February 6, 2025 • 28 mins
Explore the rich cultural tapestry of Laos through its national anthem, "Pheng Xat Lao," which serves as a powerful reflection of the country's journey from colonialism to independence and socialism. This episode takes listeners on a fascinating journey, tracing the historical and political context that shaped both the anthem and the nation itself. Discover the significance of the anthem's lyrics, which evolved from a celebration of royal heritage and Buddhist values to a modern emphasis on unity, equality, and resilience among the Lao people. The narrative weaves through the impacts of French colonialism, the struggles during the Vietnam War, and the eventual establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Join us as we delve into the music, lyrics, and stories that highlight Laos's identity and the enduring spirit of its people.
- https://nationalanthems.info/la.htm
- https://www.countryreports.org/country/Laos/nationalsymbols.htm
- https://wpkn.org/wpkn-programming/soundprint-asia/
- https://www.jwpepper.com/Laos-PDR-National-Anthem/11408775.item?srsltid=AfmBOopwSlTsETN-sYgiEb5lvjZ2-fAqUFgAxw1qW5UMqeCqwK0HfFYs
- https://www.worldatlas.com/flags/lao-people-s-democratic-republic
- https://web.archive.org/web/20101229000748/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/la.html
- https://www.weathernationtv.com/2016/06/29/welcome-monsoon-season-probably-using-term-wrong
- https://books.google.pl/books?id=5r3QDwbZ_ZkC&pg=PT373&dq=Thongdy+Sounthonevichit&hl=pl&sa=X&ei=N9CoUYrOIMjPiwLhwoHoCg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAg#v=snippet&q=laos&f=false
- https://faculty.washington.edu/plape/citiesaut11/readings/Fletcher-water%20management%20in%20angkor%20Antiquity%202008.pdf
- https://web.archive.org/web/20101110175658/http://indochinatrek.com/laos/lao-guides.html
- https://books.google.pl/books?id=d5ZGAQAAIAAJ&q=Thongdy+Sounthonevichit&dq=Thongdy+Sounthonevichit&hl=pl&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiPieqf_JjtAhWwCRAIHUOQAcUQ6AEwBXoECAcQAg
- Stuart-Fox, Martin (2008). Historical Dictionary of Laos. Scarecrow Press. ISBN...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign hello and welcome tothe Anthems Podcast. I'm Patrick
(00:22):
and I'm here to tell you thestory of a song that that helps to
tell the story of a nation.Today we are taking on a 9946 mile
journey, 16,006 kilometers.And this time we're sailing. So pack
appropriately. That meanswe're actually going to have to go
a couple of thousand milesfurther than that as we head up and
(00:44):
across the Atlantic and make astop at the Cape of Good Hope. Then
we head across the IndianOcean to the Strait of Malacca and
we pass through to the SouthChina Sea. From there you can dock
in Bangkok and take a breatherbecause you just spent like four
months on the water and you'reabout to make a nine hour drive north
to get to our finaldestination, Laos. Officially the
(01:09):
Lao People's DemocraticRepublic. We are here in the only
landlocked country inSoutheast Asia because of a radio
station that I listen to. Theyplay music from all over the world
and it's not uncommon for meto hear music from each of the populated
continents in a single day.Obviously I am a fan of the place
(01:29):
and it's an occasional sourceof inspiration for episodes or long
musical explorations. Oneprogram is specifically music from
Asia and the day I waslistening I happened to catch some
music from Laos. I couldn'ttell you what I heard because this
was a while ago due to theasynchronous nature of the show that
you're listening to right now.And it was also like a 45 minute
(01:51):
long segment with a wholebunch of stuff in it. However, it
was all a brand new kind ofmusic for my ears and of course it
got me wondering about theanthem. And that gave me an excuse
to tell you about Feng Zat Laoor the Song of the Lao People before
beginning the reading for thisepisode. I knew very little about
(02:12):
laos or the 6.368 millionpeople that call it home. And almost
all of that was based on whatpop culture and the American public
education system in the 80sand 90s had to say about the Vietnam
War. Suffice to say, this hasbeen yet another exercise in dispelling
a non trivial amount ofignorance for me. That's my favorite
part of the show actually,because I would like to know more
(02:34):
about all of the things,literally all of them. So before
we get to learning more aboutthe fall of colonialism and a country
that has 14,000 Buddhisttemples, which is the most in the
world, you first get to spendabout a minute and 20 seconds learning
how the anthem sounds. EnjoyLA my initial thought is that, stylistically
(04:14):
speaking, we're back into morefamiliar territory with Feng Zat
Lao with a song, it sounds waymore, I don't know, ceremonial. It's
certainly less surprising asan anthem than episode 24. Rather
than something that is simple,direct and charming, we get a song
that sounds like an elaborateproclamation full of celebratory
honor, a much more commonroute for an anthem to go along.
(04:36):
Yet even here we get someimmediate stuff that I dig and things
that aren't always there, likea local feel to the song and a group
of enthusiastic amateurssinging it. There's a lot to talk
about and piece together thistime, but first we need to know where
on earth that months long boattrip we took to get here actually
got us. As stated earlier on,the Lao People's Democratic Republic
(04:59):
is the only landlocked countryin Southeast Asia, and if you can
reliably find it on a map,then you knew more than I did a few
weeks ago. Visually, I guesswe're just gonna have to find China
and India. They're bigcountries and I've been using them
as mental waypoints ingeography. In between the two are
a group of nine nations and wefind Laos as the second country in
(05:21):
from Vietnam from the SouthChina Sea. That country is also the
entire eastern border of Laos,as well as some of the northern one,
with the remainder of thenorth split roughly equally between
Myanmar and China. Most of thewestern border with Thailand is described
by the Mekong, which is the12th longest river in the world and
(05:43):
another place that I spent awhole bunch of time reading about.
