The Thao Hung Epic is one of the masterpieces of Lao literature. There exist various versions, but the most complete and perfectly composed account is the one represented by 300 bundles of palm-leaf inscriptions found by Maha Sila Viravong in the Thai National Library in Bangkok in 1941. Maha Sila had transliterated this version into modern Lao language in 1942, and it was only in 1988 that the Ministry of Culture published the masterpiece in one volume.
According to scholarly studies, the Thao Hung Epic was written sometime between the mid-14th to mid-16th centuries by a royal poet of the Lane Xang Dynasty. It was composed with three perfect patterns of Lao verses of 20,000 lines. The subject of this masterpiece is the greatness of a courageous king whose influence was hard upon the Mekong banks and Mekong basins during the period of 10th through 12th centuries. This epic reflected the society of that dynasty in such various aspects as beliefs, traditions and rituals–such as spirit cults, wedding ceremonies, funerals and costumes, etc.–which one can trace in many regions of Laos to this very day.
Many centuries have passed, but one could say that the ways of life, tradition and ritual ceremonies about weddings and birth, death and funerals, largely remain as before. Some have been modified by religion, modernization and communication. Yet people still embrace many of the old customs, living productive lives as tillers of the soil as well as hunting, fishing and producing household utensils for themselves. Through history they have participated in wars, sons and husbands often abandoning families for battlefields.
The study of traditions and rites in the masterpiece of the Thao Hung Epic shows how Lao society existed, to include the people’s intellect, behavior and ideology within the confines of that particular ancient period. This contemporary analysis will contribute new components to both Lao history and anthropological research. It will also help to establish the identity of Lao culture among this and future generations while at the same time appreciating and promoting it.
- from Thao Hung Epic by Douang Deuane Bounyavong and Maha Sila Viravong
Maha Sila Viravong praised the Sangsinxay Poem written by Pangkham as the highest achievement in Lao poetry, written approximately in the mid-17th century. In 1968, Maha Sila Viravong set up the “Lao Literature” Association, opened the “Pangkham” theater showing traditional Mor Lam performances on Sinxay for the very first time. In 1969, he published the first ever complete Sangsinxay poem in hard cover and golden letters and which today is currently extremely rare. In continuation of his invaluable efforts, later in his life, he translated this priceless poem into an everyday language with the hope that this work would help new generations understand and enjoy the poem. (gotlaos.com)
Sang Sinxay is an epic in the tradition of the Odyssey, the Ramayana, and other classics of world literature. Reflecting its Buddhist origins, it demonstrates how desire breeds suffering.
King Koumphan, ruler of a race of human-eating ogres known as the Nyaks, abducted Soumantha, sister of King Koutsaraj. The distraught Koutsaraj became a monk, left his possessions to his queen, and embarked on a journey to find Soumantha.
One day, he spied the seven daughters of the wealthy merchant Sethi. Enchanted by their beauty, he left the monkhood, returned to his kingdom, and married all seven. The eight queens gave birth to children on the same day. Six bore sons, but the eldest bore an elephant with golden tusks, named Siho, and the youngest bore twins—a golden snail, named Sangthong, and a handsome boy clutching a bow and arrow, named Sinxay (Victorious Merit). Sinxay was blessed with supernatural powers. Angry that the eldest and youngest queens had bore monsters, Koutsaraj exiled them and their children. But they soon came under the protection of the garuda and flourished.
One day, Koutsaraj ordered his sons to resume the search for Soumantha. They tricked Sinxay into joining them, and the group then embarked on a series of adventures. During their quest, Sinxay encountered a variety of creatures, ranging from the kinari (a flock of gorgeous bird women renowned for their dancing and singing, with whom he consorted), the naga (serpent-like creatures, who protected him), and the Nyak Khoumphan, who grew 49 heads that terrorized Sinxay.
