Akha Girl, 1961
Report on
Laos

Lao Lady "Hardship and peril become daily
experiences when the 20th century explodes
in a quiet land of rice farmers."


By
Peter T. White
Photographs by W.E. Garrett
National Geographic Staff


Decked in her worldly wealth, a hill woman pauses outside a village market in Loas, Oregon-sized kingdom whose borders edge a militant China and Communist North Vietnam.   Her headdress marks her as an Akha, one of the country's many minority groups.   Author White tells in this perceptive article how Communist-inspired warfare has affected a simple land and its shy, peace-loving people.


This is meant to be a documentary of the Hmong people and their lands in Northern Laos mountainous region.   It is often said that a child born out of wed-lock is a bastard or bitch, but nothing is said of the cowardice men that would rape women for their own pleasure and spawn a generation of cowardice blood...     - Webmaster,   Frank "dFox" Picchione


Little Laos...

"Little Laos, Next Door to Red China,"
By Elizabeth Perazic
Vol. 117,   No. 1,   January 1960,   pp 46-69


Click on for larger photo

"Report on Laos,"
By Peter T. White and W.E. Garrett
Vol. 120,   No. 2,   August 1961,   pp 241-275

Original cover story photo

Chopsticks Yield to Busy Fingers
of a Hungry Lao Youngster


Lao living in the northern part of the kingdom eat with chopsticks; those in the southern part use spoons.   This boy and his sister eat rice noodles at a roadside food stand near Muong Sing, seven miles from the border of Red China.   Mainstay of the Lao diet is a glutinous rice, pressed into lumps and dipped in a fish sauce spiced with peppers.   Chicken and vegetable dishes add variety.
Akha wayfarers call a halt in Muong Sing for lunch.






Dropping their bundles, Akha wayfarers call a halt in Muong Sing for lunch.
Foothills of Communist China rise seven miles away.


(The woman seated; surrounded by the gattles, is the vendor - "poo-sow-tha-latt")

    Dr. Thomas Dooley Gives a Piano Recital for an Audience of Kha
Dr. Thomas Dooley, Humanitarian     Before his recent return to the United States for medical care*,   32-year-old Dr. Dooley treated as many as 100 patients a day in his Muong Sing hospital.   He became interested in Indochinese medical problems in 1954, when as a Navy doctor he helped refugees flee from Communist North Vietnam.   Dooley-trained Lao operate two other clinics established by him.   A talented musician, Dr. Dooley plays daily to relax.   Hill folk wander in and out; woman at right wears the knee-length Kha skirt.

* "Dr. Tom Dooley's Hospital Still Serves
Muong Sing"
  - 1961

    Established by the young United States doctor who died recently of cancer,   the clinic brings a touch of modern medicine to an isolated area.   Lao youths taught by Dr. Dooley give shots and medical aid short of surgery.

    Says Dr. John M. Keshishian of MEDICO, the organization that sponsored Dr. Dooley's pioneering:   "We don't know how much longer they can carry on at Muong Sing.   But Dooley's work was not in vain.   The tribesmen won't forget.   And from Laos have sprung other MEDICO projects in Asia, Africa and Central and South America."
Lao Baci

    Wrist strings seal a blessing at a Lao baci.   This ceremony combines a feast with ritual hopes for the honoree's luck, long life and many happy returns.   Strings may be worn until they rot away to avoid any chance of spoiling the charm tied with them.   Students give this baci as a farewell for Owen Loveless, a United States teacher in Vientiane.

Mountain home to the Hill Tribes
Hill Village Wrests Living Space From the Encroaching Forest
Lao Lady

    Thatched huts of a hill tribe huddle on the flank of a ridge in northern Laos.   To create fields for growing rice,   villagers burn forest plots before the monsoon rains.   Smoke hangs in the humid, quiet air for weeks, blanketing the land.   Tribesmen move their homes to another hill when soil fertility wears out.



Lao Lady

To learn more about the Hmong People,
please read " Tragic Mountains"
and the oral history story of their exodus from Laos in " The Sky is Falling."