The southern border is takenby Cambodia. The mountainous terrain
and the rivers and jungleshave resulted in Laos having an interesting
shape. It vaguely resembles apalm tree to me. Palm trees are in
fact native to Laos and theyspend a lot of time getting blown
around in the monsoon season.And since I realized once I read
(06:08):
what they were that I had noidea what a monsoon actually was,
that gets to be the new to mefact in episode 25 contrary to what
was in my head, a monsoon isnot just a kind of tropical rainstorm
and has a specificmeteorological meaning. It describes
a seasonal change inatmospheric circulation and precipitation
(06:30):
associated with annuallatitudinal oscillation of the Intertropical
Convergence Zone. For thepeople like me that are not meteorologists
and have no idea what thatmeans is that a weather system in
the region varies from year toyear and involves lots of wind from
one direction and a rainyseason Interesting stuff, even if
(06:51):
I still don't know why ithappens. Moving on and moving on
to colonialism. Again, ithappens a lot here. I don't always
know ahead of time and I'm notsurprised any longer. But I am amazed
at the depth of the footprintthat this stuff has left. In this
case, we are again talkingabout a place that the French tried
(07:11):
to shape and exploit, butmostly just the exploit part here.
And again, it kind ofdetermines where we are going to
enter the timeline. They firstarrived in the area to explore up
and along the Mekong to tryand find a direct shipping route
from the sea to China. Thegeneral assumption was that French
(07:32):
engineering and strategicrailroad placement would make the
rapid laden river a manageableroute. I have no idea if that was
a successful endeavor, but I'mgoing to guess that it was not. When
the exploratory missionsarrived, they were entering a region
that was controlled by theKingdom of Siam, what would become
modern Thailand, and had alsobasically been devastated by the
(07:55):
resulting punishment for an1826-29 rebellion. This three year
event is not super relevantenough to wade into properly here,
but I will note that theleader Chao Anuvong represents to
this day a potent symbol ofthe Lao people's defiance and national
identity. As a result of therebellion, the Siamese leveled the
(08:19):
capital city and over thecourse of the 60 or so years, next
60 or so years woulddepopulate the east bank regions
of the Mekong by as much as80%. Most of this loss was due to
punitive population transfersinto Siam. But a sizable group of
people were straight upkidnapped in repeated slave raids
(08:39):
from a few differentcountries. That prompted the French
to do the colonial thing wherethey expression interest in quote,
providing stability in theregion to protect their local interests.
But what they were reallydoing was trying to counter Britain's
growing control of Burma andincreased Siamese influence. So in
(09:01):
1887 Auguste Pavi arrived withforces in time to save Uncom, the
Lao king at the time from araid by Chinese and Thai bandits.
I will note that this is Thaispelled T A I recall the Kingdom
of Thailand does not exist yetand this is an ethnic group that
(09:22):
includes the Thai that live inThailand and the Lao people. It's
interesting to read about, butit's too complicated to get into
and not super relevant to thisstory anyway. This gave the French
an opportunity to try andexpand Indochina from modern Vietnam
and Cambodia all the way up tothe banks of the Mekong. But first
(09:44):
they had to do some literalgunboat diplomacy, wherein they repeatedly
and deliberately escalatedhostilities with Siam. Eventually,
they sailed some substantialarmament up the Chao river and established
a blockade on Bangkok. Thisled to Siam ceding pretty much all
of modern day Laos to theFrench as a new protectorate in 1893.
(10:06):
More on the French later,because we're going to pop forward
for a birthday and we're goingabout 10 years to right after Laos
became a centrally and locallyadministered country within the French
Empire, Thong D Soon was bornin 1905 and true to form for the
(10:27):
Anthems podcast, this guy isan absolute ghost. We know that he
wrote Feng sat Lao in 1941 andthen he remains a ghost despite writing
the song chosen as thenational anthem and the other work
that he's done, which I can'tfind any of, the only other things
(10:48):
I can say about him for sureare that he served in the government
of the Kingdom of Laos as theMinister of Agriculture and veterinary
services from 1954 to 1956.This was the fifth government of
Laos and the firstadministration in charge after the
end of the first Indochinawar. We'll talk about a little bit
(11:09):
of that in a few minutes. In1955, Thongdee was a member of the
United Nations Economic andSocial Commission for Asia and the
Pacific, or escap, and wasreferred to in several of the sources
as a doctor of some kind,possibly a veterinarian based on
his position in thegovernment, but I have no idea. Tongdi
(11:32):
passes at the age of 66 in1968, of causes that remain unknown
to me, there were an abundanceof dead ends in searching for information
about the songwriter thatcrafted the royal anthem of the Kingdom
of Laos, which you likely haveguessed is not the end of the story.
To get there, we need to knowa little bit about how the Kingdom
(11:54):
of Laos came about, and forthat we are going to jump back to
February in 1945, when Japancame and occupied French Indochina,
the Imperial army were able tofairly handily intern the majority
of French citizens living inVietnam and Cambodia. Due to the
mountains and jungles in Laos,the locals and the French were more
(12:17):
or less able to hide out andhang on until the end of the war.