Ultimately, Sinxay located Soumantha, who by then had become happily married to her husband, and slayed Koumphan. (thequietintheland.org)
‘Buddhist Storytelling in Thailand and Laos: The Vessantara Jataka Scroll at the Asian Civilisations Museum’ by L. Lefferts, S. Cate and W. Tossa
This richly illustrated, full-colour volume offers an innovative study of the long, painted scrolls of Northeast Thailand and Laos that depict the Prince Vessantara Buddhist birth story. A 31-metre scroll in the Asian Civilisations Museum provides the focus for this popular narrative. The scroll is reproduced in its entirety, with comparative illustrations from other scrolls giving contrastive details. The authors analyse these scrolls in the context of the Bun Phra Wet – the Thai-Lao and Lao ceremony in which they are used – and consider the complex interplay of text, art, ritual, and belief which occur in these performances. ( theravadaciv.org )
Compiled at various dates in several countries and totalling 547 stories in the oldest and most complete collection, the jataka were intended to teach the virtues of self-sacrifice, honesty and morality to the common person. The last and longest, known as the Vessantara (in which the future Buddha in the form of Prince Vessantara perfects renunciation), was later to become Phra Vet, the most popular of all the jataka stories in Laos. ( Early Laos Literature )
The highlight of Boun Pha Vet is the recital of the greatest Lao literature, the Jakata or the stories of the generous Prince Vessantara or Pha Vet. He is seen as the last incarnation of the Buddha before his rebirth as Prince Siddhartha. ( Lao Voices )
The Vessantara Jataka is celebrated in temples during a Buddhist festival known as Thet Mahachat, from Maha Jati or “Great Birth”, in Central Thailand, Boun Pha Vet in Laos and as Bun Phawet (Bun Phra Wes), Bun Duan Sii (Merit-making of the fourth month) or Thet Phawet in Isaan. It is also an important celebration as well in Cambodia and Myanmar. The Thet Mahachat is very popular both in rural and urban communities, often with dance and drama performances, as well as festive parades and processions through the towns. During this Buddhist festival the monks give a sermon of all chapters of the Vessantara Jataka, accompanied by rituals and cultural performances. Because of its central role on the Thet Mahachat or Boun Pha Vet celebrations, the Vessantara Jataka is an important part of the traditional folklore in many areas of the South east Asian region. ( Wikipedia )
Traditional dress essay wins SEA Write award (2008)
An essay by Mr Othong Khaminsou, titled Mother’s Skirt, which encourages Lao people to preserve and wear traditional dress, has won a SEA (South East Asia) Write award this year.
The SEA Write award ceremony will take place in Bangkok, Thailand, from September 25 to October 1 when Mr Othong will join other Asean writers nominated by their countries to receive the award.
Seven stories were submitted by Lao writers to the annual contest, but Mr Othong’s story was voted the most outstanding in content, language and style by the Lao Writers’ Association.
The association’s Secretary-General, Mr Soubanh Luangrath, said the story highlighted the need for Lao people to preserve their traditional dress because it was an essential part of their long-standing cultural heritage.
The association was particularly impressed by Mr Othong’s statement “more important are the design and pattern which show the gracefulness of the arts and crafts created by generations of Lao weavers. The skirt is an example of our valuable national heritage.”
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday at the Ministry of Information and Culture, Mr Soubanh said the Lao Writers’ Association was fair in its judgement and could not change the content of any of the stories submitted. After reading Mr Othong’s script, they agreed to nominate Mother’s Skirt for an award.
“I didn’t expect to win the award because the last four articles I submitted to the contest only got second place. This time I wasn’t very hopeful because I was sort of getting used to coming in second. But I persevered because it is our duty as writers to publish,” said Mr Othong, who is Director and Editor-in-Chief of Vannasin magazine.
Mr Othong’s story was based on fact and events that happened in 1990 when he first wrote about this topic. He was inspired by a colleague who bought an old silk skirt in a market for the very low price of 15,000 kip. She liked the skirt for its traditional design and fine lines.
As Mr Othong was considering this, he arrived home and was told by his brother about people who were coming to their village to buy old silk textiles.
His brother was amazed because the sinh they were buying were old and torn, but most were fetching prices ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 kip. “Those who were buying sinh for about 15,000 kip were happy because they felt they were getting a good price, but the people who lived and made the garments in the countryside were proud to get just 4,000 to 5,000 kip,” Mr Othong said
Comparing these prices, one sees that some people appreciated the value of these garments and their worth for the nation, but those who didn’t realise value of the sinh they owned were prepared to let them disappear, he said.
