Faces and Facets of the Kantosou Kou Xat – The Lao “National Liberation Struggle” in State Commemoration and Historiography

Abstract

Contemporary Lao history and politics are characterised by an ambivalent ideological hybrid of cultural heritage protection and revolutionary glorification. Even though Buddhism and its related ritual practices appear to have regained considerable ground in official nation-building strategies, the “national liberation struggle” (Lao: kantosou kou xat) continues to constitute a key element of the national discourse as represented by official historiography and state iconography. In fact, the revival of royal-Buddhist images is linked to the “struggle”, since past kings of the Lao Buddhist kingdom of Lane Xang are at present re-interpreted as proto-national patriotic fighters on behalf of the so-called “Lao multi-ethnic people”.

This paper argues that the different aspects of official Lao history and memory politics are directed towards the twin goals of ideological nation building and the self-legitimisation of the present regime. Heroic kings such as Anouvong and Setthathilat are highlighted as ancestors of Kaysone Phomvihane and other revolutionaries of the twentieth century within a genealogy of national heroes. Besides discussing present historiographical narratives of the Lao “struggle”, this paper explores material and performative aspects of state commemoration, in particular with regard to national lieux de mémoire and public events.

Keywords:

• Laos
• Lao People’s Revolutionary Party
• historiography
• memory and myth
• nation building

Notes

1. This slogan was coined by the Provincial Tourism Office Houaphan (2007) in cooperation with the Dutch development agency SNV, which assisted in establishing tourist infrastructure at the famous caves of Viengxay.

2. Viengxay commemorates President Kaysone. Vientiane Times, 21 December 2010.

3. Note on transcription: In this article the author has followed the system used by the US Board of Geographic Names as preferred by the editors of this special issue.

4. The compound kantosou consists of the prefix kan- and the verbs to and sou, which can both be translated as “fight” and “resist” (Kerr, 1972, p. 385, p. 579) – thus kantosou is to be translated as “resistance struggle”.

5. The Pavatsat lao is largely dominated by principles of historical materialism and Marxist-Leninist ideology often modelled after official Vietnamese historiography with its focus on historical “fighting traditions” (Pelley, 2002; Lockhart, 2006; Tappe, 2008). The sections on the two Indochina Wars are inspired by the writings of Kaysone Phomvihane (1980) and Phoumi Vongvichit (1969), who supervised Lao history writing until his death in 1994.

6. In December 2012, the so-called “Museum of Laos–Vietnam Legacy of Joint Victory Battle” opened in Xépôn District, Savannakhét Province – in fact, the heart of the Ho Chi Minh Trail network close to the 17^th parallel (Pholsena, 2012) – to commemorate “the Vietnamese voluntary fighters who sacrificed their lives alongside the Lao people during the war in Laos, and the symbolic and special solidarity between the Lao and Vietnamese people which grew from this tragic union” (Laos–Vietnam museum opens to commemorate valiant soldiers. Vientiane Times, 13 December 2012).

7. Before the renovation of the Army Museum in 2005, the worker figure of the ensemble was resting his left foot on a bomb with the letters USA printed on it. This delicate detail was removed after renovation but is still part of a similar statue in Viengxay (Tappe, 2011, p. 611).

8. The first five revolutionaries formed the politburo during and after the war together with the late Nouhak Phoumsavan (1908-2010) and Khamtay Siphandone (1924–). Sithon Kommadam, Faydang Lobliayao and Touya Xaychou were military leaders of ethnic minority origin and represent the contribution of the “Lao multi-ethnic people” to the kantosou.

9. This official genealogy fails to include the kings Chakkaphat Phènphèo and his son Souvanna Banlang who fought off a Vietnamese invasion in 1479. Stuart-Fox (2006, p. 351) hints at the influence of Vietnamese state historians on this issue.

10. A recent article in the Vientiane Times stated that the remaining revolutionary leaders including Nouhak Phoumsavan – who was still alive during the initial selection of national banphaboulout – will soon receive commemorative sites in their respective home provinces thanks to Chinese financial and technical support (Revolutionary leaders honoured with statues. Vientiane Times, 10 January 2012; see Tappe, 2012b).

11. As examples of spatial commemoration, two main roads in Vientiane were renamed after the two heroes of the LPRP: Kaysone Phomvihane Rd. (formerly Phonkheng Rd.) and Souphanouvong Rd. (formerly Luang Prabang Rd.).

12. Plans set in stone to carve out Lao heroes. Vientiane Times, 22 May 2010.

13. In contrast, Prince Phetsarat receives more benevolent attention by the Pavatsat lao as a personality with “patriotic feelings and love of independence” (MIC, 2000, p. 699). The book nevertheless describes the Lao independence movement of 1945 mainly as a victory of the Indochinese Communist Party and plays down Phetsarat’s contribution. Due to his ambivalent position between the categories of “revolutionaries” and “reactionaries” and his refusal to join the “struggle” – unlike his half-brother Souphanouvong – he completely drops out of post-1945 historiography, and “his non-communist nationalism denies him full membership in the party’s revolutionary pantheon of nationalist heroes” (Ivarsson and Goscha, 2007, p. 57; see Evans, 1998; Lockhart, 2006).

14. Cf. Jonsson (2012) for an excellent account of ethnic minority representation in Vietnamese museums.

15. Nation marks Army Day. Vientiane Times, 20 January 2009.

16. This statue was probably modelled after the Vietnamese monument of the My Lai massacre (Tatum, 1996). In the case of the My Lai statue, however, the woman carrying a dead child raises her fist defiantly.

17. Honorary citizenship Lao expatriates returning home. Vientiane Times, 11 September 2011.

18. Vientiane celebrates President Kaysone’s birthday. Vientiane Times, 14 December 2010.