Pavatsat Lao: Constructing a National History

Abstract

This article focuses on the 1,300-page Pavatsat Lao published in Vientiane in 2000, by far the most comprehensive national history to be written since 1975. Through the review of the book's main themes and agendas, it seeks to show how the Lao past is being constructed and reconstructed as the nation enters the twenty-first century. Of particular interest is the treatment of early Lao civilization, as well as the ways in which the past is being reconstructed to minimize ethnic difference and to produce an integrated multi-ethnic history.