“The purpose behind my story was to convince people to preserve traditional dress to reflect our culture. In particular I wanted to reach out to those who don’t understand the importance of preserving this tradition. Even though we might not wear sinh as often as in the past, we should keep alive the method of making them so that we can show them to the world.”
Since 1998 eleven Lao writers have received SEA Write awards.
Similarities in culture and language make Thai and Lao books accessible to readers of both countries
Dear readers, can you divulge the names of your favourite foreign authors? How about titles of books you’ve fallen in love with recently?
Samples of Lao works of fiction, a few of which have been translated into Thai over the past decades.
The answer might be longer than this article - or at least long enough to confirm how the younger generation of Thais has gone cosmopolitan in outlook and choice of reading. But what about these names: Douang Deuane Bounyavong, Houng Aloun Danvilay or Boonsern Saengmaee? No, this is not a trick question. These are names of foreign writers too, although they sound very Thai.
Yes, the three names belong to famous writers from the Lao PDR; all of them have won a prestigious SEA Write award over the past few years.
Their names may seem mysterious to us; ironically, these writers know the breadth and depth of Thai literature, more so than our knowledge about theirs. A number of Laotian readers have dug into our literature the same way Thais breathe Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Milan Kundera or Haruki Murakami.
“I grew up reading Thai books, say, works by Chart Kobjitti and Prapassorn Sevikul,” said Houng Aloun Danvilay (whose real name is Othong Khaminxou), a government officer at the Lao Culture Ministry and this year’s SEA Write awardee.
Douang Deuane Bounyavong
According to Othong, most Laotians can read Thai: “I would say Thai literature has had a large impact on Lao readers. Indeed, Laotian teenagers are fans of Thai teenage love novels. They read Thai books, watch Thai soap operas and listen to Thai songs.”
Othong visited Bangkok early this year for the launch of his SEA Write-awarded book titled Xin Mai Pouen Kao Kao (That Old Silk Skirt), which was translated into Thai by Jintrai, the pen name of Thai northeastern author Pramote Naijit, and published by Nanmee Books.
According to Pramote, there has been a significant change in the Thai perception of Laos and Lao literature over the past five years. When he first took up the task of translating works by Laotian writers 20 years ago (among them the ancient Lao epic Tao Hoong Tao Joueng), his friends warned him no Thais would be interested in reading them.
“But after years of following Westerners, more and more Thais have started to look around themselves. They may just want to know more about themselves and their neighbours,” Pramote reckons.
The greater interest in Laotian culture corresponds with a stronger diplomatic relationship and a large increase in investment across the Mekong. (Two bridges have been built so far, the first one in Nong Khai province over a decade ago). Two months ago, Thailand opened the first railway service between Nong Khai and Vientiane. Two more bridge constructions are in the pipeline at the border check points in Nakhon Panom and Chiang Rai while the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and energy conglomerate Banpu have invested in a couple of billion-baht energy projects.
Houng Aloun Danvilay
Luang Prabang has become a must-visit destination with Thai tourists - popular enough for a Thai film-maker to film Sabaidee Luang Prabang (Good Morning Luang Prabang) in Lao and chose a Laotian actress to co-star with Ananda Everingham, an Australian-Laotian actor who grew up in Thailand.
After all, the previous lack of interest among Thais towards literature of neighbouring countries is something worth contemplating. Suchart Swadsri, editor of literary magazine Chor Karaked, said most Thai writers including himself are usually more knowledgeable about Western writers than about writers from neighbouring countries.
“I dare say I learn about the literature of Southeast Asia from what has been translated into English,” Suchart said.
Last year, Suchart’s Chor Karaked turned to look eastward; a cultural trip was arranged to meet some Laotian authors. In a rare move, the magazine’s award now caters to works submitted by Laotian writers as well.
It is not only Thai writers who have started to take Lao literature seriously. In 2007 Vietnam launched the so-called Mekong Award, with attractive financial rewards and a commitment to translating the winning works into English. Interestingly, so far the award involves only works from Vietnam, Lao PDR and Cambodia, three countries with similar political backgrounds.
