Post-War Laos - The Politics of Culture, History and Identity by Vattana Pholsena

(Book Review No 2: Finished reading sometime in September)

ISBN: 9789812303554

Price: SGD 42.70 (original), SGD 10 (after discount)

I originally had very little knowledge about Laos. What I knew were just fragments. I knew that its capital was Vientiane, that it had a Communist government, was a rather undeveloped country in Southeast Asia and was landlocked and cut off from the world. 

Post-War Laos : The Politics of Culture, History and Identity

Hmong Girls at the Plain of Jars, Laos

Whilst occasionally rather dense and sometimes overly technical for my liking, I was fascinated by how it presented the Laotian government's attempt at constructing national unity in a rather fractious country. Even the majority Lao community was subdivided into three separate ethnic communities, whilst the hill tribe minorities were almost too numerous to count. I was rather bemused by how many of the original ethnic labels had originated as a result of French colonial rule and their attempts to categorize the territory's population. As part of the nation building project, the Laotian government has overturned many of the old labels and established new ones, although the people whose ethnicities have officially changed often still stick to the old labels. It is curious that the Panthet Lao's (the Communists) success in ousting the old order of the Lao Royal Government was in no small way a result of the minority hill tribe support for their campaign. The book also notes the Vietnamese contribution towards the Panthet Lao campaign and how Laotian leaders subsequently used Vietnam as a model for constructing a socialist state. One only wonders how much influence Vietnam has over this country, a piece of territory that has long been a battleground between Thai and Vietnamese influence. 

Coat of Arms of Laos

Flag of Laos

Overall it is an interesting book, and a must read for anyone interested in Laos or in the process of national building in what must be one of the world's most challenging geographical and sociological environment.