Lao people

“ The Lao, who descended from the mountain districts of Yunnan, Szechuen and Kweichow to the highland plains of upper Indo-China, and drove the wilder Kha peoples whom they found in possession into the hills, mostly adopted Buddhism, and formed small settled communities or states in which laws were easy, taxes light and a very fair degree of comfort was attained. ”

“ During succeeding centuries Lao armies advanced far south into the Mon-Khmer kingdoms, marital and political alliances between Lao and Khmer royalty became common, and Lao settlements were established in various parts of southern Siam.
Despite wars with rival states to the south and the Lao to the north, the Kingdom of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok prospered greatly and in time attained to a high civilization. The arts were encouraged, the people were well governed, trade was extensive, and friendly relations were maintained with China and other distant countries by frequent exchange of embassies. ”

“ The Chinese and Indians alone traffic here; it requires a day’s journey to conclude the smallest bargain, and a whole village is assembled to make sure that the money is not spurious. On my route here I have not met a single Siamese, but in every village have seen Birmans, Kariens, and people from Western Laos. I have found men in Lao-Pouene moulded like athletes and of herculean strength, and thought that the King of Siam might raise in this province a fine regiment of grenadiers. ”

“ So Lao Tsz said, 'One produces two.' Those in the second region of the Rupra-loka, whose good Karma had spent its force, came down upon the earth and became human beings. Therefore Lao Tsz said, 'The two produce three.' Thus the Three Powers were completed. The earth-bread and different classes of people, and so on, are the so-called 'production of thousands of things by the Three.' This was the time when people lived in eaves or wandered in the wilderness, and knew not the use of fire. ”

“ The Laotian smiled. "I didn't write the receipt. Did you go up into the monument."
"No, just stayed here. What's up there?"
"I don't know. What's up there? Poor people trying to sell their trinkets, souvenirs if you want to call it that. Junk for westerners to remember their trip to Laos. All of it is the same as in Thailand. Nothing that would interest you unless you want a little better view of the city."
"I see. Then I guess not."
"You don't want to be a spectator of poverty?" ”

“ And here he was exiting Vientiane. It was hard to believe that he had actually been in the capital. The city had monuments and a few signs in English elucidating Laotian history, but signs of international commerce or even signs in Laotian prompting capitalism on a local level, seemed scarce. These people were not competing but sustaining themselves and thus there was little thriving on the backs of others. There were no elite artists—no arts at all outside that which impoverished students sold along the river to French tourists. ”

“ A journey of many days in a dug-out canoe down one of the most beautiful rivers of that country gave me a delightful opportunity of becoming acquainted with the domestic life of the Lao-Shans—surely among the most attractive and hospitable races in the world. Leaving my canoe at the charming little Laos capital, Luang Prabang, I proceeded down the Mekong on a raft and visited the ruins of the obliterated kingdom of Vien-chan. ”

“ The black-bellied or western Laotians are called by their eastern brethren by the same name which, in Siam and Cambodia, is bestowed on the Annamites, Zuène, Lao-Zuène. The only thing that distinguishes them is, that they tattoo the under part of the body, principally the thighs, and frequently wear the hair long and knotted on the top of their heads. Their language is nearly the same, and differs little from the Siamese and Eastern Laos, except in the pronunciation, and in certain expressions no longer in use among the former. ”

“ Starting with a gay band of troops, armed with banners, umbrellas, matchlocks, singing birds in cages, and other deadly weapons affected by the Chinese soldier, Lao proceeded against the rebels. At the first brush with the enemy the tao-tai’s glittering rabble deserted to a man to the opposing force. ”

“ In general, although the names are often used interchangeably, the word Lao seems to be given to that part of the great Shan (or Tai) race who live in the north and east of Siam, some of their tribes coming down as far south as the Cambodian frontier. Mr. Carl Bock, in his notes [Pg 220] taken on the spot, explains that "there are six Lao states directly tributary to Siam, all entirely independent of each other, but with several minor states dependent upon these larger ones. ”