After Japan gained control ofthe area and on the way to them being
kicked out, they beganpressuring the king to declare Laos
independent in April. He didjust that, and most of the disparate
independence groups coalescedinto the Lao Esarah, or Free Laos
(12:39):
movement. The French were notinterested in any of that, obviously,
and things rapidly escalatedinto a couple wherein the royal family
was imprisoned and a newgovernment was declared. It was a
really short run and sixmonths later the administration was
forced by the French to fleeto Thailand, where a communist faction
(13:00):
called the Pathet Lao splitoff. We're going to put a pin in
the path at Laos. The end ofthe Franco Laos General Convention.
In 1949, France was pressuredinto granting Laos the status of
quasi independentconstitutional monarchy. That put
them on a path to eliminatingcolonial influence. With additional
(13:22):
powers granted to lao royaltyin 1950, including training and assistance
for an army. It took justthree more years for Laos to become
the fully independent kingdomof Laos. Feng Sat Lao was chosen
as the most appropriate of themany patriotic songs written in the
run up to actually getting toindependence. I'm going to read out
(13:43):
the original lyrics as well asthe current. When I get to the usual
place where I do that, Ithought about not reading both sets.
But in order to understand thecurrent lyrics, I think we need to
talk about both versions ofthem. And to get to that, we're going
to jump back again to ourlyricist's birth. Mr. Sisanna Sisane
(14:06):
was born in southern Laos on13th September in 1922. We got a
little bit more detail aboutCesanna than we had about Tongdi.
All I can say confidentlyabout his early life is that he studied
music in Vietnam and Thailand.And after that he kind of vanishes
until 1945 when to mysurprise, he participated in the
(14:28):
failed coup that ended withthe Laoise Sera fleeing to Thailand.
When he returned, it was as amember of the Central Committee for
the Neo Lao Asala or LaoFreedom Front, and as the editor
in chief of the Lao Haskettnewspaper. His involvement deepened
further in 1958 when he waselected deputy of his home region
(14:50):
as a parliamentary rep. Thenext year Sissane was arrested with
a bunch of other oppositionleaders and jailed, although a lot
of them escaped from theFankeng prison. After that, our writer
was appointed head of CentralPropaganda Training and Cultural
Organization, which is a titlethat only a commun administration
(15:11):
in the 1960s could come upwith. He took over Pathet Lao Radio
as well. Cesanna continued tobe a part of the Pathet Laos for
the rest of his life. In 1972he was elected as an alternate member
of the party's CentralCommittee. And then he spent 73 through
75 as part of the precommunist takeover committee. After
(15:34):
the official handover to thePathet Lao by the monarchy. And probably
right about when he penned thelyrics for Feng Zat Lao, he was The
Minister of Propaganda,Information, Culture and Tourism,
as well as the head of theInstitute for Scientific and Social
Research, another impressivelylong title. I find it difficult to
(15:57):
imagine that one person wasactually effective with such a wide
range of responsibilities. Butthat's every nation's government
sometimes anyway. From 1994until his death in 1998, he acted
as an advisor to the committeethat compiled party history. When
Cesanna died, he was writtenabout as a great politician, a man
(16:19):
of culture, and a socialactivist for the people. To finish
getting to the point, I firstneed to circle back around and pull
the pin so we can find out abit about how the Kingdom of Laos
became the Lao People'sRepublic. The Path at Lao arose after
the split of the Lao Isarawhile exiled in Thailand, and largely
(16:41):
from the efforts of anotherperson in the interesting enough
to read about category or haveanother show about him. And I'm going
to say his name wrong. Iapologize. Prince Sufan Vong. After
an extended stay in Vietnam,he married a native, hung out with
Ho Chi Minh, and secured aidto start a guerrilla force from the
(17:02):
Viet Minh. With that aid, thePrince and other Pathetlau fighters
accompanied an invasion fromthe south, and they were able to
establish a government, makeinroads, and start a civil war in
Laos. In 1954, a GenevaConvention agreement ostensibly removed
foreign fighters from Laos andthe Pathet Lao established an official
(17:25):
party, although in realitythey were operating like the northern
arm of the Viet Minh and theirtroops were on the border. In 1973,
there was a treaty thatestablished a coalition government.
I think it was the thirdcoalition government and treaty in
a complicated war. But we knowthat the party had a committee getting
ready for a full takeover atthat same time. On December 2nd in
(17:49):
1975, the process camecomplete and the monarchy was abolished.
With that and the knowledgethat of course the propaganda minister
was going to write the anthem,and of course he chose a composition
that had deep cultural meaningalready. So now we have our song,
and I can go on to discuss it.Musically speaking, we have a song
(18:11):
that sounds like the placeit's from, which makes me happy,
because there is a danger thata former colony of the French and
now communist country wouldhave a song that essentially rips
off the anthem from France orChina. Instead, we are greeted with
an exuberant and well paced,at around 140 beats per minute song
that is properly East Asianfolk music that leads to elements
(18:36):
of the pentatonic scale in themusic. And I'm almost always a fan
of Pentatonic music. I'veheard versions played at half time
or double time as well, butall of them are played in E flat
major, which is fun becauseI'm not sure we've had an E flat
major key yet on this show. Itis an appropriate key though, because
in a post Beethoven world thatis associated with heroic bold music.
(19:01):
Recall that Feng Zat Lau was adeliberately patriotic song, even
though it was not deliberatelywritten to be an anthem and it was
penned at a time with a localmaximum in nationalism that was being
deliberately fomented by atleast three different groups of people.
