We did head, shoulders, knees and toes, and I even taught them A-Roost-Ta-Sha (PCVs you know what I am talking about) which they seemed to really enjoy since they were all laughing constantly and copying my motions!
In many ways spending two days in this village felt like a time warp. There was no electricity (though our house, which sort of serves as the tourist hotel in the village had a generator), only a small primary school and most kids stop going to school after this level to help in the fields, all bamboo hut homes with dirt only passable by tractor and by foot roads, and naked adorable little kids running around everywhere. While this was probably the most rural place I have been, as always there was a genuine happiness of the people there. While in our western view they might not have much they live simply and since this is the life they know they are content and happy with it! Raffie and I commented often to each other that imagine taking one of the villagers from there and dropping them in Piccadilly Circus in London or the middle of Downtown Seattle. I think that would be more of a shock to them then it was for us to spend two nights in their home.
An exhibit at the phenomenal Traditional Arts and Ethnology Center (www.taeclaos.org) here in Luang Prabang explained the changing ethnic tribes of this region best when it said,
"Ethnic communities in developing countries are not frozen in time as historical or "traditional" icons. In fact they are developing and changing as much as cultures in Europe, the Americas, or even Vientiane (capitol of Lao), and have been transforming for 100s of years. Ethnic peoples in Lao live in cities, own businesses, hold government positions, and travel overseas. In rural villages (like the one I stayed in) they listen to the radio, watch TV (my host family had a TV that ran on the generator), trade with other tribes, frequent town markets, adopt new crops, and build cement houses. (The entire village where I stayed was bamboo huts, but perhaps this will change over time too). People adopt their lifestyles and traditions to changing circumstances, globalization and opportunities to improve their lives.
Economic development and modernizations does not require abandoning one's traditions or ethnic identity. However, with changing livelihood and lifestyles upholding elements of ethnic identity such as language, clothing, religion and rituals is a challenge. Through learning and exchange, we can foster appreciation and preservation of Laos (and I will add the world and where I lived in the Philippines) multi-ethnic heritage while still looking towards the future."
It is only by traveling, visiting, and living amongst these important ethnic communities that we can learn all of these things and gain an appreciation to help preserve them but also help them improve their lives. I am very blessed to have served in the Peace Corps and learned these lessons in the Philippines and continue to be seeing them throughout my travels thus far!
I am off to get a massage and enjoy some Beer Lao (Laos famous and delicious Beer) tonight with Raffie and our quide Kam. I head further south tomorrow to a town called Vang Vieng where I will meet up with Ian (fellow PCV) for a few days!
All my love,
Sherry
PS: I ate snails last night in the village not something I would do again by choice but it was an expereince!
Comments
Greetings from Lisa Delmar
Hey Sherry! I am loving hearing about your travels through SE Asia...and I am thoroughly jealous hearing about all the amazing places you're going and the people you're meeting! :)
Loved reading about the history of Lao, something that I had read about in the 'Vietnam Conflict' history course at Redlands but it was a great refresher. And I have always wanted to try snails and am glad to hear that you tried it! Did they taste like chicken?
Hope all is well with you! Take care of yourself, can't wait for the next 'episode'! :)
Lisa