Ethnic Performance and the State in Laos: The Boun Greh Annual Festival of the Khmou

Abstract

Following the 1975 revolution, the Laotian statesmen adopted a modernising discourse that targeted “backward” traditions as undesirable. But since the 1990s, authorities have mitigated this standpoint, distinguishing “good” from “bad” traditions according to their compatibility with the program of national development, and professing their will to (re)instate the former as suitable expressions of culture in a multi-ethnic nation. This is manifest everywhere from the National Constitution to TV shows and ethnic catalogues. This paper analyses the implementation of these principles through the case of the boun greh New Year festival, an invented ethnic tradition of the Khmou, the largest ethnic minority in Laos. The article demonstrates that this implementation has consequentially implied the adoption of a grammar of national ethnicity; that this official framework paradoxically allows the Khmou to articulate demands for better recognition of their group; and that this process does not mute expressions of “cultural intimacy” at variance with this matrix. The official frame of ethnicity has been eventually adopted by the Khmou, but this state effect has multiplied the layers of expressed ethnicity: it cannot be equated with a unilateral regimentation that would deprive the Khmou of their agency.

Keywords:

• Laos
• Khmou
• ethnicity
• ritual
• invention of traditions
• cultural intimacy

Notes

1. All words in italics are in Lao, or in Khmou if mentioned [Kh.]. The Khmou I interviewed in Bolikhamxay Province are fluent both in Khmou and in Lao. Interviews were conducted in Lao with the help of colleagues from the National University of Laos, who acted as research assistants and translators (see Petit, 2008a).

2. See Taylor and Jonsson (2002), Evrard and Prasit Leepreecha (2009), Michaud and Picard (2001), etc. Unfortunately, the literature on the recent dynamics of “ethnic” New Year festivals remains limited (Jonsson, 2001; Gros, 2013), even if such processes are conspicuous in the whole region. For Laos, scholars have mainly analysed the pi mai (New Year) festival of the Lao (Trankell, 1999; Holt, 2009; Platenkamp, 2010).

3. This distinction is however not a substantive one: tourism is of course regulated by national policies; performances such as boun greh are not attended by tourists, but attract local visitors, and sometimes lead to indirect tourism when relayed in the media.

4. 8 May 2011. See http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/Video_FileVDO/VDO_the%20world.htm, accessed 12 February 2013.

5. http://www.na.gov.la/, accessed 12 February 2013.

6. Vietnamese ethnographers would surely endorse these proposals since they were the mentors of their Lao colleagues (Evans, 1999; Pholsena, 2006, pp. 158–61). During the first years after the revolution, the struggle against “archaisms” or “superstitions” did touch the Lao ceremonies as well: some Buddhist practices and village spirits’ ceremonies were purged, or banned; many Lao monks and mediums were relegated for years to “seminars” in the highlands (Hours and Selim, 1997; Stuart-Fox, 2002). It was nevertheless clear to the political leaders that Lao had the “highest cultural development” in the nation, as phrased by Kaysone (Evans, 2003, p. 213), which explains why the debate over “traditions” soon focused mainly on ethnic minorities.

7. There is no clear turning point for the relaxation on rituals. An early sign in that direction dates back to 1980, when the press mentioned a basi ceremony conducted by the highest leaders of the state during the Lao New Year (Evans, 1998, p. 80). The process went on throughout the 1980s, in parallel with the progressive overtures of the regime, and has been much clearer with Lao and/or Buddhist practices (Evans, 1998, p. 67, p. 74).

8. Thoukthouk sônphao tong mi ékalak lè vatthanatham thi sadèng ok.

9. Austroasiatic-speaking groups were – and sometimes still are – described as Lao Theung (midland Lao) by opposition to Lao Loum (lowland Lao) and Lao Soung (highland Lao), in a time when political leaders wanted to promote the unity of the nation through these generic names. Note that the boun greh described here is celebrated by the Khmou, not by the “Lao Theung” in general.

10. Since that time, the celebration has been skipped in some years for allegedly practical or financial reasons. The success of boun greh remains limited in Laos, and the celebration is not organised in all Khmou villages (at variance with the pi mai of the Lao).

11. See Petit (2012) for a longer development about this ceremony. Khmou do not all celebrate greh in the same way. Evrard reports no ceremonial aspect for the closure of the harvest in Louang Namtha, which amounts merely to a period of mutual invitations and beanfeast (2006, p. 145). Suksavang Simana gives a lengthy description of the ritual, based on observations in Louang Phrabang, Xiang Khouang and Houaphan – i.e. the northeastern provinces whence the Khmou of Thongnamy and Nam Deua come from (2003, pp. 47–54). This is evidence of the regional diversity of the Khmou referred to above.