Boonsern Saengmaee
Despite being branded as sister countries, with similar language and culture, the relationship between Thailand and Laos has not always been smooth, plagued by a series of wars dating back to the early Rattanakosin period over two centuries ago, and then by colonisation, which turned Laos and most Southeast Asian countries into colonies of Western superpowers. Since the communist Pathet Lao took over Laos in 1975, the ideological gulf has widened considerably, with Thailand standing at the opposite end of the political spectrum.
Another set of problems relates to the poor state of “literature” in Laos itself.
According to Othong, there is a virtual absence of “real professional writers” in Laos. “You cannot make a living from writing. You must have another job to earn a living,” said Othong, who himself works at the Lao Culture Ministry. Printing technology is not fully developed and books published in Laos are generally considered rather expensive: The average prices are around 60 to 80 baht, compared to the median salary estimated to be about 3,000 baht a month. The print run of each book is 1,000 to 2,000 per title, and it takes four to five years for a publisher to sell all the copies.
In effect, literature in the Lao PDR has suffered from the long years of political instability.
French colonisation forced locals to become Francophiles and there was a serious hiatus in the preservation of local literature from the past. “That was regrettable,” said Pramote, who also wrote an in-depth analysis on Lao literature in the Chor Karaked magazine’s March-June edition.
Pramote Naijit
According to Pramote, it was not until 1944 that the first Lao novel was printed in vernacular language: Praputtaroop Saksit (Sacred Buddha Image) by French-Laotian Somjin Pierre.
After the liberation, the content of Lao literature, often supervised by the government, became pro-socialist. In fact, books that have won the SEA Write awards hardly touch on politics, and most of the writers are government officers, including Othong.
But Othong said he begs to differ.
“This book [Xin Mai Pouen Kao Kao] is about politics too, but it is people’s politics. We [Lao writers] do not have to write about the structural problems of politics. Books with political content may come from individual experience or viewpoint … My book touches on the politics of the value of things in life.
"But if politics for you is about fighting, this book might not be political enough,” the soft-speaking author jibed.
Currently, Lao writers are experimenting with a new literary genre called “Jintanakarn Mai” or New Imaginary, which is said to be about the exploration of the processes and aftermath of social transformations.
In Xin Mai Pouen Kao Kao, for example, Othong examines the effects of capitalism and modernism on common people in rural Laos, how they reshape the social values and bring about a host of problems such as the spread of cigarettes, alcohol and gambling.
Like Othong, the 2005 SEA Write awardee Douang Deuane’s works do not criticise the government. Most of her works are dedicated to protecting the environment and traditional ways of life. An example of her poems reveals a lovely, simple narration of life in pristine nature couched in Buddhist values.
The literary infrastructure of Laos is at the start-up stage, according to Douang Deuane Bounyavong, who also received the prestigious 2005 Fukuoka Award and is an owner of Dokked Publishing.
Dokked publishes translations of world-class literature such as French and Russian masterpieces. It also produces a literary magazine for the family. However, it should be noted that the business has managed to stay afloat in part thanks to financial subsidies from foreign donors such as Japan. The publishing house also works with the Laotian government to improve the reading habits of the young by providing thousands of schools in the country with bookcases filled with children’s books that aim to teach children good values. Every now and then, Dokked also arranges workshops and book illustration classes for writers and children.
According to Douang Deuane, there is a lamentable lack of novels and stories of any substantial length in the local language.
A writer is like a boxer, she said, and there must be a regular match for them to practice the craft of boxing.
“But there are not many long stories in the Lao PDR because no one will publish them. Without space for published works, people will not read as a result,” she said in an interview in April, when she gave a talk on Lao culture at Thammasat University.
Whatever the condition of literature in the Lao PDR is, there is no better time for Thais to try the taste of Lao books.
“Thais should read more Lao books,” she reiterated in fluent Thai.
Francophone and also fluent in English and Russian, she is in a perfect position to talk about the dismal culture gap especially vis-a-vis reading habits.
“We are lucky enough to share a similar language. Thais can listen to Lao and read some Lao without much difficulty and vice versa. Thais can read Lao books and understand the full flavour and meaning without difficulty because our culture is so similar. With Western literature, there will always be some cultural gaps and greater language barrier as often words are lost in translation,” she said.
“When you understand the literature of a country, the rest will soon follow,” she said.
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