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The National Library of Australia has just acquired a complete microfilm series of the Lao newspaper Xat Lao which was published, with American funding, between 1963 and 1974. The paper has good information on the daily activities of some of the key figures of the period, such as Suvannaphouma and Suphanawong. There is interesting and relatively “free” discussion about corruption in the government and the military and some interesting poetry and fiction that reflect the American-fuelled bubble economy of Vientiane at the time. The paper also includes a series by Maha Sila Viravong on the standardisation of the Lao language and on the culture, customs and history of Laos. Not many libraries in the world hold this important resource.
Here are a few sample pages.
- An ex-Pathet Lao soldier gave an interview about why he defected from the jungle. The article includes a chart of Pathet Lao organisation in Attapeu. [3-march-1964.jpg]
- Maha Sila Viravong on the history of Wat Phou. [23-january-1964.jpg]
- A report that Prime Minster Suvannaphouma’s plane could not take off due to thick fog in Sam Neua. [21-january-1964.jpg]
This is fascinating stuff, particularly since some of the people who played prominent roles in this war were recently or are still living in Northern Thailand. Dr. McDaniels of Chiang Rai who wrote a memoir of his experiences as a doctor during this era just recently passed away.
Walking through the history museum in downtown VIentienne raised more questions than it answered for me. Newspapers are a good source for social history, so maybe someone will write social history with them.
The question that naturally arises is how graduate students and historians can put these materials to use. The National Library also has the Coedes and Luce papers which makes it one of the best sources on Burmese epigraphy, my interest. Are there graduate students or professors doing work with these sources?
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Contrary to Thailand, documents in National Archive and National Library start to decay and disappear. Most of handwriting ducuments druring Rama 1-3 start to pale and unable to read. The same as “Khon Maung Newspaper” in Chiang Mai University live in very dangerous condition etc.
However they live in better condition tha Alsorn Tham and Laos Buhan script.
Reply to Jon Fernquest, I interest in the same period (pre-modern mainland southeast asia)
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“Contrary to Thailand, documents in National Archive and National Library start to decay and disappear.”
Hopefully they will be digitised like this wonderful repository of old Burmese manuscripts in Japan:
http://taweb.aichi-u.ac.jp/DMSEH/index.html
IMHO preserving those old manuscripts maybe requires convincing grant proposals which in turn rely on thorough surveys of existing published material and how making unpublished manuscripts would supplement and add value to the published stuff. I’ve been working slowly but surely through all the published Burmese stuff (c. 1350-1600), next microfilms, then paper books (parabaik) and palm leaf (bei-sa, bai-lan).
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Hopefully they will be digitised like this wonderful repository of old Burmese manuscripts in Japan:
Once Thaksin promised to grant money for National Library but ……
There are “The Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation” support by Max Planck and Pali Text Society.
http://www.palitext.com/subpages/project.htm
http://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/content/buddhism
In Thailand, I never heard about digitised project. I heard only Han-Nom digital Library.
Now, I am newbie in Tham-Lanna, hoping to study social and economic history of Lanna
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Thank you for the info about the Han-Nom digital library project.
>I am newbie in Tham-Lanna, hoping to study
>social and economic history of Lanna.
I read/skimmed a long/encyclopedic paper by Hans Penth on rice in Lanna in the Journal of the Siam Society (v.86?-91?) this weekend. It was the best I’ve ever seen on pre-modern Lanna economic history. Volker Grabowsky’s work is great too.