It doesn't shock me that thissong, with its 44 time sig, singable
pace and danceable rhythm waspicked as the anthem. Lyrically,
(19:24):
we have two sets of lyrics.Like I said earlier, I think we need
to talk about both of them.Sometimes discussing earlier versions
of the song does not turn outto be useful in my opinion, but here
I think it's going to help usunderstand what Sasana wrote to know
what Tongdi wrote.Structurally speaking, they are deliberately
(19:47):
very close and use the samerhyme scheme with three verses of
four lines apiece followed bya two line wrapping it up verse.
There might be a poetry namefor the structure, but I don't know
it and I don't want to get toolost in the reeds here. Both of them
are originally written in Lao,but I of course will be reading in
(20:07):
English and using the literaltranslation for both, so stuff is
not gonna rhyme. I flipped thecoin and we're gonna start with the
original lyrics. In the olddays our Lao people were famous all
over Asia because the Lao wereunited in love. Still today they
(20:28):
love their people and countryand rally around their kings. They
preserve the religion of theirfathers and protect the soil of their
ancestors. They will neverallow another nation to threaten
them or to occupy theirterritory. Every enemy who enters
their country, we find themready to fight until death. Altogether
(20:51):
they can restore the ancientglory of their blood and they will
stand together in the days ofdanger. Now the current lyrics, which
were written in 1975 and forall time the Lao people have glorified
their motherland, united inheart, spirit and vigor as one resolutely
(21:13):
moving forward, respecting andincreasing the dignity of the Lao
people and proclaiming theright to be their own masters. Lao
people of all origins areequal and will no longer allow imperialists
and traitors to harm them. Theentire people will safeguard the
independence and the freedomof the Lao nation. They are resolved
(21:36):
to struggle for victory inorder to lead the nation to prosperity.
There are some common themesand specific contrasts in the lyrics.
We have a call for pride inboth of them. In the original writing,
the pride comes from thenation's rich past heritage. It's
mostly reaching back to drawinspiration from a time when Laos
(21:56):
was more culturally prominentin Asia. The current version looks
in entirely the otherdirection for pride. It emphasizes
a collective, forward lookingviewpoint, focusing on the enduring
spirit of the Laotian people,which makes a lot of sense to me.
Recall, we're in a nation thatwas occupied by the colonial French,
then wracked by a civil war,then dragged into parts of the Vietnam
(22:19):
War and the Second IndochinaWar, all the while managing to maintain
a distinct cultural identity.The writing projects resilience and
confidence in a selfdetermined future for the people
of Laos. Both sets of lyricstout the unity and collective identity
of the people, but there arestrong differences in how the writers
do this. In the original, it'sframed as a unifying love for the
(22:42):
monarch and the officialreligion, which was Buddhism. It
is strongly implied. Loyaltyis a cornerstone of national cohesion.
Doing your duty to God andcountry, as they say in some western
nations. From 1975 on, thetheme of unity is persistent, but
it is now rooted in theequality of the people living in
(23:03):
Laos, the social ideas ofinclusivity and communal identity.
It's a way more egalitarianviewpoint than hierarchical structures
in monarchies. At least it'ssupposed to work that way. But there
is oppression, and I bet theHmong people have a few things to
say about how the Pathet Laotreat the ones that they don't want
(23:25):
there, because it has not beengreat. National defense and sovereignty
are frequently covered themesin national anthems, and Feng Zat
Lao puts them to good use. The1941 lyrics are definitely more militant.
Fighting to the death toprotect your culture and way of life
seems like a fairly naturalreaction to having your homeland
(23:46):
ravaged for decades by outsideforces. It actually does come up
in quite a few anthems. Thesocialist lyrics, though, are not
explicitly violent, but theydo project a resolute determination.
They also kind of preservesovereignty as a mechanism, but in
this case it's more a productof the Lao people rather than a single
monarch. The current versionis very much a product of the time
(24:09):
and the place. Just south ofChina in a communist country well
into the Cold War. The peopleneed to be vigilant against the internal
threat of betrayal, which Ithink really means anybody not supporting
the party is the enemy. Basedon my reading about other communist
countries, plus there is theanti imperialist message, which in
the case of this anthem refersvery specifically to France and the
(24:33):
United States because they arerespectively the colonial occupiers
and the country that turnedLaos into the most bombed place on
the entire planet. The postureof many a socialist state in the
middle of the 70s was allabout resisting external influence
and perceiving it as a threatto the state's independence in an
effort to unite the people.The current lyrics run with that
(24:55):
theme right through and thereis a focus on collective progress
that will modernize thecountry. The lyrics remain mostly
secular, explicitly politicaland forward looking, a stark shift
from the original intent oftraditional values, Buddhist principles
and apolitical tone thatlooked at past glories. It is an
appropriate anthem and anappropriate song in my opinion. Overall,
(25:19):
I found it interesting to readfor and write up. We've got a song
that is an anthem, but also anarrative of the cultural evolution
in Laos from colony tomonarchy to socialist state, from
religious to mostly secular,and attempting to be inclusive as
long as you're in the partyrather than exclusive to a single
ethnic group. This one wassomething different, even though
(25:43):
it manages to remain insidemany traditional anthem corridors.
