Laos Essential Artistry

Northern haze causes flight cancellations in northern Laos

Bai and I have recently been talking about maybe (20% chance) going up to Muang Sing this summer since it’s been four years since we’ve last visited the dynamic Hmong, Mien and Tai Dam women whose textiles we feature on our Yahoo store. And coincidentally we just read an article in the online Vientiane Times (that we’re including in this post below) about the smoke from slash and burn (swidden) agriculture causing the cancelation of flights to the north of Laos. Because Lao Airlines doesn’t fly to Sam Neua, Sam Neua wasn’t mentioned, but we’re sure that the air is just as smoky there. Visiting Muang Sing is about as difficult as it is to visit Sam Neua. Driving to either destination would take two normal days, but they’re only a little over an hour by plane and luckily Lao Capricorn Air flies where Lao Airlines doesn’t want to fly to and flies to Sam Neua three days a week. But just because there’s a flight scheduled it doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed to fly. We’ve been delayed flying to Sam Neua several times because Sam Neua, being in a valley surrounded by mountains often gets fogged in. But if it’s not fog, then as the article below reveals, it’s smoke that can stop a plane from flying.

Northern haze causes flight cancellations – Vientiane Times (March 18, 2010)

“Lao Airlines has had to cancel flights on northern routes in Laos for the last three days because of poor visibility, according to an airline official. A Lao Airlines flight operations employee, who preferred to remain anonymous, said flights from Oudomxay, Luang Namtha and Bokeo provinces were cancelled from last Tuesday due to thick smoke from slash and burn agriculture. “The cancellation of flights in these three provinces was due to smoke from slash and burn activities in the area as well as from neighboring countries. The smoke causes our pilots to lose a great deal of visibility, so they could only see for a distance of about 100 metres in the morning and about 1,500 metres in the afternoon. Pilots normally have to see ahead at least 4,000 metres.”

Lao Airlines receives weather information from the Meteorology and Hydrology Department to help the airline decide whether or not to fly. The unnamed source said services between Vientiane and Oudomxay province resumed yesterday because rain falling in Luang Prabang province had helped to clear the air. Services to Luang Namtha and Bokeo remained on hold. “At this time of the year we always have problems with slash and burn farming,” the airline employee said.

“When the rain starts in the next month or so, it will make it easier for us to fly to the northern provinces.” “From now, we have to make a decision based on the weather conditions each day. If the weather is good, the airline will fly,” he added. Oudomxay and Bokeo provinces usually have three flights per week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, while flights to Luang Namtha are four days per week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. “The bad weather conditions caused the airline to lose significant income, because we had to provide passengers with a refund,” said Lao Airlines Marketing Director, Mr Sitthideth Douangsiththy.

Thick smoke from slash and burn farming has already been causing respiratory problems and affecting agriculture in Luang Prabang province. The smoke has also caused transport difficulties, especially along the road from Phoukhoun, where slash and burn cultivation is commonplace.”

In Laos, and generally all of Laos, from about mid-February through mid-April the sky is a monotonous shade of grayish white, which seems to blanket the country. The fact though is that if villagers don’t burn away brush and trees they’ve cut down, they won’t have any land to plant rice, corn, maize and other vegetables. The Lao government has been trying to impose limits on the acreage subjected to swidden agriculture, but I’m not sure they’re winning the battle. Below are some photos we’ve taken from the air and one (last one) we took hiking to an Akha village up by Muang Sing.

 

 

 

Patuxay Monument Revisited in Vientiane, Laos

 

I've including a recent article I read in the Vientiane Times about the Patuxai Monument, a prominent feature of downtown Vientiane. Really, the best thing about the monument is paying the minimal entrance fee and walking up the concrete stairs to the top level where there are incredible views of Vientiane. I've including two photos we've taken, one of the monument facing east taken a ground level and one taken from the top level facing west. In this photo you can see how the Don Chan Palace Hotel towers over everything in Vientiane, perched as it is alongside the Mekong River.

