Hmong villages in Lao PDR

The report in the Vientiane Times which I posted yesterday interested me especially because we visited several villages of Hmong returnees on our trip back in December 2008. Before doing so we had a chance meeting with a government official from the Ministry of Health in Vientiane. He was staying in the only hotel in the small district town of Borikham, 60 kms north of Pakxan, and so were we.

Hmong girls in traditional dress, Phonsavanh, Lao PDR

 

We got to talking about returnees in general and Hmong in particular. One point he made stood out for me. He said that the Lao government was in a very difficult position regarding the Hmong. Partly because  Hmong in the USA  have kept the fate of Hmong refugees in the public arena, and also bcause of the involvement of UNHCR, the Lao government feels they have to make special provision for them. But this results in other minority groups, who have never left the country, feeling that they are being neglected as compared to the positive discrimination from which the Hmong benefit.

 

Young Hmong men, Phonsavanh, Lao PDR

 

This is very similar to the sort of ill-feeling that arises when long-term refugee camps are set up. Certainly when the Hmong and other refugees were first in Thailand much resentment was caused by the fact that daily living allowances paid to them by UNHCR and/or the Thai government were above the level of income that many local people were able to earn. The same sort of resentment arises in countries such as the UK when refugees are seen to be provided with housing and other benefits.

The two photos above were taken at a Hmong village close to Site 1 (as it is called) on the Plain of Jars near Phonsavanh in Xiang Khuang Province. It seemed to be a new village. The young people were celebrating the New Year with the traditional courting ritual, throwing a soft ball to and fro to each other while holding a flirtatious conversation designed to see whether they would make good marriage partners.

Plain of Jars. The figure in the foreground is walking past a bomb crater.

 

Two young Hmong girls sit on one of the larger jars. The notices saying not to do so were all in English.

The hotel we stayed at in Phonsavanh was owned and run by Hmong, as were many of the small businesses in the town. The staff in the hotel were returnees and possibly the owners were, too, although it seemed more likely that they were still in the USA. However, many Hmong in Phonsavanh were not reurnees at all. One of the impressions that Hmong in the USA like to give is that all Hmong fought against what is now the government side in the civil war. But this is not the case at all, though many were made refugees initially by the fighting going on in the areas where they lived. The Plain of Jars in particular.

 

 

War debris, Phonsavanh.

The tourist information office has a comprehensive collection of war debris in its yard, and you can find lots more on display or in use (as gate posts and flower beds, for instance) throughout the whole province.

 

Later in our trip we stopped in a village on the road from Udomxai to Luang Nam Tha. It was a mixed village, one half of it populated by Tai Lue and the newer half adjacent to it along the roadside by Hmong returnees. Again, the unmarried young people, including some very young children, were playing the ball game. The adults were having a perhaps less traditional party to themselves. Here are some portraits of people in this village. I believe all of them are Hmong, except possibly the woman in pink (though she seems to have at least one habit she might have picked up in Thailand, as do the father and son). The party, however, was being held in the Tai Lue end of the village.

 

 I know that you must be careful in drawing conclusions about the conditions in which people live, and I do know that life is hard for most people in a country as poor and mountainous as Laos is. Nevertheless, the Hmong I met in Laos gave no indication that they were oppressed, and what I saw of their lives in these brief snapshots certainly did not hint at oppression to me. Without doubt they were better off than they could have ever been in a refugee camp.

 

You can see a short video I shot in this village here:

  
 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Michael Hare]

Excellent post again Lawrence. Certainly there is no news here in Thailand of the Hmong. I agree with you about the USA Hmong actively putting out anti Lao government propaganda. Where I have been working in North Vietnam there are a lot of hill tribes. All I am told have Vietnamese nationally which is different to what happens in Thailand.

[Boonsong]

What a detailed, well researched, and well presented account. Excellent photos too.
Thanks for this excellent post.

All the best, Boonsong

[Boonsong]

Hello Lawrence

Thanks for your very mischievous comment left on my blog post recently. I’ve just posted a reply to it. You might like to take a look at it.

Thanks for your good humour and sense of fun.

All the best, Boonsong (not always somboon….)

[Martyn]

Lawrence two excellent posts which gave me a bit of an education about the Hmong. The Lao government does seem to be trying to resettle them in perhaps better conditions than the more poorer souls of the country are accustomed to. That can cause a little resentment.

The ball throwing courtship is a strange one, the first I've heard of it. Then again Britain's young courtship ritual of the boyfriend getting blind drunk and being sick in his girlfriend's parents house might seem strange to the Lao people.

The pose taken up by the lady in pink is the Thai one where the fingers form the bottom corner of a photograph frame. I'm posing take your picture sort of thing.

Best wishes.

[Lawrence]

Thanks to you all for visiting my blog and for your comments. I guess you can see that I have a particular affecion for Laos and most things Lao.

Re Michael's comment: Yes, the ethnic minorities in Lao PDR all have Lao nationality. I still remember that one of the revolutionary songs had the words (roughly) Raw khon Lao bor mene khai eun (we are all Lao and nobody else) which was aimed especially at the minorities as well as anyone who didn't treat them as equals.

Re Martyn: I suppose the very small kids throwing the cloth balls are just practising catching & throwing (and having fun) rather than actually courting. Playing at courting, perhaps. I saw one cute young woman getting very angry when her young man threw one she couldn't catch, so I guess he learnt something important about her character.

And Boonsong: thanks for the compliments, and yes, I've seen your reply, thanks.

[Camille]

Good post and interesting pix. The war must've been devastating for this country. The bomb crater is massive and impressive but great pix of the PDJ. Thanks!