Author: Grant Evans
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 452
Book Description
Lao royalty's engagement in all the major events of the country in the last century forms a rich and complex narrative. But with the 1975 Communist revolution this history fell into oblivion and has all but disappeared from public memory. The Last Century of Lao Royalty recovers this history by presenting a wealth of rare documents and photographs. They bring to life the political, social, and cultural activities of the members of the royal families and provide a unique perspective on the role of royalty in modern Laos. Royalty was, in fact, a force for moderation, modernization, and democracy during the period of the Royal Lao Government (1947-1975). The last king, King Sisavang Vatthana, for instance, refused to give his imprimatur to a military dictatorship because he was so doggedly committed to constitutional rule.
The Last Century of Lao Royalty
Author: Grant Evans
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 452
Book Description
Lao royalty's engagement in all the major events of the country in the last century forms a rich and complex narrative. But with the 1975 Communist revolution this history fell into oblivion and has all but disappeared from public memory. The Last Century of Lao Royalty recovers this history by presenting a wealth of rare documents and photographs. They bring to life the political, social, and cultural activities of the members of the royal families and provide a unique perspective on the role of royalty in modern Laos. Royalty was, in fact, a force for moderation, modernization, and democracy during the period of the Royal Lao Government (1947-1975). The last king, King Sisavang Vatthana, for instance, refused to give his imprimatur to a military dictatorship because he was so doggedly committed to constitutional rule.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 452
Book Description
Lao royalty's engagement in all the major events of the country in the last century forms a rich and complex narrative. But with the 1975 Communist revolution this history fell into oblivion and has all but disappeared from public memory. The Last Century of Lao Royalty recovers this history by presenting a wealth of rare documents and photographs. They bring to life the political, social, and cultural activities of the members of the royal families and provide a unique perspective on the role of royalty in modern Laos. Royalty was, in fact, a force for moderation, modernization, and democracy during the period of the Royal Lao Government (1947-1975). The last king, King Sisavang Vatthana, for instance, refused to give his imprimatur to a military dictatorship because he was so doggedly committed to constitutional rule.
The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance
Author: Grant Evans
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824820541
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244
Book Description
Communist revolutions in this century have suppressed existing ritual and symbolic structures and invented new ones. Armed with new flags, new national celebrations, or new school textbooks, they have attempted to reconstruct social memory. This fascinating work of political anthropology examines the case of Laos from the heady days of the 1975 revolution to the more sober "post-socialist" present. Grant Evans traces the attempt at ritual and symbolic change in Laos, and the recent reemergence of older and deeper cultural structures, while identifying what has perhaps been irretrievably lost. In this challenging study of the cultural consequences of failed total revolution, Evans reaches some striking conclusions concerning the nature of social memory, cultural possibilities foregone, and the need for cultural continuity.
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824820541
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244
Book Description
Communist revolutions in this century have suppressed existing ritual and symbolic structures and invented new ones. Armed with new flags, new national celebrations, or new school textbooks, they have attempted to reconstruct social memory. This fascinating work of political anthropology examines the case of Laos from the heady days of the 1975 revolution to the more sober "post-socialist" present. Grant Evans traces the attempt at ritual and symbolic change in Laos, and the recent reemergence of older and deeper cultural structures, while identifying what has perhaps been irretrievably lost. In this challenging study of the cultural consequences of failed total revolution, Evans reaches some striking conclusions concerning the nature of social memory, cultural possibilities foregone, and the need for cultural continuity.
Last Century of Lao Royalty
Author: Grant Evans
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789749575864
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789749575864
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Historical Dictionary of Laos
Author: Martin Stuart-Fox
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538120283
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 751
Book Description
Laos has the smallest population, the weakest military, and despite rapid economic growth in recent years, one of the lowest levels of per capita income in mainland Southeast Asia. Yet a glance at the map reveals its strategic location, between China and Cambodia and Thailand and Vietnam. As Laos was formerly a crossroads for trade routes, the socialist government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic seeks to transform the country into a prosperous crossroads at the heart of this rapidly developing region. Historical Dictionary of Laos, Fourth Edition provides an in-depth examination of one of the least-known countries in Southeast Asia through a detailed chronology, comprehensive introduction, and extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 1,000 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, as well as aspects of the country’s politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book will be an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Laos.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538120283
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 751
Book Description
Laos has the smallest population, the weakest military, and despite rapid economic growth in recent years, one of the lowest levels of per capita income in mainland Southeast Asia. Yet a glance at the map reveals its strategic location, between China and Cambodia and Thailand and Vietnam. As Laos was formerly a crossroads for trade routes, the socialist government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic seeks to transform the country into a prosperous crossroads at the heart of this rapidly developing region. Historical Dictionary of Laos, Fourth Edition provides an in-depth examination of one of the least-known countries in Southeast Asia through a detailed chronology, comprehensive introduction, and extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 1,000 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, as well as aspects of the country’s politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book will be an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Laos.
