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Woman and Child in today LaoPDR

Somphavan Inthavong

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Namtheun/Namcading hydropower Projects and its benefits to the social and economic development of Lao mountainous rural areas of Laos : In 1998,at about 300 kilometers South of Vientiane city, a new hydropower dam and powerhouse station (210 Megawatts), located on Road Number 8, Bolikhamsay Province, Lao P.D.R. Seen in this picture were Lao children from a nearby village school, welcoming guests who came and attended the inauguration ceremony of the commission of the Project. 

Vientiane, Lao PDR, 15 May 2002

On march 1st,1985, the government of the Lao PRD held the first nation-wide census ever in the Laotian history. The results of this exercise showed that the Lao PDR (or Laos), on that very date, had a population of 3,584,804 inhabitants in which the proportions of women and men were 51% and 49 %, respectively. By mid-2002, the Lao poulation is estimated to about 5.5 million people, with the same percentages of women and men.

Sunday, September 8th,2002- at 16:50 Hours ( Vientiane Time ):

Pictures of Laotian women and children in various provinces and wallks of life

Vientiane: Women workers in garment factory	Vientiane: Women workers in LaoBeer factory.	Women at the Morning Market Bus Station, in downtown Vientiane.
Pakse: Women farmers on their way to the Morning Market of the city. Note: this picture was taken in 1993.Here a ferry linked both banks of the Mekong River until the completion of a 2.5 Km-long Bridge, in 2001, with a Japanese Grant Aid. This is the capital city of all South Laos. Coffee, Rice, bananas,fishes, cattle, hydroelectricity are its main products.	Ethnic Ekor-Laotian women in their traditional costumes, in Muong Sing district, Province of Luangnamtha. this pictureis taken in 1996, when it was recorded that the Ekor population is about 27,000 persons.Most of the Ekor live in the mountainous areas around the city of Muong Sing, the adminstrative and trade center of this northern region of Laos.	At the unique morning market of MuongSing city, sellers came before dawn. It was still dark at 5:00 A.M. in the morning when I took a snapshot of this little girl and the few products she offered for sale. We are here about 30 kilometers of the Lao-China official Border. It was planned that a power line will soon bring electricity from Yunnan (China ) to North Thailand through this Region of Laos.
Smiling young girl and boys Ekor-Laotians met on a street of Muong Sing City, Luangnamtha Province.	Muong Sing Morning Market : A little girl was selling her forest product. What was the name of this merchandise of hers, anyway ? Good sale, my little merchant!	Luangphabang City, Laos Mid-April: Laotians of all ethnic groups could be seen in their traditional dresses during the annual Pi Mai Lao Festivities
Ponsavanh city Market, Xiengkhouang Province, at 1200 meters above Sea Level. This is the famous Plateau with its Plain of Jars, where so many people died in so many battles. The first Laotian women Battalion of the Laotian People's Army of Liberation was born here. Por Tu, Lao National Hero, was born and died here in a battle for national liberation. His daugther, Madame Pany, is presently Deputy-President of the National Assembly of the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao PDR ). Por Tu is a Hmong-Laotian. Note in this picture that the young woman and her baby are Hmong-Laotians.	Luangphabang City; 400 kilometers north of Vientiane, is a pluri-ethnic city . Here were smiling young Hmong-Laotian women in their most beautiful traditional costumes, at Luangphabang. The City was named Xieng Dong- Xieng Thong before King Fa Ngoum founded the Kingdom of Lao Lanxang with its capital city at Luangphrabang, formerly Xiengdong-Xieng Thong. It was only in the 16th Century AD that King Saysetthathirath decided to move the capital city of Lanxang was moved to the present location of Vientiane. The new name of "Laos" , a pluriel of the word Lao, was given by Western travellers in their Journey Reports during the Seventeenth Century AD. The name just remains as such untill to-day, just because nobody complaints about it and because the Lao country was under perpetual turmoillduring the last 200 past years.	Luangphrabang City : Kmu- and Lue- Laotian women in ancient Royal-Dancer costumes in front of the Luangphrabang's Mayor Office just before participating in the Ceremony of official handing-over of the UNESCO certificate which selected Luangphrabang as a 'World Heritage Site". Laotians of all ethnic groups and walks of life joined the great procession march across the city to demonstrate their joy of having their city honoured by this United Nations specialized Agency. Hmong-Laotian women seen in the last picture also participated in this march of celebration.
Luangprabang most beautiful woman of the year is selected in a contest with secret votes by a Jury. She will then be the Nangsangkan of the Lao New Year festivities. Tourists are then everywhere to take picture and enjoy the unique Lao hospitality. This is called Pi Mai Lao. Its duration is three days (before mid-April).	Luangphrabang crowd and the village most beautiful girls between 6 and 17 years old in traditional Laotian costumes with their umbrellas would march about 1.5 kilometers from the Pagoda of Wat Mahathat to that of Wat Xieng Thong, following the Buddhist monks.	Pi Mai Lao and the Procession in Luangphrabang- About Mid-April of each year.