“ The principal divisions of the Lao-Tai family now living within the borders of Siam are the Thai ("free men") or Siamese proper; the Lao, who occupy the former seats of those tribes of their own stock that afterward developed into the Thai; and the Shans, a later intrusion of distant cousins, descended from the Lao-Tai tribes that settled in the more eastern districts of Burma in the twelfth century and earlier. ”

“ In the centre and south of the Indo-Chinese mountain chain are found, under a multiplicity of names—Phon-tays, Souis, Bah-nan, Bolovens, Stiengs, Mors, Kongs, &c.—people of Malayan origin mixed with all the races of Indo-China. Laos is inhabited by an essentially miscellaneous population—falling into three main groups—the Thais ”

“ The sight of Nan is the early morning market, to which before sunrise the women are seen coming from all directions, wrapped in their long plaids—for such, indeed, the Lao cloak is, both in pattern and mode of wearing. The market is held within the walls in the open space, in which stands the sanam, or court-house; this is surrounded on three sides by wats, and on the west by the palace, a large house with no very striking features. The women crouch along the sides in rows with their baskets in front of them, as at Luang Prabang and at all the markets one sees in this part of the peninsula. ”

“ If the Laotian did not return he might continue to have the pleasant company of his thoughts provided he held reign over their restive movements and they were directed mostly toward some external aim instead of a constant churning of old redundant ideas and ghosts of memory haunting him with their illusionary palpability as though that which had been could be grasped still. Alone here in Laos, a foreign land, there was plenty that was novel to explore and by being a sole traveler, his will, his uncompromised agenda, would be exactly as he wished it to be. ”

“ The Siamese group them all in two divisions, the Lau-pang-dun, "Black-paunch Lao," so called because they clothe themselves as it were in a dark skin-tight garb by the tattooing process; and the Lau-pang-kah, "White-paunch Lao," who do not tattoo. The Burmese groups call themselves collectively Ngiou [439] , while the most general Chinese name is Paï (Pa-y) . ”

“ The male Laotian shaves his head, and, like the Siamese, preserves only a small tuft of very short hair on the summit. LAOTIAN COSTUME. He dresses himself tastefully, and can wear the finest stuffs with ease and dignity. He chooses always the liveliest colours; and the effect of a group of Laotians, with the brilliant hues of their costume set off by their copper-tinted skin, is very striking. The common people wear an exceedingly simple garb—the langouti, a piece of cotton stuff passed between the legs and around the waist. ”

“ He died on his way home, and according to Laos custom, no corpse is permitted to enter the city, and his remains are now lying in state in his river palace outside the city walls. He was apparently the only obstacle to the spread of the Gospel amongst that people. The Laos are a hardy mountaineer people, with much more stamina of character than the Siamese, and free from many of their vices. I know of no more interesting missionary field than Chieng Mai. They also appear to be ready for some more substantial religion than Budhism. ”

“ The news of Lao’s capture soon reached the Viceroy, who at once informed the Government, with the result that the vermilion pencil issued an edict that Lao Ng Tau, late tao-tai of Sung Ying Fu, was to be beheaded, his head to be forwarded to Peking, his property confiscated, his house razed to the ground, and the land on which it stood to be ploughed up to a depth of two feet, and that should his schoolmaster be still alive, that that miserable individual should receive one hundred blows with a bamboo. ”

“ In giving the history of its destruction, he said that in 1778, four years after the Ping Shans had thrown off their allegiance to Burmah and become feudatory to Siam, the Lao Shans of Vieng Chang and Luang Prabang became tributary to Siam, and, urged on by Siam, besieged Kiang Hsen from 1794 to 1797.
During the siege the Lao forces were commanded by Phya Anoo, the chief of Vieng Chang, who, enraged at the long resistance, issued a proclamation declaring that every male found in the city should be put to death on its capture. ”

