Creating Laos: The Making of a Lao Space between Siam and Indochina, 1860-1945

by Soren Ivarsson

Overview

This book examines the process through which Laos came into existence under French colonial rule through to the end of World War II. Here, Laos’s position at the intersection of two conflicting spatial layouts of "Thailand" and "Indochina" made its national form a particularly contested process. Rather than analyze this process in terms of administrative and political structures, the book discusses how a specific idea about a separate "Lao space" and its culture was formed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788776940232
Publisher:	NIAS
Publication date:	04/30/2008
Series:	Nias Monographs , #112
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

Table of Contents

Preface     ix
Abbreviations     x
Thai and Lao Language Conventions     xi
Introduction     1
Laos between Indochina and Siam
Colonialism and nationalism in Laos
The Colonial Encounter     24
Siam and the Mekong region: Interstate relations in the premodern period
The French and the Mekong
The colonial encounter: Two conflicting spatial layouts
The French colonial discourse on the Lao: Notions of race and history
Thai Discourses on History and Race     60
Making Laos 'our' space: Belonging in history
Making Laos 'our' space: Rethinking national maps
Suwannaphum or Laem Thong: The racial link
Demanding the return of the lost territories
Roads, History, Religion and Language, 1893-1940     93
Laos between Siam and Indochina: Linking space
Laos in Indochina: The Vietnamese link
Towards a national history of Laos
Towards a nationalisation of religion: The Buddhist Institute
Towards a standardisation of the written Lao language
The Campaign for a National 'Re-awakening', 1941-1945     145
Outline of the campaign for a national renovation in Laos
Towards a new national space: The problem of unification
A national reawakening: The importance of history and Franco-Lao cooperation
Les Annamites et nous: An ambivalent relationship
Cultural revival: Literature and songs
'Siam-ification' or 'Laoification': The issue of language standardisation
Setting Laos Free from the French     208
Turning the idea of Laos against the French
Concluding remarks: Bringing Laos into existence
Bibliography     219
Index     235