The Ekor-Laotians of Muongsing District, Province of Luangnamtha, Laos and the status of Hmong-Laotian women in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Postcard of Ekor-Laotiam woman and her silver-made ornament.   There are about 30,000 Ekor-Laotians in Muongsing District, in 1997, when I visited this beautiful area. In fact, they formed the majority of the population of this district. The Lao-Chinese Border is very close from here. Twenty kilometres, at most.     I was told that one of the many traditional pratices of the Ekor people was to throw aways to death in the woods their own newly twinborn babies, after having g covered their eyes with ashes. Ekor-Laotians are basically animists, i.e. they beleived in spirits. Their habitat is the mountainous areas surrounding the small plain of Muonsing city. Killing twinborn children seems to be part of this animist belief. The Ekor married women still go out bare-breated. Local District Laotian Officials being mainly drawn from the elite of the local ethnic groups are aware of the outdated practices and attempts to prevent them. When I visited Muongsing in1997, what impressed me most was the presence of the representatives of all "World Great Powers", in the form of Experts of development programmes of various sectors; innumerable International Non-Governmental Orgaizations ( NGOs) and Tourists of all nationalities of the world.The poppy flowers were so mysterious and beautiful ! And the Ekor-Laotians were so hospitable in their prime innocence ! The Laotian Government is implementing a development strategy aiming at helping all Laotian minorities groups of the country to get rid of their state of poverty and also to prevent them from drug addicting as a result of their century-old practices of poppy cultivation. In order to achieve the projected delopment targets in due time, foreign assistance and investment are also actively sought.This area of Northern Laos is situated inside the famous Quadrangle Development Zone, in which Thailand, Burma, China, and Laos are Partners in Development..       Madame Pany Youhotu, first person on the left ( in black shirt), is Vice-Chairperson of the National Assembly of the Lao PDR, a post equivalent in term of salary and status, to the Government Vice-Prime Minister Office. Member of Parliament, Representative of Xiengkhouang Province Constituency, her birth place, and Member of the Executive Central Committee of the Lao People's Revoutionary Party, Madame Pany Youhotu is certainly the highest-ranking female official in the whole 650-year old History of the Laotian State founded in 1353 by King Fa Ngoum. What is most remarquable is that she is a Laotian of Hmong ethnic Group. Her father,Por Tu ("Father Tu"), was the most celebrated Hmong-Laotian Officer of the Lao People's Liberation Army and died in the battlefront during the Liberation War in the Plain of Jars , Province of Xiengkhouang. He was posthumously granted the prestigious title of " Hero of the Laotian Nation". This picture was taken in Manila, the Philippines, at an A.I.P.O. Meeting. Madame Pany Youhotu (seated, second from right, in blue shirt and Laotian woman 'sin') :In a group picture with representatives of other ASEAN Member Countries on the occasion of a Meeting of the ASEAN Interparliamentary Organisation, in Manila, The Philippines. President Souphanouvong, in Samneua, 1972: with smiling young Hmong-Laotian women revolutionary who participated in the Liberation War.     Snapshot of a little Hmong-Laotian kid crowling behind her mother at the Sala Phoukhoune Crossroad Market, on Road 13 North, 250 Kilometres north of Vientiane City. Picture taken on January 19th, 2003. Nota: Most Hmong-Laotian women selling loca lproduce in this mountain Market wear plain Plains' Laotian woman dress and the majority of their clients are travellers from "Laoloum Thongharp"( The Plains areas) transiting to Vientiane, Luangphabang and Plain of Jars regions. Hmong-Laotians (in black) and Kayson Phomvihanh (in white),with the Liberation Army First Unit (Kong Rajavong) in the Houaphanh Province, during the very first period of the Laotian Revolution in which people of all ethnic groups of the country participated. This national struggle for complete national liberation from foreign domination ( or neo-colonialism) took 30 years, i.e., from 1945 to 1975.