CONTESTING VISIONS OF THE LAO PAST i 00 Prelims i-xxix 1 2/25/04, 4:48 PM NORDIC INSTITUTE OF ASIAN STUDIES NIAS Studies in Asian Topics 15. Renegotiating Local Values Merete Lie and Ragnhild Lund 16. Leadership on Java Hans Antlöv and Sven Cederroth (eds) 17. Vietnam in a Changing World Irene Nørlund, Carolyn Gates and Vu Cao Dam (eds) 18. Asian Perceptions of Nature Ole Bruun and Arne Kalland (eds) 19. Imperial Policy and Southeast Asian Nationalism Hans Antlöv and Stein Tønnesson (eds) 20. The Village Concept in the Transformation of Rural Southeast Asia Mason C. Hoadley and Christer Gunnarsson (eds) 21. Identity in Asian Literature Lisbeth Littrup (ed.) 22. Mongolia in Transition Ole Bruun and Ole Odgaard (eds) 23. Asian Forms of the Nation Stein Tønnesson and Hans Antlöv (eds) 24. The Eternal Storyteller Vibeke Børdahl (ed.) 25. Japanese Influences and Presences in Asia Marie Söderberg and Ian Reader (eds) 26. Muslim Diversity Leif Manger (ed.) 27. Women and Households in Indonesia Juliette Koning, Marleen Nolten, Janet Rodenburg and Ratna Saptari (eds) 28. The House in Southeast Asia Stephen Sparkes and Signe Howell (eds) 29. Rethinking Development in East Asia Pietro P. Masina (ed.) 30. Coming of Age in South and Southeast Asia Lenore Manderson and Pranee Liamputtong (eds) 31. Imperial Japan and National Identities in Asia, 1895–1945 Li Narangoa and Robert Cribb (eds) 32. Contesting Visions of the Lao Past Christopher E. Goscha and Søren Ivarsson (eds) ii 00 Prelims i-xxix 2 2/25/04, 4:48 PM CONTESTING VISIONS OF THE LAO PAST LAO HISTORIOGRAPHY AT THE CROSSROADS EDITED BY CHRISTOPHER E. GOSCHA AND SØREN IVARSSON iii 00 Prelims i-xxix 3 2/25/04, 4:48 PM Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Studies in Asian Topics Series, No. 32 First published in 2003 by NIAS Press Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Leifsgade 33, DK–2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark tel: (+45) 3532 9501 • fax: (+45) 3532 9549 E–mail: [email protected] • Website: www.niaspress.dk Typesetting by Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai Produced by Bookchase Printed and bound in Great Britain © Nordic Institute of Asian Studies 2003 While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, copyright in the individual papers belongs to their authors. No paper may be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the author or publisher. British Library Catalogue in Publication Data Contesting visions of the Lao past : Lao historiography at the crossroads. - (NIAS studies in Asian topics ; no. 32) 1.Laos - historiography I.Goscha, Christopher E. II.Ivarsson, Soren III.Nordic Institute of Asian Studies 959.4’0072 ISBN 87-91114-02-0 iv 00 Prelims i-xxix 4 2/25/04, 4:48 PM CONTENTS List of Contributors …………………vii Introduction …………………… ix Christopher E. Goscha and Søren Ivarsson PART I BEFORE MODERN BOUNDARIES 1. Two Historical Records of the Kingdom of Vientiane … … 3 Michael Vickery 2. Chiang Khaeng 1893–1896: A Lue Principality in the Upper … 35 Mekong Valley at the Centre of Franco-British Rivalry Volker Grabowsky PART II CONTESTING NEW LAO PASTS: FROM THE INSIDE 3. Historiography, Power and Identity: History and Political … 71 Legitimization in Laos Martin Stuart-Fox 4. Different Paths: Lao Historiography in Historical Perspective … 97 Grant Evans 5. Sila Viravong’s Phongsawadan Lao: A Reappraisal… … … 111 Chalong Soontravanich 6. Narrating 1945 in Lao Historiography… … … … … 129 Bruce M. Lockhart 7. The Nyuan in Xayabury and Cross-border Links to Nan … … 165 Akiko Iijima v 00 Prelims i-xxix 5 2/25/04, 4:48 PM 8. Luep Phasun (Extinguishing the Light of the Sun): … … 181 Romance, Religion and Politics in the Interpretation of a Traditional Lao Poem Peter Koret PART III CONTESTING NEW LAO PASTS: FROM THE OUTSIDE 9. On the Trail of an Itinerant Explorer: French Colonial … … 209 Historiography on Auguste Pavie’s Work in Laos Agathe Larcher-Goscha 10. Making Laos ‘Our’ Space: Thai Discourses on History … … 239 and Race, 1900–1941 Søren Ivarsson 11. Revolutionizing the Indochinese Past: Communist … … 265 Vietnam’s ‘Special’ Historiography on Laos Christopher E. Goscha Bibliography ……………………301 Index ………………………323 FIGURES 1.1 The Phongsawadan Xamneua … … ………19 4.1. Cartoon from The Most Important Kings of Laos…… …105 9.1. Pavie’s commemorative plaque in Dinan … … … 212 9.2. The bust of Pavie in Dinan… … … … … … 214 10.1. Map popularized in Siam in the 1920–30… … … … 240 11.1. Celebrating the conference of the ‘Lao-Viet-Khmer Allied Front’ 271 11.2. and 11.3. Establishing revolutionary continuity … … … 277 11.5. Vietnamese stamp …………………292 MAPS 1.1. Location of Phu Khiao … … … ………16 1.2. Xamneua ……………………28 TABLES 7.1 Six Nyuan Villages in Xayabury Province … … … 176 7.2 Number of Manuscripts … … … … … … 176 vi 00 Prelims i-xxix 6 2/25/04, 4:48 PM LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Grant Evans is reader in anthropology in the Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong. He has written extensively on Laos and on