To the origins
Contrary to some countries, classical Laotian literature does not especially remember the names of its authors but rather that of its heroes. Here, oral tradition has long been the norm and, although new generations tend to lose interest in the tales and legends that enchanted their elders, the cultural heritage exists and is still carefully preserved. In addition to this, there is another difficulty for those who would like to discover the country through its texts: if Laos has been inhabited for a long time, as the strange vestiges of the Plain of Jars testify, it only acquired its own identity late in the 14th century if we refer to Fa Ngum who founded the kingdom of Lan Xang (land of a million elephants) in 1354, much later if we think of the various external dominations it has suffered. A territory under various influences, which can be seen in the list of the 1,163 Laotian manuscripts referenced following the ordinance of 21 March 1918 which placed them under the control of the École française d'Extrême-Orient. From this catalogue, in addition to a few grammar books and other technical works, three main categories emerge: religious literature, tales and novels
The first category contains the famous Jātaka, which could be hastily translated as "nativities", accounts of the 547 past lives of the Buddha in his animal, human or divine forms. From the study of each one must arise a moral, all the more so for the ten most venerated teachings which are gathered, in their Laotian translation, under the title Mahanipata. Also included in the list of these religious writings is the Dhammapada, one of the founding texts of the Tipitaka, the "canon pāli" from the name of the language close to Sanskrit which is used for liturgical purposes in Laos. India, again, is again present in the storytelling section since the catalogue includes a Laotian version of the Pañcatantra, a collection of fables attributed to a Brahman from Kashmir whose success was so resounding that it is said that La Fontaine himself borrowed some references from it. But the Laotians' taste for these apologues is such that there are many other kinds, for example those that illustrate a verdict in a court case(Mulla Tantai) or those that are just a pretext for having fun, boldly portraying a legendary character. Xieng Mieng knows how to be facetious, sometimes almost mean, and does not hesitate to challenge the king, often successfully, we would gladly bring him closer to our jesters with a scathing sense of humour. Remained very popular, its existence is attested since at least the 16th century as confirmed by the palm leaves, a traditional support in Asia, on which it is mentioned and which are preciously stored in the National Library of Laos. To this transcribed folklore, we must not fail to add the oral culture that Laotians take pleasure in maintaining during family or community vigils, pretexts for improvisation for the hmo-lan (bard) or verbal jousting between a man and a woman around a universal theme, love. As for the novels, let us mention in particular the Pha Lak-Pha Lam, a Lao adaptation of a famous Indian epic, the Ramayana -- the founding text of Hindu mythology that tells the destiny of Rama, heir to the throne of Ayodhya, forced into exile with his wife, Sitaa, and his faithful friend Hanuman, the monkey god - but also the Kalakhet, one of the boens vannagati (epic poems), and finally the Campa-si-ton or Buddhasen, prose novels.
From heaven to hell
Are love, feasts and religion enough to make a people happy, confirming that happy people have no history? This seems to be what the rare French colonial literature devoted to Laos seems to indicate, from the time when the country was part of Indochina. Thus, Jean Ajalbert (1863-1947), who will end up rubbing shoulders with a few demons, speaks of it as an Eden and praises the gentleness of a people spared from the ravages of civilization. An idyllic vision shared by Pierre Billotey in Sao Kéo and Jean Hougron in La Nuit indochinoise, both contrasting the serenity of the Laotians with the decrepitude of the settlers. But in this troubled 20th century, soon to be overshadowed by the Second World War, the small country is coveted by Thailand, with the support of Japan. In reaction, and to try to maintain their influence, the French decide to encourage Laotian patriotism. Charles Rochet, then head of the education department, joined forces with the local intelligentsia to support the creation of a newspaper in Vientiane, the Lao-Nhay, in an attempt to assert Laotian identity against the attempt at cultural appropriation. Previously, he had built schools and promoted theatre, while his proposal to introduce the Roman alphabet had met with strong opposition, particularly from Sila Viravong, who had preferred to work on modernizing the Lao alphabet. This historian and professor emeritus is the father of Douangdeuane Viravong, born in 1947, better known by his pseudonym, Dok Ked. She herself will actively work to safeguard the heritage, collecting traditional legends and writing poems. After schooling partly in France, she became a teacher, giving courses in Lao civilization and language at the University of Washington. Her desire for transmission and her great knowledge of Laotian fabrics earned her the SEA Write award in 2006 for her work Traditional Lao Culture and Hand-Woven Textile. Douangdeuane Viravong, who founded the first private publishing house in Laos, Dokked Publishing, is also the widow of a renowned author, Outhine Bounyavong (1942-2000), best known for his short stories depicting rural daily life. His teacher was Pierre Somchine Nginn, whom he affectionately nicknamed the first modern Lao writer. Born in Luang Prabang in 1892, who died in 1981, the man held important positions throughout his career, for example founding the Literary Committee that would become the Royal Academy in 1970, still finding time to undertake a French translation of Lao heritage texts and to publish his own verses.
This embryo of intellectual life cannot hide the turpitudes through which the country has gone through, which has continued to be the plaything of the forces in power and was the prey of a terrible civil war during a large part of the second half of the 20th century. A one-party People's Democratic Republic was established in 1975, which led to the flight of 10 per cent of the population, and although a constitution was finally adopted in 1991, contemporary Laotian literature is mainly the product of this exile. This is the case, already at the time, of Mangkra Souvannaphouma, former pilot officer of the Royal Lao Air Force, who found refuge in France where he published, in 1976, L'Agonie du Laos, published by Plon. Mithouna, for his part, wrote with the help of André Rosset La Routeno 9, a testimony on the Laotian gulag, published by L'Harmattan in 2003. In it, he describes his journey, the arrival to power of the communists and the almost immediate deportation of the officers and non-commissioned officers of the royal army to re-education camps. Telling the story is still the objective of the Lao-American Mai Neng Moua, born in 1974, writer and anthologist, her work focuses more specifically on the Hmong, this mountain people who had to flee Laos after the civil war for fear of extermination, their links with the French and then with the Americans being blamed on them. Mai Neng Moua has edited the first anthology of Hmong authors who have taken refuge in the United States, Bamboo Among the Oaks. Thiane Khamvongsa, playwright honoured by the 2010 Paris Jeune Talent Prize, describes in her play Au revoir pays (published by L'Harmattan) how, after 25 years of civil war, the change of regime forced a family to leave their homeland for the Parisian suburbs, a duty of memory that goes hand in hand with a real questioning of identity. A concern that is certainly not foreign to Loo Hui Phang, who was born in Laos but raised in Normandy, as shown in her novel published by Actes Sud in 2019, L'Imprudence, in which she portrays a photographer returning for the first time to Savannakhet to attend her grandmother's funeral. Previously, Hui Phang Loo had published children's books and comic strips, Panorama with cartoonist Cédric Manche for Atrabile publishing, and a western with Frederik Peeters for Casterman publishing, L'Odeur des garçons affamés.