"Patuxay Monument Revisited

 

Walking along Lane Xang Avenue in Vientiane from Horkham Palace to the That Luang stupa, one comes across various interesting attractions and shopping areas but it is impossible to miss the eye-catching Patuxay Monument .

 

Patuxay is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Vientiane , and is also popular with local residents who like to walk around it and its adjacent garden for exercise during the cooler hours of the evening.

Some people mistakenly believe the monument was designed by the French. In actual fact it was designed by a Lao citizen named Mr Tham Sayasithsena.

 

In 1957 Mr Tham's design was selected from among many drawn up by the Royal Palace Office in Luang Prabang province, Public Works Department, Housing Department, Building Construction Department, Military Engineering Department and individual private designers. He received the grand sum of 30,000 kip when his design was chosen as the best.

 

When I visited Mr Tham, 95, recently, he explained some interesting aspects of his design, which led me to visit the monument to explore it in depth last week.

 

The monument features four archways, opening to each point of the compass. The east and west archways open onto Lang Xang Avenue and were designed to be used for parades on days of national significance.

Adjacent to each of the four outside corners of the monument are ponds constructed to represent the longitudinal cross section of the bud of a lotus flower.

 

On each corner of the monument there is a statue of a Naga king, standing at attention with crest raised and mouth open to spray water into the ponds below. The Naga king is one of the mythical symbols of the Lao nation. The cascading water symbolizes nature, fertility, welfare and happiness.

 

The lotus shaped ponds represent the sacred flower which Lao people use to offer their respects to the beloved heroes who have performed deeds of bravery for the nation.

 

On each corner of the upper level of the monument there are small towers decorated with carvings of foliage. The towers also have places where decorative lights can be installed during important celebrations and ceremonies.

 

There are two concrete staircases winding up the inside of the monument, leading to each floor and viewing areas on the upper levels. There are also, as yet incomplete, elevators on two diagonal corners for those who can't make the climb. Climbing the staircase and arriving at the first floor, visitors come across a space used as an office for staff responsible for management, security, maintenance, restoration, and sanitation at the monument. There are also stalls selling antiquities, souvenirs, cultural products and refreshments.

 

The second level is a highly significant place, intended to be a museum of Lao heroes and heroines of all eras, with statues and portraits of valiant kings, and great heroes and heroines. This is a place where Lao people can remember the great battles and stories of courageous kings and national heroes.

 

Reaching the upper level visitors arrive at a wide-open air platform. This is where the towers mentioned earlier are located, each designed in traditional Lao architectural style and featuring a spiral shaped tip.

Each tower is located at the top of a staircase or one of the two lifts. There is also a fifth larger tower located in the centre. It has a staircase leading to a viewing platform with a telescope where visitors can enjoy panoramic views of Vientiane and beyond.

 

The five towers denote the precepts of peaceful coexistence adhered to by nations around the world, bringing happiness, security, freedom and justice to people everywhere. They also represent the principles of Buddhist Dhamma - of the middle path filled with thoughtful amiability, flexibility, honesty, honour and prosperity.

Mr Tham said the monument is still only 90 percent complete. Construction took place between 1957 and 1960, at a cost of around 63 million kip. At that time the exchange rate was 35 kip to US$1.

 

Patuxay is one of many sites that Vientiane authorities maintain for tourists and residents alike to enjoy.

Next year it will be colorfully decorated with flowers and lights for the 450th anniversary of Vientiane as the capital of Laos ."

 

By Xayxana Leukai – Vientiane Times
(Latest Update November 2 , 2009)

 

Hmong Tiger in Laos

I recently came across a Hmong poem on the Internet I really like called "The Hmong Tiger." Tigers are very important in the Hmong cosmology and there are many folk stories the Hmong tell where the tiger is a main protagonist. The Hmong have a large repertoire of folktales that they have been orally passed down over the centuries, explaining such things as the creation of the world and the origins of the Hmong people and also provide lessons on how to treat others and live wisely and provide lessons for how to treat others well. Here at Laos Essential Artistry we have some storycloths that tell some of these folktales and the above photo was taken from one of these storycloths. We don't have them up on our storycloth section, but maybe after our trip to Laos this summer we'll add a small collection of the Hmong folktale storycloths.