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Jon Fernquest raises some excellent points, and I can offer him some comfort. Since late 2005 I have been engaged in a project to scan the linguistic papers of Gordon Luce, which exceed more than 8000 pages. With agreement of the NLA the scanned images will be published soon at: http://sealang.net/ by the Centre for Research in Computational Linguistics. The same centre is also preparing a project to publish on-line the corpus of SEAsian classical inscriptions at http://sealang.net/classic/
The extensive Coedes and Luce collections are certainly magnificent yet under-utilised resources, and researchers should note that the NLA offers fellowships for travel and accommodation in Canberra to facilitate research access to the collections, see: http://www.nla.gov.au/grants/haroldwhite/
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Paul, thank you for that information. Luce’s papers seem to be important for several reasons:
1. Mon epigraphy has Shorto’s dictionary which Burmese epigraphy lacks.
[Although I found this ref at UC Berkeley which seems to be a start: “Spelling of Burmese language words found on inscriptions on stone tablets of Pagan period, 11th-14th century with their equivalents in present day writing. (2001) Pu gam khet? Mran? ma kyok? ca abhidhan?, ka mha a / U? Mrat? Kyo?. Author Mrat? Kyo?, Mran? ma ca A phvai? U?.” ]
2. U Tin Htway in his paper: Tin Htway, U (2001). “Burmese epigraphy: G.H. Luce’s legacy yet to be unearthed,” Aseanie 7, juin 2001, pp. 35-58. Indicates that Shei Haung Myanmar Kyauksa is not reliable or adequate and that going back to Luce’s original notebooks is necessary.
3. The language of inscriptions really seems to require a mentor and familiarity with Luce’s working methods. I was wondering how useful this work is: Than Tun (1957) Notes on a course on Burmese epigraphy (Pukam dynasty) conducted at the Burma Historical Commission.
Translation/interpretation of Burmese inscriptions seems to have a lot of potential for online collaboration because translation is not always straightforward and is often contested.
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Thanks for the excellent Xat Lao hint, Saowapha 🙂
In Laos itself (as far as I know, at least) there are only a few exemplars of that paper to be found and I was really looking for it. The MInistry of Education/State Printing House has a ‘library’ and a quite complete and old collection of “Pathet Lao”. Also some other papers like Vientiane Mai but only very few older and now unreadable Xad Lao.
Does anyone know a library in Europe or Laos that has Xad Lao or other media documentation of that era related to politics, culture and everyday life? Some more sources for a social history of Laos during the pre-revolutionary/cold war era would be a great thing to work with.
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i have the current news spaper or also i want to tell you
website you can get a good pictures
i think it can update you website a lot
give you http://www.vientiantimes.org.la
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This email is for Jon Fernquest,
I am interested on your thoughts on Bob Hudson’s research on the Mon in Lower Burma.
http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/~hudson/ArchaeologyOfBurma-Gutman&Hudson2004.pdf
The work of this archeologist in my view is questionable. His close collaboration with Michael Aung Thwin who has extreme prejudices against the ethnic peoples, in particular, the Mon, should be brought up. I believe they are biased in favour of doing work in Burma and wouldn’t be allowed to work there if they brought up research on the Mon. The Mon in lower Burma are now experiencing the intensification of Burmanisation in which thousands of acres of farmland have been confiscated for Burman military families and battalions, please vist Mon human rights foundations to see reports, as well as http://www.kaowao.org on the suppression of the Mon culture in which the Mon people are experiencing.
Also, according to some of my Mon friends, there are many sites in lower Burma, however, due to militarisation in the area no outsiders are allowed here, so no archeological research would be allowed. Although, I am sure Hudson would be.
I would like to know Jon your thoughts on the Pyu and their relationship to the Mon if you know. I am reading Emmanuel Guillon’ book. But I would like to know if you have any up to date material on the Pyu, some archeologist are of the mind of Hudson and say that the Mon did not contribute to Pagan. Although, looking at the history of Dvaravati, I would say the Mon in Dvaravati share many characteristics with the Pyu.
Thank you,
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Hi everyone,
I am volunteering for a social enterprise – Digital Divide Data (DDD) – in Vientiane, Laos. We offer digitization services while providing job opportunities for disadvantaged youths. Please view our website, http://www.digitaldividedata.org, for more information.
There is starting to be a push to preserve Lao archival documents, and I am seeking opportunities for DDD to leverage its expertise in this field. Could anyone provide lead(s) in this area (e.g. donor funded projects, NGOs responsible for overseeing this intiative)?
Thanks!
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