And with that it sounds anawful lot like I'm about to say it's
time for the credits. Thewriting, recording and production
for this show are done by me.I wrote and played the theme music
and then I used it with my ownpermission. Unless otherwise noted,
(26:05):
the anthems I play are publicdomain or something free, a thing
I got permission to play orhave made a good faith effort to
get permission to play. Andactually this time I didn't do any
of that because this recordingwas pulled from a 1978 broadcast
on Laos State television and Ihave no idea how to get a hold of
(26:26):
those people as usual. If youknow, please let me know. My sources
are contained in the shownotes and the most direct way to
get to those show notesis@anthemspodcast.com this show is
can credentialed, which meansyou can report incidences of harassment,
abuse or other harm on theirhotline at 617-249-4255 or on the
(26:51):
website@creator accountabilitynetwork.com you can go there and
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(27:11):
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(27:35):
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(27:58):
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(28:22):
Next month you'll hear me again.
Foreign hello and welcome tothe Anthems Podcast. I'm Patrick
(00:22):
and I'm here to tell you thestory of a song that that helps to
tell the story of a nation.Today we are taking on a 9946 mile
journey, 16,006 kilometers.And this time we're sailing. So pack
appropriately. That meanswe're actually going to have to go
a couple of thousand milesfurther than that as we head up and
(00:44):
across the Atlantic and make astop at the Cape of Good Hope. Then
we head across the IndianOcean to the Strait of Malacca and
we pass through to the SouthChina Sea. From there you can dock
in Bangkok and take a breatherbecause you just spent like four
months on the water and you'reabout to make a nine hour drive north
to get to our finaldestination, Laos. Officially the
(01:09):
Lao People's DemocraticRepublic. We are here in the only
landlocked country inSoutheast Asia because of a radio
station that I listen to. Theyplay music from all over the world
and it's not uncommon for meto hear music from each of the populated
continents in a single day.Obviously I am a fan of the place
(01:29):
and it's an occasional sourceof inspiration for episodes or long
musical explorations. Oneprogram is specifically music from
Asia and the day I waslistening I happened to catch some
music from Laos. I couldn'ttell you what I heard because this
was a while ago due to theasynchronous nature of the show that
you're listening to right now.And it was also like a 45 minute
(01:51):
long segment with a wholebunch of stuff in it. However, it
was all a brand new kind ofmusic for my ears and of course it
got me wondering about theanthem. And that gave me an excuse
to tell you about Feng Zat Laoor the Song of the Lao People before
beginning the reading for thisepisode. I knew very little about
(02:12):
laos or the 6.368 millionpeople that call it home. And almost
all of that was based on whatpop culture and the American public
education system in the 80sand 90s had to say about the Vietnam
War. Suffice to say, this hasbeen yet another exercise in dispelling
a non trivial amount ofignorance for me. That's my favorite
part of the show actually,because I would like to know more
(02:34):
about all of the things,literally all of them. So before
we get to learning more aboutthe fall of colonialism and a country
that has 14,000 Buddhisttemples, which is the most in the
world, you first get to spendabout a minute and 20 seconds learning
how the anthem sounds. EnjoyLA my initial thought is that, stylistically
(04:14):
speaking, we're back into morefamiliar territory with Feng Zat
Lao with a song, it sounds waymore, I don't know, ceremonial. It's
certainly less surprising asan anthem than episode 24. Rather
than something that is simple,direct and charming, we get a song
that sounds like an elaborateproclamation full of celebratory
honor, a much more commonroute for an anthem to go along.
(04:36):
Yet even here we get someimmediate stuff that I dig and things
that aren't always there, likea local feel to the song and a group
of enthusiastic amateurssinging it. There's a lot to talk
about and piece together thistime, but first we need to know where
on earth that months long boattrip we took to get here actually
got us. As stated earlier on,the Lao People's Democratic Republic
(04:59):
is the only landlocked countryin Southeast Asia, and if you can
reliably find it on a map,then you knew more than I did a few
weeks ago. Visually, I guesswe're just gonna have to find China
and India. They're bigcountries and I've been using them
as mental waypoints ingeography. In between the two are
a group of nine nations and wefind Laos as the second country in
(05:21):
from Vietnam from the SouthChina Sea. That country is also the
entire eastern border of Laos,as well as some of the northern one,
with the remainder of thenorth split roughly equally between
Myanmar and China. Most of thewestern border with Thailand is described
by the Mekong, which is the12th longest river in the world and
(05:43):
another place that I spent awhole bunch of time reading about.
The southern border is takenby Cambodia. The mountainous terrain
and the rivers and jungleshave resulted in Laos having an interesting
shape. It vaguely resembles apalm tree to me. Palm trees are in
fact native to Laos and theyspend a lot of time getting blown
around in the monsoon season.And since I realized once I read
(06:08):
what they were that I had noidea what a monsoon actually was,
that gets to be the new to mefact in episode 25 contrary to what
was in my head, a monsoon isnot just a kind of tropical rainstorm
and has a specificmeteorological meaning. It describes
a seasonal change inatmospheric circulation and precipitation
(06:30):
associated with annuallatitudinal oscillation of the Intertropical
Convergence Zone. For thepeople like me that are not meteorologists
and have no idea what thatmeans is that a weather system in
the region varies from year toyear and involves lots of wind from
one direction and a rainyseason Interesting stuff, even if
(06:51):
I still don't know why ithappens. Moving on and moving on
to colonialism. Again, ithappens a lot here. I don't always
know ahead of time and I'm notsurprised any longer. But I am amazed
at the depth of the footprintthat this stuff has left. In this
case, we are again talkingabout a place that the French tried
(07:11):
to shape and exploit, butmostly just the exploit part here.