This poem I think well describes the angst many Hmong feel in transitioning between cultures and traditions. What do you hold on to? What do you let go? What do you remember? What do you want to remember? What do you forget? What do you want to forget?

When I read the poem I think about Mai's grandma and her lady friends in Ban Phu Leuy. The Hmong who lived in the mountains of Laos had to live with and conquer their fears, including the tiger, and these ladies are proud, strong survivors. I miss them. As is reflected in the poem, there is a lot to be learned from the tiger and if approached respectfully everyone comes away a winner. I include the photos of these special Hmong ladies  after the end of the poem.

"The Hmong Tiger"
"Phong Koob"
Thu, 22 Apr 1999 07:38:43 PDT

I am a tiger.
I come from the mountain ranges of Laos;
Where opium poppies and dirt road villages
dot the mountainside,
Where people rise up to the sound of roosters,
Where rooster crow because they are not locked up
in multi-complex hen houses
where day and night are control by a hand switch,
Where grandma's and grandpa's watch the children
because they are too old to work in the fields,
Where children roast grasshoppers and beetles for snacks,
Where men carry axes and rifles
and theirs wives carry baskets and hoes,
Where people fear the dark
and strange growls in the night,
Where men talk of tiger sightings
and tiger attacks but of which, none has seen.

I am a tiger.
I come from the tragic mountains of Laos;
Where old men, young men and boys
rise to the sound of war,
stirred by the callings of flamboyant leaders
with their many wives and their U.S. dollars,
Where 12 year old boys carried military rifles
as tall as them,
Where men fought secret wars
with their northern neighbors for U.S. idealism,
Where they died, unknown, unheard and unreported
by the American press,
Where indigenous farmers are taught good and evil by CIA personnel
with their McCarthy propaganda.

I am the tiger.
I come from a land;
Where the girls keep their skin white
and marry men with wealth and power because
they are tired of their fathers' rice fields,
Where the adults are more afraid of ghosts
than the children,
Where the funeral rites last a whole week
and the funeral drums can be heard throughout
the whole village,
Where mourning is encourage as a public display of sorrow
and each family member take their turn at the coffin,
Where the dead goes not to Heaven nor to Hell,
Where shamans decorated their altars with pig chin bones,
Incense and paper money,
Where food and wine and clothing are given
To accompany the dead on their journey to the ancestral land,
Where the dead are dressed in their best clothes
And their shoe are crisis-crossed
So they can not come back to haunt the living,
Where the children are not baptized
And their parents do not teach them morality,
Where homosexuality is unheard of
And sin is unknown.

I am the tiger.
I use to live in a place
Where men and women, young and old,
giggle at the sight of long legged strangers,
Where a dead man's wife is usually given
to his unmarried brother,
Where every answer to a young man's crisis
is to get him a wife,
Where young girls are consider "soft"
and girls 18 years or older are consider "rough,"
Where marriages are usually forced or prearranged
but the song verses are full of love and romance,
Where men eat before the women and children
at ceremonial gatherings,
Where men get out their home made rice wine
and drink long into the night,
Where women sat around in circles
and chatter about their sons and daughters,
Where children play hide and seek
in the dirt streets in their worn out clothes,
Where men tell hunting stories to each other
with each successive story more spectacular than the previous,
Where the old men tell of their encounters
with goblins and tigers and ghosts as if it were their passage rite,
Where a woman's right is to scorn her husband
for drinking too much,
Where people think the world is flat
and that the rainbow is a dragon
rising up to drink water during rain showers,
Where the people think Americans are cannibals
and yet consider them semi-divine because of their white skin.