Monarchies and decolonisation in Asia
Author: Robert Aldrich
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526142716
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 459
Book Description
With original case studies of a more than a dozen countries, Monarchies and decolonisation in Asia offers new perspectives on how both European monarchs who reigned over Asian colonies and Asian royal houses adapted to decolonisation. As colonies became independent states (and European countries, and other colonial powers, lost their overseas empires), monarchies faced the challenges of decolonisation, republicanism and radicalism. These studies place dynasties – both European and ‘native’ – at the centre of debate about decolonisation and the form of government of new states, from the sovereigns of Britain, the Netherlands and Japan to the maharajas of India, the sultans of the East Indies and the ‘white rajahs’ of Sarawak. It provides new understanding of the history of decolonisation and of the history of modern monarchy.
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526142716
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 459
Book Description
With original case studies of a more than a dozen countries, Monarchies and decolonisation in Asia offers new perspectives on how both European monarchs who reigned over Asian colonies and Asian royal houses adapted to decolonisation. As colonies became independent states (and European countries, and other colonial powers, lost their overseas empires), monarchies faced the challenges of decolonisation, republicanism and radicalism. These studies place dynasties – both European and ‘native’ – at the centre of debate about decolonisation and the form of government of new states, from the sovereigns of Britain, the Netherlands and Japan to the maharajas of India, the sultans of the East Indies and the ‘white rajahs’ of Sarawak. It provides new understanding of the history of decolonisation and of the history of modern monarchy.
Spirits of the Place
Author: John Clifford Holt
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824833279
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
Spirits of the Place is a rare and timely contribution to our understanding of religious culture in Laos and Southeast Asia. Most often studied as a part of Thai, Vietnamese, or Khmer history, Laos remains a terra incognita to most Westerners—and to many of the people living throughout Asia as well. John Holt’s new book brings this fascinating nation into focus. With its overview of Lao Buddhism and analysis of how shifting political power—from royalty to democracy to communism—has impacted Lao religious culture, the book offers an integrated account of the entwined political and religious history of Laos from the fourteenth century to the contemporary era. Holt advances the provocative argument that common Lao knowledge of important aspects of Theravada Buddhist thought and practice has been heavily conditioned by an indigenous religious culture dominated by the veneration of phi, spirits whose powers are thought to prevail over and within specific social and geographical domains. The enduring influence of traditional spirit cults in Lao culture and society has brought about major changes in how the figure of the Buddha and the powers associated with Buddhist temples and reliquaries—indeed how all ritual spaces and times—have been understood by the Lao. Despite vigorous attempts by Buddhist royalty, French rationalists, and most recently by communist ideologues to eliminate the worship of phi, spirit cults have not been displaced; they continue to persist and show no signs of abating. Not only have the spirits resisted eradication, but they have withstood synthesis, subordination, and transformation by Buddhist political and ecclesiastical powers. Rather than reduce Buddhist religious culture to a set of simple commonalities, Holt takes a comparative approach, using his nearly thirty years’ experience with Sri Lanka to elucidate what is unique about Lao Buddhism. This stimulating book invites students in the fields of the history of religion and Buddhist and Southeast Asian studies to take a fresh look at prevailing assumptions and perhaps reconsider the place of Buddhism in Laos and Southeast Asia.