“ CARAVAN OF ELEPHANTS CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS OF LAOS.
All this eastern portion, with the exception of a few villages filled with “black-bellied savages”—so called from the manner in which they tattoo themselves—is inhabited by the same race, the “white-bellied Laotians,” who call themselves Laos, and are known by this name to all the Siamese, Chinese, and surrounding nations. ”

“ It was in part the result of human will for transcendence, and in part provided by education fueled by money like everything else. The Laotian seemed to be sagacious enough to know his situation or perhaps this loneliness was so inordinate that he wanted to believe him as such. To be known was a vulnerability to be exploited especially when man's feelings wanted to avow friendship with he who saw him denuded, but to shy away from people was rather weak and craven. ”

“ But the women all exclaimed,
“Don’t tempt God, Lao. God has put some things in this world of which it is better to be ignorant, and others which we ought to fear. Leave the Korigans alone to dance about their granite dwellings.”
“To dance!” cried Lao. “Then the Korigans have pipers too?”
“They have the whistling of the wind across the heath, and the singing of the night-bird.”
“Well, then,” said the mountaineer, “I am [174] determined that to-day at least they shall have Christian music. I will go across the common playing some of my best Cornouaille airs.” ”

“ North Vietnam shares a common frontier with Laos and undetermined numbers of North Vietnamese soldiers have been operating on Laotian territory for several years. Moreover, the nominal head of the Pathet Lao, Prince Souphanouvong, has spent more years in Vietnam than in Laos and is the husband of a senior Vietnamese Communist. ”

“ According to the general view among the Chinese, Lao Tz [) u] was an older contemporary of Confucius; recent Chinese and Western research (A. Waley; H.H. Dubs) has contested this view and places Lao Tz [) u] in the latter part of the fourth century B.C., or even later. Virtually nothing at all is known about his life; the oldest biography of Lao Tz [) u] , written about 100 B.C., says that he lived as an official at the ruler's court and, one day, became tired of the life of an official and withdrew from the capital to his estate, where he died in old age. ”

“ Of the twenty-one Thăi words accounted as not current now in Siamese speech, I have marked but six as known to me to exist in Lao. No doubt there are others as well, of whose use I am ignorant. To answer the question quantitatively, one would have to know also how many words out of this whole vocabulary are not—or rather were not—current in Lao. And even so, mere vocabulary does not by any means cover the whole ground of dialectal divergence, which consists quite as much in special applications of the same words, and in tone, accent, and phrasing—matters as yet wholly beyond our reach. ”

“ It differs from the other Lāo cities in having no great rural population and extensive rice-plains near it. Its rice supply was then levied from the hill-tribes as a tribute or tax. The city has a fine situation at the foot of a steep hill some two hundred feet high, tipped, as usual, with a pagoda. The Nām Kêng there joins the Mê Kōng, dividing the city into two unequal portions. The view from the top of the hill is delightful. The inhabitants belong to a large branch of the Tai race, extending southward at least to Cambodia. ”

“ Nevertheless, here was Lao, with a merry company, at the entrance of the lonely heath,—Lao, the celebrated piper, come expressly from the mountains to lead the dance at the fair of Armor. His face was as red as a March moon, his black locks floated as they would upon the wind, and he held under his arm the pipe whose magic sounds had even set in motion a number of old women in their sabots. When they came to the cross-road of the Warning, where there rises the granite cross all overgrown with moss, the women stopped, and said,
“Let us take the pathway leading towards the sea.” ”

“ But, in an abstract sense, Lao’s, as originally defined by himself, was the purer and more elevated; for it aimed at securing the immortality of man through the contemplation of God, the subjugation of the passions, and the absolute tranquillity of the soul. He taught that Silence and the Void generated the Taou, the “Logos” or reason by which movement was [Pg 131] produced; and that all beings containing in themselves the duality of male and female sprang from them. ”