A Short History of Laos: The Land in Between
Grant Evans, 2003
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Laos, the ‘land of a
million elephants’, is a small, landlocked country bordered by
China and Myanmar to the north, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the
south and Thailand to the west. Throughout its history this
‘backward’ country, seen as ‘passive’ and ‘sleepy’, has
been dominated by the greater powers that neighbour it and those
further afield that saw their colonial and imperialist interests
here. During the Vietnam War Laos found itself in a key strategic
position, taken advantage of both by the DRV, which ran its major
north-south supply line, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through the eastern
reaches of Laos, but also by the Americans, who used the Lao
highlands as a base for reconnaissance missions, often recruiting the
support of montagnards and Thai missionaries for this.
The history of Laos is
likely to be the least understood of any country in Southeast Asia,
and Grant Evans, author of A Short History of Laos: The Land in
Between is keen to look beyond popular stereotypes about Lao
culture in order to relate impartially the unfortunate history this
country has endured and to examine some of the lasting consequences
of this:
“Visitors to Laos are
usually charmed by the people’s grace and good humour, and are
consequently prone to romanticise the country… but the idea of an
‘untouched’ Southeast Asian idyll has its flipside: Laos is one
of the least developed countries in the world. Thus, successive Lao
governments have been committed to ‘development’, and millions
upon millions of aid dollars have flowed into the country- too often
straight into the pockets of its leaders, and too often creating a
psychology of dependency… Unfortunately, the ‘untouchedness’ so
beloved by tourists is often a consequence of failed development
plans and enforced communist isolation for almost two decades”.
Certainly, Evans has done well to cast aside such romantic
misconceptions (which, as somebody who has visited the beautiful Lao
towns of Luang Prabang and Vientiane, I realise that it is easy to
establish from first impressions), in order to give real insight into
the problems the country faces.
A Short History of
Laos, first published in 2002 by Allen & Unwin, is one of
five works in the series A Short History of Asia, edited by
the experienced Asia hand Milton Osborne, author of eight books on
Asian topics. Other titles in the series cover Malaysia, Indonesia,
Cambodia and China and Southeast Asia. The collection was highly
recommended by American travel writer Bill Bryson, who commented, “I
cannot welcome this series warmly enough. It is sure to be a winner-
and much needed”. The book’s author, Grant Evans, is an
Australian anthropologist who has written widely on the subject of
Laos and Southeast Asia in general. Other titles of his include Lao
Peasants under Socialism (1990), Politics of Ritual and
Remembrance: Laos since 1975 (1998) and more recently, The
Last Century of Lao Royalty: A Documentary History (2012). He
currently works for the University of Hong Kong.
Personally, I found the
opening chapter of A Short History of Laos, which covers the
pre-colonial, dynastic period of Lao history, to be dry and
unexciting; but persevering through I was rewarded to find that this
is a great introduction to Lao history, written concisely and easy to
follow. Evans traces Lao history from the pre-modern era, through the
colonial period, the establishment of the LRG, civil war, the
American war, the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic
Republic (LPDR) in 1975 and on to more contemporary issues such as
the ascension of Laos into ASEAN, the dropping of the hammer and
sickle as the national emblem and the continuing persecution of
ethnic minority groups (many of whom were recruited by the CIA to
fight the communist Pathet Lao in covert operations).
It was particularly
interesting for me to learn of how Lao culture has developed in
response to changing political circumstances- for example, that it
was the French who encouraged the concept of a ‘nation’ to
develop within the hearts and minds of a diverse and dispersed
population, inadvertently leading to the birth of early Lao
nationalism which was later to challenge French hegemony. Or, that
it was the ill-considered channelling of US aid to the pockets of
army and government officials of the Lao Royal Government (LRG) that
introduced corruption to a largely Buddhist nation. Finally, Evans
looks at some of the enduring consequences of the country's history
on its society today- for example, in the field of education- and
comments on how this continues to affect Laos' development.
The book is advertised
as “an ideal introduction for tourists, business travellers and
students”. As someone who is studying Indochina, this sentiment
rang true for me as I found Evans' work very useful in providing a
quick, insightful overview to the history of Laos. It
is a balanced and interesting guide and I would certainly recommend
it to anyone keen to learn more about the country. Of course, this
edition (published 2003) is now ten years out of date, and I have
often found it challenging to find reliable and up-to-date
information about Lao issues that may provide some insight into more
recent developments in the country. In particular, I would be
interested to learn more about the current situation for the Hmong in
Laos, an ethnic minority group that challenged Lao communism during
the civil war and of which a large part fled en mass following the
communist takeover. It is reported that Hmong insurgents continue to
provide sporadic and small-scale resistance to the regime; but there
seems to be little information available to provide further detail to
substantiate these claims.
For further reading on
Laos, try Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, The Americans and the Secret Wars for Laos (1942-1992) by Jane Hamilton-Merritt; The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong child, her American doctors and the collision of two cultures by Anne Fadiman or
Nightmare in Laos: The true story of a woman imprisoned in a Communist Gulag by Kay Danes.
For
more information about the recent history of Indochina, please refer
to my book reviews of The Vietnam War: A Concise International History by Mark Atwood Lawrence and The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power andGenocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-1979 (Third Edition)
by Ben Kiernan.