I am a Hmong tiger.
I've live through the tragic war in Laos;
Where people caught up in a war beyond them
Sided with the idealistic and wealthy Americans
and French countries whose politicians determine
their policies through polls and 30 second television ads,
Where souls can not reincarnate
because there are no wombs to receive them,
Where dead bodies lay untouched in some deep ravine
Where even flies do not bother with them
because there are too many to choose from,
Where mothers and fathers put their beloved children
on top of their bags and carry them on their backs,
Where people are shot like duck while crossing the Mekong river,
Where once free independent people are now forced to lived
in refugees camps with nothing to do but wait
for their daily rations from the Red Cross
and other western humanitarian agencies,
Where hundreds of thousands of people fled
the war torn mountains of Laos
only to end up the black ghettos of Detroit.

I am a Hmong Tiger.
And I have come a long way.
Now I live in a country;
Where refugee teenagers think they are Americans
but all they know are the public housing ghettos,
the American slag of Ebonics and public assistance,
Where the poor live in small communities of reddish-brown houses
in the side of town where the streets are filled
with pot holes as if they are blown up by land mines or bombs,
Where the rich live in luxurious communities with court streets
that curve and blocks that do not intersect,
Where refugee parents that have succeeded in the American dream
do not speak to their children in their native tongue,
Where the rich Americanized refugees are embarrassed
to associate with their less successful fellow countrymen,
Where the children of the rich have a flawless American voice
but still have flat noses and yellow skin,
Where the parents pay their children to do the dishes
because they saw it done by their American sponsors,
Where the teenagers wear wide leg jeans
and bandanas on their heads
and talk with hands and body jesters
like Rap artists in music videos with big and irritable egos,
whose whole livelihood depends on being cool and outrageous,
Where teenagers roam about in packs and take collections
outside Amoco gas stations to buy cigarettes and beers,
dressed in self-fashion uniforms complete with hand signals and all
like the small gorilla units their fathers were in
back in the days of the war in Laos.

I am thee Hmong Tiger.
I came from the tragic mountains of Laos.
I now live in America;
Where parents are taught to consider their children
as their best friends,
Where children play solider in the living room on their nitendos
instead of the backyard or near by woods,
Where grandma's and grandpa's are sent to nursing homes
because they are too old to care for themselves,
Where they do not make food offering to the death
on the first of every year or on any days at all
because the dead have plenty in the kingdom of God,
Where children are expected to leave home
when they turn 18,
Where high power celebrities raise thousands of dollars
for environmental and idealistic causes
on some distant part of the world
while beggars with signs of "Will Work For Food"
stand outside the convention halls,
Where people still go hungry every night
searching through dumpster and sleeping on park benches
as if they were in Ethiopia or some poor third world country,
while ADM praise itself for being a supermarket to the world,
Where the people battle over immaterial social issues
like abortions and euthanasia and the death penalty
and complicate them with biblical theology
and moral philosophies,
Where ethics and morality is a complete disciplines in itself
but the people are not any more moral than the bush men
of Africa.

I am thee Hmong Tiger,
Radiant and yellow,
I use to lay in some quiet spot in the jungles of Laos
and wait for some fresh meat to come by,
I would kill it and take it home to my family;
for my children, my wife, my mother and my father.
Such were the times on the mountains of Laos.
-koobphong lee

Laos Essential Artistry Feedback

Running an online business like Laos Essential Artistry has many advantages, but what we do miss is person to person contact with our customers. What we sell on our site are much more than just products, they're like our own works of art, and when an order gets shipped off we always wonder what our customers think when they finally get to see the textile they've chosen in their very own hands. The one dimensional experience of seeing a textile on your monitor doesn't even begin to compare to holding in your hands and examining carefully. But, the Internet is the Internet... Maybe about 5% of our customers write back and let us know what they think, and thankfully people have always been more than happy. And when we have a customer place a second order right away (like a customer did when they just ordered a second Hmong Spirit People Cloth) we know we have a happy customer. The second cloth they bought can be seen above.

Plus, we know a lot of people browse through our Yahoo store and don't end up buying anything. Which is what we've expected and we put a lot of work into our copy to make our descriptions as educational as possible.