Chao Fa -- story about the Hmong in the Secret War in Laos Benya Publishing dot-com in Chiang Mai, Thailand

    U.S. Book Ordering Details

    "This novel could be called �Non-Fiction� or a �Documentary Novel�.   It is about the �Hmong� (minority tribrspeople) in the Kingdom of Laos who had to fight to survive during the Vietnam War era.   In relating its story about the hard and difficult war the Hmong fourth in order to retain freedom, and their long plight to help stop the Communists� aggression in Southeast Asia, the book reveals the so-called �American�s Secret War� in detail."

    "Since there are so many Hmong from Laos living in the United States at the present, and the majority of them know no other language but English because they are born in America, we would like to ask any interested retail bookstore to please carry the English version of �Chao Fa� in your prestigious bookstore for us.   We feel that, for the Hmong in the United States, this book is the book that will represent them in the international community and will inform their friends and the world of how they have come to be refugees, have to disperse in all directions and have become permanent residents in so many countries, from Australia, Canada, France, Japan to the United States of America."

    "Other than the Hmong that should be interested in �Chao Fa�, we think that the US servicemen who used to be stationed in Southeast Asia might also be interested as well.   Most of them know very little about the fighting in Laos since there was no U.S. military personnel assigned to the ground operation in that country.   This is a good opportunity for them to learn what else was going on when they were fighting in Vietnam."

- [email protected]

Piriya Panasuwan is the author of 'Chao Fa', English Translation About the Author -

    Piriya Panasuwan was born in 1943 in Chiangmai, Thailand.   He attended the Prince Royal's College in his home town for the primary and secondary education, and the Bangkok Christian College in Bangkok for his pre-university courses.   He spent five years in the United States to study music at various institutions.   Upon returning from abroad, he immediately went to work in Laos for an international volunteer organization helping displaced people.   He had to leave Laos when the situation changed in 1975.   Other than Chao Fa, Piriya Panasuwan has written 10 more novels and three of which received the national awards.   Chao Fa is his first novel that has been translated into foreign language.   Besides being a novelist, he is also a well-known translator.   Under his real name, he has translated many books and novels from the English language into the Thai language and vice versa.   The English language edition of Chao Fa is also one of his translation works.   As a translator, Piriya Panasuwan is planning to translate another award winning novel of his by the name of "Louis, E-Kaw, and friends" into English language.   This novel is another heart breaking story about a group of Amerasian children in post Vietnam War era that were left behind to face their own destiny alone without fathers.

U.S. Book Ordering Details

    U.S. Benya Publishing House is offering you a 30% discount or $9.00 US Dollars
on your orders placed through the U.S. Manager, Ms. Jettanaporn Suwannakoon.

    Including $8.00 shipping charges, please make your check payable to:   Jettanaporn Suwannakoon
for the total amount of $28.95 US.

    Please mail your order for "Chao Fa," the English Language version, to:

Ms. Jettanaporn Suwannakoon
Manager
Benya Publishing House
2 Greglen Ave., Suite 414
Nantucket, MA   02554

Telephone:   (508) 325-5842

Email:   [email protected]

Notice:   shipping charges covers both domestic and international orders.

    We will also be very honored if you would visit our web site at http://www.benyapublishing.com
to learn more about "Chao Fa" and view the cover of this book.   Your comments and/or your order are most welcome.

Sincerely,

Pongkaset
Benya Publishing House
Chiangmai, Thailand
[email protected]



You may "file/save" this page and all its content in order to keep alive the documentary of these wonderful people,
one of our strongest, staunchest allies in the history of the United States.
Spread the peaceful message of their plight today,
and what they did for us during the Secret War in Laos
against our staunchest enemy - the Communist!
National Geographic Society On-Line
National Geographic On-Line Archive © 1960, 1961 By National Geographic Society
"The above is an excerpt, accompanied by photographs,
from articles found in the National Geographic Magazine."
Yahoo! GeoCities Member Banner Exchange Info 
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1