A fascinating insight into how nations can be created IVARSSON The existence of Laos today is taken for granted. But the crystallization of a Lao national idea and ultimate independence for the country was a long and uncertain process. This book examines the process through which Laos came into existence under French colonial rule through to the end of World War II. Rather than assuming that the Laos we see today was an historical given, the book looks at how Laos’s position at the intersection of two conflicting spatial layouts of ‘Thailand’ and ‘Indochina’ made its national form a particularly contested process. This, however, is not an analysis of nation-building from the perspec- tive of administrative and political structures. Rather, the book charts the emergence of a notion of a specifically Lao cultural identity that served to buttress Laos as a separate ‘Lao space’, both in relation to Siam/Thailand c and within French Indochina. R Based on an impressive variety of primary sources, many of them never before used in studies of Lao nationalism, this book makes a significant e contribution to Lao historical studies and to the study of nation-building A in Southeast Asia. t creating laos ‘Ivarsson’s book is a path breaking study of Lao nationalism and the IN The Making of a Lao Space between emergence of the modern idea of Laos. This subtle cultural and political history is informed not only by the author’s understanding of Laos, but g l Indochina and Siam, 1860–1945 also by his deep knowledge of Thailand, the foil for Lao nationalism. It will inspire others to launch similar detailed investigations into the country’s past.’ – Grant Evans, University of Hong Kong AOS ‘Ivarsson’s study is a fascinating read and one of the most important and sophisticated books on modern Laos to have been published in the last 30 or so years. [...] Ivarsson has clearly produced an innovative,intelligently crafted and provocative book’ – Christopher E. Goscha, Université du Québec à Montréal søren ivarsson ‘Creating Laos is an original study of the birth of the Lao nation and the creation of its “geo-body.” This fascinating book is recommended to readers interested in the origins and development of nations in Southeast Asia and worldwide.’ – Volker Grabowsky, University of Hamburg www.niaspress.dk Ivarsson_reprint-pbk-cover.indd 1 22/07/2010 15:47 CREATING LAOS Ivarsson_prelims.indd 1 2/11/07 15:19:32 NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series 69. Arne Kalland: Fishing Villages in Tokugawa Japan 70. Weng Eang Cheong: The Hong Merchants of Canton 71. Christine Dobbin: Asian Entrepreneurial Minorities 72. Eldrid Mageli: Organising Women’s Protest 73. Vibeke Børdahl: The Oral Tradition of Yangzhou Storytelling 74. Cecilia Nathansen Milwertz: Accepting Population Control 75. 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Mona Lilja: Power, Resistance and Women Politicians in Cambodia 109. Anders Poulsen: Childbirth and Tradition in Northeast Thailand 110. R.A. Cramb: Land and Longhouse 111. Deborah Sutton: Other Landscapes 112. Søren Ivarsson: Creating Laos Ivarsson_prelims.indd 2 2/11/07 15:19:32 CREATING LAOS The Making of a Lao Space between Indochina and Siam, 1860–1945 Søren Ivarsson Ivarsson_prelims.indd 3 2/11/07 15:19:32 NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph series, No. 112 First published in 2008 by NIAS Press NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Leifsgade 33, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark tel (+45) 3532 9501 • fax (+45) 3532 9549 email: [email protected] • website: www.niaspress.dk © Søren Ivarsson 2008 All rights reserved. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Ivarsson, Soren Creating Laos : the making of a Lao space between Indochina and Siam, 1860-1945. – (NIAS monographs ; 112) 1. Nationalism – Laos – History 2. Laos - History I. Title 959.4’03 ISBN: 978-87-7694-022-5 (hardback) ISBN: 978-87-7694-023-2 (paperback) Publication of this monograph was made possible by a grant from the Danish Research Council for the Humanities. Typeset by NIAS Press Produced by SRM Production Services Sdn Bhd and printed in Malaysia Ivarsson_prelims.indd 4 2/11/07 15:19:32 Contents Preface ix Abbreviations x Thai and Lao Language Conventions xi Introduction 1 Laos between Indochina and Siam • Colonialism and nationalism in Laos CHAPTER ONE The Colonial Encounter 24 Siam and the Mekong region: Interstate relations in the premodern period • The French and the Mekong • The colonial encounter: Two conflicting spatial layouts • The French colonial discourse on the Lao: Notions of race and history CHAPTER TWO Thai Discourses on History and Race 60 Making Laos ‘our’ space: Belonging in history • Making Laos ‘our’ space: Rethinking national maps • Suwannaphum or Laem Thong: The racial link • Demanding the return of the lost territories CHAPTER THREE Roads, History, Religion and Language, 1893–1940 93 Laos between Siam and Indochina: Linking space • Laos in Indo- china: The Vietnamese link • Towards a national history of Laos • Towards a nationalisation of religion: The Buddhist Institute • Towards a standardisation of the written Lao language Ivarsson_prelims.indd 5 2/11/07 15:19:32 Creating Laos CHAPTER FOUR The Campaign for a National ‘Re-awakening’, 1941–1945 145 Outline of the campaign for a national renovation in Laos • Towards a new national space: The problem of unification • A national reawakening: The importance of history and Franco–Lao cooperation • Les Annamites et nous: An ambivalent relationship • Cultural revival: Literature and songs • ‘Siam-ification’ or ‘Lao- ification’: The issue of language standardisation CHAPTER FIVE Setting Laos Free from the French 208 Turning the idea of Laos against the French • Concluding remarks: Bringing Laos into existence Bibliography 219 Index 235 vi Ivarsson_prelims.indd 6 2/11/07 15:19:32 Contents List of Figures 1. French map depicting ‘Laos Annamite’ (1892). 39 2. Erasing Laos from cartographic representations. 69 3. Infrastructure of Laos in the colonial period. 99 4. Lao Nhay – Laos’s first newspaper. 151 5. Bangkok monkey drills imitating soldier. 163 6. ‘In ancient times they burned our temples with wooden torches. Today they use bombs. The Bangkok people have not changed their ways at all’. 164 7. ‘The Bangkok Government tries to catch the moon [Greater Thailand]. Will they succeed?’ 165 8. Wat Phra Kaeo and the resurrection of Laos. 175 9. Building a future through education. 183 10. Disciplining the body and modernising the nation/race. 184 11. The need for education. 185 Cover Illustrations Front: Laotian landscape (design by NIAS Press). Back: The That Luang festival, 1941 – celebrating history, religion and unity in a New Laos. From Indochine, 69 (December 1941), p. 3. vii Ivarsson_prelims.indd 7 2/11/07 15:19:32 Ivarsson_prelims.indd 8 2/11/07 15:19:33 Preface My thoughts on French colonialism and Lao nationalism found in this book were initially expressed in my PhD dissertation. Since finishing the dissertation, I have been caught up in research on other topics, teaching and other distractive activities. Consequently, this book has had a long period of gestation. However, I have used this time to rewrite large parts of the dissertation and to expand the text quite substantially. Over the years I have profited from the friendship and support of Inga Floto, Christopher E. Goscha, Grant Evans, Chalong Soontravanich, and Saichol and Attachak Sattaya- nurak. When I was a PhD student Viggo Brun went far beyond the ordinary call of a PhD supervisor. Without him the current book would not have been possible! My greatest thanks, however, go to Dorthe, Malthe and Jakob. Your love and support has been an important source of strength for me as I entered the often bumpy road of academia. At the same time you have constantly reminded me that there is more to life than re- search. Thanks for that. A revised version of Chapter 2 has appeared in Christopher E. Goscha and Søren Ivarsson (eds), Contesting Visions of the Lao Past.