But when people browse we have no idea what most people think, but we got a response last night that helps make us feel we're doing the right thing:

 "Hi there. I have just back from my first trip to Laos with my daughters, and we too just loved the textiles and the women who so patiently made the works of art. My only regret is that they don't innovate more with designs and products to make more contemporary items. As much as I love traditional scarves and cushion covers, there is a limit to how much even an enthusiast can buy. Your site is wonderful, and I loved spending a couple of hours browsing on it and sighing ... in admiration of the beauty. Well done. Hope your business grows and prospers."

Lanterns, Sihos, Ngeuaks and Nagas in Lao Textiles

We’ve isolated this diamond shape piece from tapestry style textile woven in Sam Neua because we find the motifs, design and color especially mesmerizing in this textile.

We included in the introduction to the Sam Neua Silk Tapestry Wall-hangings as is written the catalog Weaving Tradition: Carol Cassidy and Woven Silks of Laos in the section Patterns and Motifs that “The motifs in Lao textiles reflect and record the complex history of the region. Some are drawn from the unique Lao Tai culture and are said to represent characters in traditional Lao epics. Others are derived from outside influences both ancient and recent. The imported motifs have been adopted and adapted by each weaver and translated into designs that express personal experiences, hopes and dreams…"

But what do all the motifs in the diamond shape mean? Luckily, we’ve had the good fortune to guide a friend of ours who is doing research on a book about Lao textiles from primarily the Sam Neua region and we asked her what she thought about the motifs in the above textile and she wrote back:

“This brightly colored diamond shape is called a "lantern" and is often found on such Lao-Tai textiles as shoulder cloths (phaa biang) and door curtains (phaa kang). Here it may come from a funeral panel. The central design is a saang hong (or siho) that represents a mythical being that is half elephant (see the trunk) and half bird (see the legs). In the center, the siho appears in a mirror-reversed design, and again on each side in two smaller versions.

The siho is pregnant with double-headed serpent or ngueak (naga) in its belly, and on its back is a candle house with a figure inside -- representing a boat taking someone to the other world. The figure is either a recently deceased member of the community or the shaman accompanying him as guide into the after life. Notice the five-fingered hands of the figure and the naga heads on either side of him.

Rainbow patterns occur in the candles on top of the houseboat, in the “S” designs representing baby nagas, and in the hooks of the sihos’ hair. There is one story that says that such a design can occur on coffin covers of fathers who die before their children are grown and that the double headed naga in the siho’s belly represents the youths who must mature before the mourning process helped by this textile can be completed."

Thank you Elli! We love it. Not only are the textiles exquisite works of art, they’re incredibly rich in meaning. One of the reasons we’ve opened Laos Essential Artistry.

 

Festivals of Laos Delayed

Here's the email I received from Amazon today:

Hello from Amazon.com.
 
We're writing about the order you placed on January 23 2010. Unfortunately, we are unable to ship the item(s) as soon as we expected and need to provide you with a new estimate of when the item(s) may be delivered:
          
Martin Stuart-Fox, Somsanouk Mixay "Festivals of Laos"

Estimated arrival date: April 07 2010 - April 21 2010

Oh well... The book has been available in Thailand and Laos since at least January.

If I don't get it here I can get it in Laos this summer.

Festivals of Laos - Available on Amazon March 15!

I try to keep up with books being published having to do with Laos, and of the few that are published most aren’t memorable. A good example of a book with a good title, Siho and Naga, is a mishmash of research and personal anecdotes and some rather strange collages of small photographs that really don’t serve any purpose. I love the title, Siho and Naga, they are two of my favorite motifs in Lao textiles, but what the author has to say adds no new insights. I would not recommend this book.

But what I'm really looking forward to this coming March 15 (5 more days!), is when Amazon will begin selling the Festivals of Laos by Martin Stuart-Fox. He’s the same author of the book, Naga Cities of the Mekong I favorably reviewed in an earlier post.  I am eagerly looking forward to his new book!