And again, it kind ofdetermines where we are going to
enter the timeline. They firstarrived in the area to explore up
and along the Mekong to tryand find a direct shipping route
from the sea to China. Thegeneral assumption was that French
(07:32):
engineering and strategicrailroad placement would make the
rapid laden river a manageableroute. I have no idea if that was
a successful endeavor, but I'mgoing to guess that it was not. When
the exploratory missionsarrived, they were entering a region
that was controlled by theKingdom of Siam, what would become
modern Thailand, and had alsobasically been devastated by the
(07:55):
resulting punishment for an1826-29 rebellion. This three year
event is not super relevantenough to wade into properly here,
but I will note that theleader Chao Anuvong represents to
this day a potent symbol ofthe Lao people's defiance and national
identity. As a result of therebellion, the Siamese leveled the
(08:19):
capital city and over thecourse of the 60 or so years, next
60 or so years woulddepopulate the east bank regions
of the Mekong by as much as80%. Most of this loss was due to
punitive population transfersinto Siam. But a sizable group of
people were straight upkidnapped in repeated slave raids
(08:39):
from a few differentcountries. That prompted the French
to do the colonial thing wherethey expression interest in quote,
providing stability in theregion to protect their local interests.
But what they were reallydoing was trying to counter Britain's
growing control of Burma andincreased Siamese influence. So in
(09:01):
1887 Auguste Pavi arrived withforces in time to save Uncom, the
Lao king at the time from araid by Chinese and Thai bandits.
I will note that this is Thaispelled T A I recall the Kingdom
of Thailand does not exist yetand this is an ethnic group that
(09:22):
includes the Thai that live inThailand and the Lao people. It's
interesting to read about, butit's too complicated to get into
and not super relevant to thisstory anyway. This gave the French
an opportunity to try andexpand Indochina from modern Vietnam
and Cambodia all the way up tothe banks of the Mekong. But first
(09:44):
they had to do some literalgunboat diplomacy, wherein they repeatedly
and deliberately escalatedhostilities with Siam. Eventually,
they sailed some substantialarmament up the Chao river and established
a blockade on Bangkok. Thisled to Siam ceding pretty much all
of modern day Laos to theFrench as a new protectorate in 1893.
(10:06):
More on the French later,because we're going to pop forward
for a birthday and we're goingabout 10 years to right after Laos
became a centrally and locallyadministered country within the French
Empire, Thong D Soon was bornin 1905 and true to form for the
(10:27):
Anthems podcast, this guy isan absolute ghost. We know that he
wrote Feng sat Lao in 1941 andthen he remains a ghost despite writing
the song chosen as thenational anthem and the other work
that he's done, which I can'tfind any of, the only other things
(10:48):
I can say about him for sureare that he served in the government
of the Kingdom of Laos as theMinister of Agriculture and veterinary
services from 1954 to 1956.This was the fifth government of
Laos and the firstadministration in charge after the
end of the first Indochinawar. We'll talk about a little bit
(11:09):
of that in a few minutes. In1955, Thongdee was a member of the
United Nations Economic andSocial Commission for Asia and the
Pacific, or escap, and wasreferred to in several of the sources
as a doctor of some kind,possibly a veterinarian based on
his position in thegovernment, but I have no idea. Tongdi
(11:32):
passes at the age of 66 in1968, of causes that remain unknown
to me, there were an abundanceof dead ends in searching for information
about the songwriter thatcrafted the royal anthem of the Kingdom
of Laos, which you likely haveguessed is not the end of the story.
To get there, we need to knowa little bit about how the Kingdom
(11:54):
of Laos came about, and forthat we are going to jump back to
February in 1945, when Japancame and occupied French Indochina,
the Imperial army were able tofairly handily intern the majority
of French citizens living inVietnam and Cambodia. Due to the
mountains and jungles in Laos,the locals and the French were more
(12:17):
or less able to hide out andhang on until the end of the war.
After Japan gained control ofthe area and on the way to them being
kicked out, they beganpressuring the king to declare Laos
independent in April. He didjust that, and most of the disparate
independence groups coalescedinto the Lao Esarah, or Free Laos
(12:39):
movement. The French were notinterested in any of that, obviously,
and things rapidly escalatedinto a couple wherein the royal family
was imprisoned and a newgovernment was declared. It was a
really short run and sixmonths later the administration was
forced by the French to fleeto Thailand, where a communist faction
(13:00):
called the Pathet Lao splitoff. We're going to put a pin in
the path at Laos. The end ofthe Franco Laos General Convention.
In 1949, France was pressuredinto granting Laos the status of
quasi independentconstitutional monarchy. That put
them on a path to eliminatingcolonial influence. With additional
(13:22):
powers granted to lao royaltyin 1950, including training and assistance
for an army. It took justthree more years for Laos to become
the fully independent kingdomof Laos. Feng Sat Lao was chosen
as the most appropriate of themany patriotic songs written in the
run up to actually getting toindependence. I'm going to read out
(13:43):
the original lyrics as well asthe current. When I get to the usual
place where I do that, Ithought about not reading both sets.
But in order to understand thecurrent lyrics, I think we need to
talk about both versions ofthem. And to get to that, we're going
to jump back again to ourlyricist's birth. Mr. Sisanna Sisane
(14:06):
was born in southern Laos on13th September in 1922. We got a
little bit more detail aboutCesanna than we had about Tongdi.
All I can say confidentlyabout his early life is that he studied
music in Vietnam and Thailand.And after that he kind of vanishes
until 1945 when to mysurprise, he participated in the
(14:28):
failed coup that ended withthe Laoise Sera fleeing to Thailand.