Southeast Asia. His latest books on Laos include The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance: Laos since 1975 (Silkworm Books, 1998) and A Short History of Laos: The Land In Between (Allen & Unwin, 2002). He is currently working on a book on the Luang Phrabang monarchy. Christopher E. Goscha graduated from Georgetown University (School of Foreign Service). He completed his M.A. at the Australian National University and his PhD at the Sorbonne University (EPHE). He is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Lyon II and researcher at the Institut d’Asie Orientale (Lyon). He is the author of Vietnam or Indochina? (1885–1954) (NIAS, 1995) and Thailand and the Southeast Asian Networks of the Vietnamese Revolution (1885–1954) (Curzon/NIAS, 1999). Volker Grabowsky is Professor of South East Asian history at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. His area of specialization is the history and culture of the Tai peoples in northern Thailand and Laos. His current research focuses on traditional Tai polities and state formation in precolonial South East Asia. His latest book publications include Maha Sila Viravong, Prinz Phetsarat: Ein Leben für Laos. ‘Eine Biographie von Chao Maha Uparat Phetsarat’ und ‘Die Geschichte des 12. Oktober 1945’, edited and translated by Volker Grabowsky (LIT Verlag, 2003) and The Gold and Silver Road of Trade and Friendship: The Richardson and McLeod Missions to Tai states in 1837 (together with Andrew Turton) (Silkworm Books, 2003). Akiko Iijima is Associate Professor in the Department of Asian Studies, Faculty of International Culture Studies, Tenri University. She works on Thai and Lao history and her publications include Lanna History and Its Source Materials: Concerning the Foundation of ChiangMai (in Japanese). vii 00 Prelims i-xxix 7 2/25/04, 4:48 PM LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Søren Ivarsson is Assistant Professor in the History Department, University of Copenhagen. He works on the history of Thailand and Laos with a particular focus on nationalism and historiography. His publications on Laos include The Quest for Balance in a Changing Laos: A Political Analysis (NIAS, 1995) and ‘Toward a New Laos: Lao Nhay and the Campaign for National “Re- awakening” in Laos, 1941–45’ in Laos: Culture and Society, edited by Grant Evans. Peter Koret is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies, writing his doctoral dissertation on traditional Lao literature. Following his graduation, he has contributed chapters on Lao literature to a number of publications, including Laos: Culture and Society, edited by Grant Evans, The Canon in Southeast Asian Literature, edited by David Smyth. He has recently completed a translation of the traditional Lao poem Leup Pha Sun and a study of its content, and is currently working on a cultural history of Laos and Northeast Thailand from the nineteenth century through to the present as seen through literary documents. Agathe Larcher-Goscha completed her PhD at the University of Paris VII. She is currently associate researcher at the Institute d’Asie Orientale (Lyon). She has authored several articles on colonial studies for Vietnam. She is currently preparing a book length study entitled La postérité coloniale de Mgr. Pigneau de Béhaine: Réflexions sur les lieux de mémoire de la colonisation en Indochine française (Les Indes Savantes, forthcoming in 2004). Bruce Lockhart is Assistant Professor in the History Department, National University of Singapore. He works on Vietnamese, Thai, and Lao history with a particular focus on monarchy and historiography. His publications include The End of the Vietnamese Monarchy (Yale Council on Southeast Asia Studies, 1993) and ‘Monarchy and Decolonization in Indochina’ in The Transformation of Southeast Asia: International Perspectives on Decolonization, edited by Marc Frey et al. (M.E. Sharpe, 2003). Chalong Soontravanich is Associate Professor in the Department of History, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. His interests include Thai diplomatic history, social and local history of modern Thailand and Thai historiography. His current research focuses on small arms and crime in post-War II Thailand. Recent published papers include: ‘The Politics of Rama V’s 1897 Grand Tour of Europe’ and ‘The Proliferation of Small Arms, Romance, and Crime in Post World War II Thai Society’ (forthcoming). viii 00 Prelims i-xxix 8 2/25/04, 4:48 PM LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Martin Stuart-Fox is Professor of History at The University of Queensland, Australia. He has written more than fifty journal articles and five books on Laos, including A History of Laos (Cambridge University Press, 1997), Historical Dictionary of Laos (The Scarecrow Press, 2001) and Buddhist Kingdom, Marxist State (2nd ed., White Lotus Press, 2002). He has also written on Cambodia and early Buddhism. His most recent book is A Short History of China and Southeast Asia: Tribute, Trade and Influence (Allen and Unwin, 2003).