I know most people traveling to another country like Laos tend to get all their information from the guide book of their choice, like one of the Lonely Planet Guides series. I call this “Wal Mart traveling,” and can you imagine if you did all your shopping just at Wal Mart? OMG. The same with traveling in a country like Laos. If you’ve gone to the expense of buying round-trip tickets and are using your valuable vacation days to come explore this magical country, please don’t just skim the surface of Laos and its rich multi-ethnic cultures by only relying on one guidebook to lead the way. If you read books like the Naga Cities of the Mekong, or Ancient Luang Prabang, or the soon-to-be released Festivals of Laos prior to your travels to Lao, you won’t really need a guide book. Most of the time guidebooks are out of date and are often biased by whomever the author knows and how much time he/she has to really check out guesthouses/restaurants in a particular city/town. If you’re new to a town or city it’s worth the time to explore and decide for yourself where the best place to stay is and what restaurants/stalls have the best food.

Which reminds me of On beyond Zebra by Dr. Seuss where he writes, “...most people stop at the Z, but not me. I’m telling you this because your one of my friends, my alphabet starts where your alphabet ends. My alphabet starts with a letter called YUZZ. It’s the letter I use to spell Yuzzamatuzz. You’ll be sort of surprised what there is to be found, once you go beyond Z and start poking around.” And we guarantee these books will be perfect companions for your exploring and poking around in Laos.

Not only by reading these three books will you become primed for your travels, but I believe they can set the stage for your travel in Laos to become a tremendously memorable experience.. Backpacker types can read them before they go and take some notes to jog their memory when  looking at a particular wat or witnessing a particular ceremony, but for all others I recommend bringing these books with you so you can constantly refer to them. And luckily, if you forget one of the books, they’re probably available for sale at Monument Books in downtown Vientiane, next to the Vaykorn Guesthouse and across from Carol Cassidy’s Textile Gallery. In fact, backpacker types could buy one of the books at Monument Books, read it and “use” it in their travels and then sell it at one of the many used book stores now in Vientiane and Luang Prabang. What a great way of gaining merit! Remember, it's all about karma...

I’ll post my own review of Festivals of Laos probably in early April, but here’s a recommendation we found on the Silkworm publishing site. “There is no better way to enjoy the culture of a country than through the eye of a true artist and the mind of a real expert. Northup and Stuart-Fox are to Laos what Stanley and Livingston were to Africa. These two produce my favorite insights into the Mekong region, full of compassion and perception.” — Colin Cotterill, author of the Dr. Siri Paiboun series

Aerial Photos of wat and village in Laos - Favorite Photo Series

It's easy for me to write lengthy posts sometimes, but I know people don't have a lot of time these days and attention spans are short, so I like to feature some of my favorite photos of Laos from time to time.

Aerial photography in Laos if one is traveling in the ATR or MA 60 going to destinations like Luang Prabang is not great because your flying at a relatively high altitude. But if you can fly on a small aircraft like Lao Airlines used to fly and Lao Air used to fly, such as when flying to Sam Neua there can be outstanding opportunities for getting some great aerial shots because the planes fly much lower than the ATR and MA 60's.. Lao Air has now stopped flying commercial flights and so we will find out what it's like flying Lao Capricorn (we're hoping they still have flights to Sam Neua...)

The first photo below is of a village located at the bend of a small river with only one narrow dirt road/path leading down to it, and even then you can only cross over to the village by a walking bridge. This is a village far away from paved roads and "civilization." Doesn't it look like a village you would want to visit?

The second photo is taken of a wat compound which really shows all the essential "components" of a wat, including the sim, monks quarters (with motorcycles parked out in front), a stupa, drum tower (being constructed), etc. From John Holt's Spirits of the Place, "While every wat is presided over by its venerated guardian phi, it is also the case that every wat contains a stupa symbolizing the presence of the Buddha and smaller votive stupas containing the cremated ashes of various pious laity as well. The stupa for the Buddha is always located in a position of central prominence, while the votive stupas of the deceased laity are invariably located alongside of one of the compound walls marking the sima or boundary of the wat." You can see both the main stupa and laity stupas as described above in the photo.