When he returned, it was as amember of the Central Committee for
the Neo Lao Asala or LaoFreedom Front, and as the editor
in chief of the Lao Haskettnewspaper. His involvement deepened
further in 1958 when he waselected deputy of his home region
(14:50):
as a parliamentary rep. Thenext year Sissane was arrested with
a bunch of other oppositionleaders and jailed, although a lot
of them escaped from theFankeng prison. After that, our writer
was appointed head of CentralPropaganda Training and Cultural
Organization, which is a titlethat only a commun administration
(15:11):
in the 1960s could come upwith. He took over Pathet Lao Radio
as well. Cesanna continued tobe a part of the Pathet Laos for
the rest of his life. In 1972he was elected as an alternate member
of the party's CentralCommittee. And then he spent 73 through
75 as part of the precommunist takeover committee. After
(15:34):
the official handover to thePathet Lao by the monarchy. And probably
right about when he penned thelyrics for Feng Zat Lao, he was The
Minister of Propaganda,Information, Culture and Tourism,
as well as the head of theInstitute for Scientific and Social
Research, another impressivelylong title. I find it difficult to
(15:57):
imagine that one person wasactually effective with such a wide
range of responsibilities. Butthat's every nation's government
sometimes anyway. From 1994until his death in 1998, he acted
as an advisor to the committeethat compiled party history. When
Cesanna died, he was writtenabout as a great politician, a man
(16:19):
of culture, and a socialactivist for the people. To finish
getting to the point, I firstneed to circle back around and pull
the pin so we can find out abit about how the Kingdom of Laos
became the Lao People'sRepublic. The Path at Lao arose after
the split of the Lao Isarawhile exiled in Thailand, and largely
(16:41):
from the efforts of anotherperson in the interesting enough
to read about category or haveanother show about him. And I'm going
to say his name wrong. Iapologize. Prince Sufan Vong. After
an extended stay in Vietnam,he married a native, hung out with
Ho Chi Minh, and secured aidto start a guerrilla force from the
(17:02):
Viet Minh. With that aid, thePrince and other Pathetlau fighters
accompanied an invasion fromthe south, and they were able to
establish a government, makeinroads, and start a civil war in
Laos. In 1954, a GenevaConvention agreement ostensibly removed
foreign fighters from Laos andthe Pathet Lao established an official
(17:25):
party, although in realitythey were operating like the northern
arm of the Viet Minh and theirtroops were on the border. In 1973,
there was a treaty thatestablished a coalition government.
I think it was the thirdcoalition government and treaty in
a complicated war. But we knowthat the party had a committee getting
ready for a full takeover atthat same time. On December 2nd in
(17:49):
1975, the process camecomplete and the monarchy was abolished.
With that and the knowledgethat of course the propaganda minister
was going to write the anthem,and of course he chose a composition
that had deep cultural meaningalready. So now we have our song,
and I can go on to discuss it.Musically speaking, we have a song
(18:11):
that sounds like the placeit's from, which makes me happy,
because there is a danger thata former colony of the French and
now communist country wouldhave a song that essentially rips
off the anthem from France orChina. Instead, we are greeted with
an exuberant and well paced,at around 140 beats per minute song
that is properly East Asianfolk music that leads to elements
(18:36):
of the pentatonic scale in themusic. And I'm almost always a fan
of Pentatonic music. I'veheard versions played at half time
or double time as well, butall of them are played in E flat
major, which is fun becauseI'm not sure we've had an E flat
major key yet on this show. Itis an appropriate key though, because
in a post Beethoven world thatis associated with heroic bold music.
(19:01):
Recall that Feng Zat Lau was adeliberately patriotic song, even
though it was not deliberatelywritten to be an anthem and it was
penned at a time with a localmaximum in nationalism that was being
deliberately fomented by atleast three different groups of people.
It doesn't shock me that thissong, with its 44 time sig, singable
pace and danceable rhythm waspicked as the anthem. Lyrically,
(19:24):
we have two sets of lyrics.Like I said earlier, I think we need
to talk about both of them.Sometimes discussing earlier versions
of the song does not turn outto be useful in my opinion, but here
I think it's going to help usunderstand what Sasana wrote to know
what Tongdi wrote.Structurally speaking, they are deliberately
(19:47):
very close and use the samerhyme scheme with three verses of
four lines apiece followed bya two line wrapping it up verse.
There might be a poetry namefor the structure, but I don't know
it and I don't want to get toolost in the reeds here. Both of them
are originally written in Lao,but I of course will be reading in
(20:07):
English and using the literaltranslation for both, so stuff is
not gonna rhyme. I flipped thecoin and we're gonna start with the
original lyrics. In the olddays our Lao people were famous all
over Asia because the Lao wereunited in love. Still today they
(20:28):
love their people and countryand rally around their kings. They
preserve the religion of theirfathers and protect the soil of their
ancestors. They will neverallow another nation to threaten
them or to occupy theirterritory. Every enemy who enters
their country, we find themready to fight until death. Altogether
(20:51):
they can restore the ancientglory of their blood and they will
stand together in the days ofdanger. Now the current lyrics, which
were written in 1975 and forall time the Lao people have glorified
their motherland, united inheart, spirit and vigor as one resolutely
(21:13):
moving forward, respecting andincreasing the dignity of the Lao
people and proclaiming theright to be their own masters. Lao
people of all origins areequal and will no longer allow imperialists
and traitors to harm them. Theentire people will safeguard the
independence and the freedomof the Lao nation. They are resolved
(21:36):
to struggle for victory inorder to lead the nation to prosperity.
