Lao history revisited: Paradoxes and problems in current research

By Michel Lorrillard (EFEO)
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Abstract: The historiography of what is now the country of Laos
has remained relatively underdeveloped since the colonial period.
The earliest scholarly works produced by Lao and foreign authors
were based on certain assumptions that have remained unquestioned
despite serious problems with the sources. Recent epigraphical and
archaeological discoveries have permitted a rethinking of these
assumptions, and hold out the promise of further revisions of our
view of the Lao past. Particularly worth exploring are the cultural
and artistic connections between the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang
and the northern Thai kingdom of Lanna.

Keywords: historiography; archaeology; epigraphy; Laos

Comment: This historian is currently preparing a edited volume of annotated inscriptions of the pre-modern Lao kingdom of Lan Chang. His work also provides a model (in addition to Tilman Frasch) of what Burmese epigraphy could become.