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824833279
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
Spirits of the Place is a rare and timely contribution to our understanding of religious culture in Laos and Southeast Asia. Most often studied as a part of Thai, Vietnamese, or Khmer history, Laos remains a terra incognita to most Westerners—and to many of the people living throughout Asia as well. John Holt’s new book brings this fascinating nation into focus. With its overview of Lao Buddhism and analysis of how shifting political power—from royalty to democracy to communism—has impacted Lao religious culture, the book offers an integrated account of the entwined political and religious history of Laos from the fourteenth century to the contemporary era. Holt advances the provocative argument that common Lao knowledge of important aspects of Theravada Buddhist thought and practice has been heavily conditioned by an indigenous religious culture dominated by the veneration of phi, spirits whose powers are thought to prevail over and within specific social and geographical domains. The enduring influence of traditional spirit cults in Lao culture and society has brought about major changes in how the figure of the Buddha and the powers associated with Buddhist temples and reliquaries—indeed how all ritual spaces and times—have been understood by the Lao. Despite vigorous attempts by Buddhist royalty, French rationalists, and most recently by communist ideologues to eliminate the worship of phi, spirit cults have not been displaced; they continue to persist and show no signs of abating. Not only have the spirits resisted eradication, but they have withstood synthesis, subordination, and transformation by Buddhist political and ecclesiastical powers. Rather than reduce Buddhist religious culture to a set of simple commonalities, Holt takes a comparative approach, using his nearly thirty years’ experience with Sri Lanka to elucidate what is unique about Lao Buddhism. This stimulating book invites students in the fields of the history of religion and Buddhist and Southeast Asian studies to take a fresh look at prevailing assumptions and perhaps reconsider the place of Buddhism in Laos and Southeast Asia.
Tourism and Monarchy in Southeast Asia
Author: Ploysri Porananond
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443816612
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279
Book Description
Monarchies around the world play a significant role in tourism development and the tourist experience. Debates about the level of finance required to support monarchies often refer to the positive tourist attraction provided by royal pageantry, palaces, temples and churches, architecture, museum collections, and historical legacies. Up to now, the literature on tourism and monarchy has been primarily devoted to the history and experiences of Western Europe, particularly the United Kingdom. There has been little attention devoted to the relationship between monarchy and tourism development in Southeast Asia, and this is the first collection of essays to address this neglected field of study. The need to shift the focus from European to Asian royalty is important not only to begin to fill gaps in the literature on monarchy and tourism outside Europe, but also to avoid the increasing criticism of tourism studies that its major perspectives, orientations and paradigms have been based on an overly Eurocentric preoccupation. Case studies are taken from Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore.
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443816612
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279
Book Description
Monarchies around the world play a significant role in tourism development and the tourist experience. Debates about the level of finance required to support monarchies often refer to the positive tourist attraction provided by royal pageantry, palaces, temples and churches, architecture, museum collections, and historical legacies. Up to now, the literature on tourism and monarchy has been primarily devoted to the history and experiences of Western Europe, particularly the United Kingdom. There has been little attention devoted to the relationship between monarchy and tourism development in Southeast Asia, and this is the first collection of essays to address this neglected field of study. The need to shift the focus from European to Asian royalty is important not only to begin to fill gaps in the literature on monarchy and tourism outside Europe, but also to avoid the increasing criticism of tourism studies that its major perspectives, orientations and paradigms have been based on an overly Eurocentric preoccupation. Case studies are taken from Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore.
Bamboo Palace
Author: Christopher Kremmer
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 0730449599
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 65
Book Description
In the dying days of the Vietnam War, a royal family is rounded up and flown by helicopter to a remote prison camp. Behind the bamboo curtain erected by victorious communist guerillas, the tragic final days of an Asian king and his dynasty will play out. Bestselling author of the Carpet Wars, Christopher Kremmer takes readers on a gripping odyssey to Indochina's heart of darkness, the remote prison camp where the Kingdom of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol finally ends. Part travelogue, part mystery, Bamboo Palace reveals the only known eye-witness account of the final solution carried out in the jungles of northern Laos. 'thrilling ... a marvellous gift for the well-turned phrase' - Michael Smithies, the Nation 'Now this is what I call a travel book' - Dianne Dempsey, the Age
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 0730449599
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 65
Book Description