There are some common themesand specific contrasts in the lyrics.
We have a call for pride inboth of them. In the original writing,
the pride comes from thenation's rich past heritage. It's
mostly reaching back to drawinspiration from a time when Laos
(21:56):
was more culturally prominentin Asia. The current version looks
in entirely the otherdirection for pride. It emphasizes
a collective, forward lookingviewpoint, focusing on the enduring
spirit of the Laotian people,which makes a lot of sense to me.
Recall, we're in a nation thatwas occupied by the colonial French,
then wracked by a civil war,then dragged into parts of the Vietnam
(22:19):
War and the Second IndochinaWar, all the while managing to maintain
a distinct cultural identity.The writing projects resilience and
confidence in a selfdetermined future for the people
of Laos. Both sets of lyricstout the unity and collective identity
of the people, but there arestrong differences in how the writers
do this. In the original, it'sframed as a unifying love for the
(22:42):
monarch and the officialreligion, which was Buddhism. It
is strongly implied. Loyaltyis a cornerstone of national cohesion.
Doing your duty to God andcountry, as they say in some western
nations. From 1975 on, thetheme of unity is persistent, but
it is now rooted in theequality of the people living in
(23:03):
Laos, the social ideas ofinclusivity and communal identity.
It's a way more egalitarianviewpoint than hierarchical structures
in monarchies. At least it'ssupposed to work that way. But there
is oppression, and I bet theHmong people have a few things to
say about how the Pathet Laotreat the ones that they don't want
(23:25):
there, because it has not beengreat. National defense and sovereignty
are frequently covered themesin national anthems, and Feng Zat
Lao puts them to good use. The1941 lyrics are definitely more militant.
Fighting to the death toprotect your culture and way of life
seems like a fairly naturalreaction to having your homeland
(23:46):
ravaged for decades by outsideforces. It actually does come up
in quite a few anthems. Thesocialist lyrics, though, are not
explicitly violent, but theydo project a resolute determination.
They also kind of preservesovereignty as a mechanism, but in
this case it's more a productof the Lao people rather than a single
monarch. The current versionis very much a product of the time
(24:09):
and the place. Just south ofChina in a communist country well
into the Cold War. The peopleneed to be vigilant against the internal
threat of betrayal, which Ithink really means anybody not supporting
the party is the enemy. Basedon my reading about other communist
countries, plus there is theanti imperialist message, which in
the case of this anthem refersvery specifically to France and the
(24:33):
United States because they arerespectively the colonial occupiers
and the country that turnedLaos into the most bombed place on
the entire planet. The postureof many a socialist state in the
middle of the 70s was allabout resisting external influence
and perceiving it as a threatto the state's independence in an
effort to unite the people.The current lyrics run with that
(24:55):
theme right through and thereis a focus on collective progress
that will modernize thecountry. The lyrics remain mostly
secular, explicitly politicaland forward looking, a stark shift
from the original intent oftraditional values, Buddhist principles
and apolitical tone thatlooked at past glories. It is an
appropriate anthem and anappropriate song in my opinion. Overall,
(25:19):
I found it interesting to readfor and write up. We've got a song
that is an anthem, but also anarrative of the cultural evolution
in Laos from colony tomonarchy to socialist state, from
religious to mostly secular,and attempting to be inclusive as
long as you're in the partyrather than exclusive to a single
ethnic group. This one wassomething different, even though
(25:43):
it manages to remain insidemany traditional anthem corridors.
And with that it sounds anawful lot like I'm about to say it's
time for the credits. Thewriting, recording and production
for this show are done by me.I wrote and played the theme music
and then I used it with my ownpermission. Unless otherwise noted,
(26:05):
the anthems I play are publicdomain or something free, a thing
I got permission to play orhave made a good faith effort to
get permission to play. Andactually this time I didn't do any
of that because this recordingwas pulled from a 1978 broadcast
on Laos State television and Ihave no idea how to get a hold of
(26:26):
those people as usual. If youknow, please let me know. My sources
are contained in the shownotes and the most direct way to
get to those show notesis@anthemspodcast.com this show is
can credentialed, which meansyou can report incidences of harassment,
abuse or other harm on theirhotline at 617-249-4255 or on the
(26:51):
website@creator accountabilitynetwork.com you can go there and
volunteer time or join up. Asa creator yourself. I can be found
on Facebook and WhatsApp asthe anthems podcast. You should follow
me on Facebook when I do post.It is a post about the show and if
you see these posts you canshare those posts. Plus it puts you
(27:11):
in a pretty exclusive clubbecause not a lot of people follow
me. Being in exclusives clubsis kind of cool. I have basically
no advertising budget, so Itry to get the episodes onto whatever
platform I can. With thehashtag anthemspod, it would be cool
if you hashtag the post ofsome kind and maybe it means that
the Laotian effort at fightingdeforestation becomes more successful.
(27:35):
As always, you can email mecorrections, comments, concerns,
suggestions, ideas,instructions, and even ask me questions@anthemspodmail.com
perhaps you need me to hearyour tone of voice so I know how
mad or happy you are. If you'dlike to, you can give me a call 1-203-759-8375.
(27:58):
Or better still, leave me areview wherever you can so more people
hear me or give me a rating onyour podcast app for the same reason.
It really helps. Maybe you'rethe manager at a gigantic store and
you accidentally play thisvery episode for everyone shopping.
But even if all that happensis you listen to one more I hope
you like it, because I like itand I'm enjoying what I'm doing.
(28:22):
Next month you'll hear me again.
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