In the dying days of the Vietnam War, a royal family is rounded up and flown by helicopter to a remote prison camp. Behind the bamboo curtain erected by victorious communist guerillas, the tragic final days of an Asian king and his dynasty will play out. Bestselling author of the Carpet Wars, Christopher Kremmer takes readers on a gripping odyssey to Indochina's heart of darkness, the remote prison camp where the Kingdom of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol finally ends. Part travelogue, part mystery, Bamboo Palace reveals the only known eye-witness account of the final solution carried out in the jungles of northern Laos. 'thrilling ... a marvellous gift for the well-turned phrase' - Michael Smithies, the Nation 'Now this is what I call a travel book' - Dianne Dempsey, the Age
Embodied Nation
Author: Simon Creak
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824875125
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
This strikingly original book examines how sport and ideas of physicality have shaped the politics and culture of modern Laos. Viewing the country's extraordinary transitions—from French colonialism to royalist nationalism to revolutionary socialism to the modern development state—through the lens of physical culture, Simon Creak's lively and incisive narrative illuminates a nation that has no reputation in sport and is typically viewed, even from within, as a country of cheerful but lazy people. Creak argues that sport and related physical practices—including physical education, gymnastics, and military training—have shaped a national consciousness by locating it in everyday experience. These practices are popular, participatory, performative, and, above all, physical in character and embody ideas and ideologies in a symbolic and experiential way. Embodied Nation takes readers on a brisk ride through more than a century of Lao history, from a nineteenth-century game of tikhi—an indigenous game resembling field hockey—to the country's unprecedented outpouring of nationalist sentiment when hosting the 2009 Southeast Asian Games. En route, we witness a Lao-Vietnamese soccer brawl in 1936, the fascist-inspired body ethic of the early 1940s, the novel modes of military masculinity that blossomed with national independence, the spectacular state theatrics of power represented by Olympic-inspired sports festivals, and the high hopes and frequent failures of socialist sport in the 1970s and 1980s. Of central concern in Creak's narrative are the twin motifs of gender and civilization. Despite increasing female participation since the early twentieth century, he demonstrates the major role that sport and physical culture have played in forming hegemonic masculinities in Laos. Even with limited national sporting success—Laos has never won an Olympic medal—the healthy, toned, and muscular form has come to symbolize material development and prosperity. Embodied Nation outlines the complex ways in which these motifs, through sport and physical culture, articulate with state power. Combining cultural and intellectual history with historical thick description, Creak draws on a creative array of Lao and French sources from previously unexplored archives, newspapers, and magazines, and from ethnographic writing, war photography, and cartoons. More than an "imagined community" or "geobody," he shows that Laos was also a "body at work," making substantive theoretical contributions not only to Southeast Asian studies and history, but to the study of the physical culture, nationalism, masculinity, and modernity in all modern societies.
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824875125
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
This strikingly original book examines how sport and ideas of physicality have shaped the politics and culture of modern Laos. Viewing the country's extraordinary transitions—from French colonialism to royalist nationalism to revolutionary socialism to the modern development state—through the lens of physical culture, Simon Creak's lively and incisive narrative illuminates a nation that has no reputation in sport and is typically viewed, even from within, as a country of cheerful but lazy people. Creak argues that sport and related physical practices—including physical education, gymnastics, and military training—have shaped a national consciousness by locating it in everyday experience. These practices are popular, participatory, performative, and, above all, physical in character and embody ideas and ideologies in a symbolic and experiential way. Embodied Nation takes readers on a brisk ride through more than a century of Lao history, from a nineteenth-century game of tikhi—an indigenous game resembling field hockey—to the country's unprecedented outpouring of nationalist sentiment when hosting the 2009 Southeast Asian Games. En route, we witness a Lao-Vietnamese soccer brawl in 1936, the fascist-inspired body ethic of the early 1940s, the novel modes of military masculinity that blossomed with national independence, the spectacular state theatrics of power represented by Olympic-inspired sports festivals, and the high hopes and frequent failures of socialist sport in the 1970s and 1980s. Of central concern in Creak's narrative are the twin motifs of gender and civilization. Despite increasing female participation since the early twentieth century, he demonstrates the major role that sport and physical culture have played in forming hegemonic masculinities in Laos. Even with limited national sporting success—Laos has never won an Olympic medal—the healthy, toned, and muscular form has come to symbolize material development and prosperity. Embodied Nation outlines the complex ways in which these motifs, through sport and physical culture, articulate with state power. Combining cultural and intellectual history with historical thick description, Creak draws on a creative array of Lao and French sources from previously unexplored archives, newspapers, and magazines, and from ethnographic writing, war photography, and cartoons. More than an "imagined community" or "geobody," he shows that Laos was also a "body at work," making substantive theoretical contributions not only to Southeast Asian studies and history, but to the study of the physical culture, nationalism, masculinity, and modernity in all modern societies.
Creating Laos
Author: Søren Ivarsson
Publisher: NIAS Press
ISBN: 8776940233
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
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.
Publisher: NIAS Press
ISBN: 8776940233
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
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.