Linking the Lao Loum Diaspora in
Northern Illinois with Cultural Conservation Practice in Vientiane
Alan Potkin*, Mr. Chaleunxay Phommavongsa,** and Catherine Raymond**
*Team Leader, Digital Conservation Facility, Laos
**Founder, Black and White Studio, Vientiane; Principal consultant, Digital
Conservation Facility Laos
***Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Art History, Northern Illinois
University
As increasing wealth is generated within the Lao PDR, and also flows there from
outside, the traditional meritorious reconstruction of Buddhist Vats and sacred
sites has been accelerating everywhere around Vientiane. The aggrandizement of
so many temples, to the delight so many people in the bans, has clearly
sometimes come at a cost of disposing of undervalued assets —not all of them
material. The uniquely Lao “cultural capital” recently lost ranges from the
superb Phralak Phralam frescoes demolished with the old Vat Oup Mong vihaan, to
an obscure religious cult necessarily weakened by the proud refurbishing of Vat
Chan on the Old City waterfront: formerly the stark and austere royal seat for
propitiating Lord Sikhottabang’s well-deserved curse.
The conservation of Vat Sisaket —Vientiane’s sole religious monument in
more-or-less its original condition— is a special case in that the local abbot
and the ban cannot rehabilitate the cloistered museum complex on their own
initiative: a mixed blessing, as the surrounding improvements are plentiful. But
the will and the resources to reverse officially Sisaket’s appallingly rapid
deterioration are barely mobilized.
Existing Lao PDR legislation and decrees on archaeological and historical
preservation require formal authorization by the Ministry of Information and
Culture prior to the demolition or the rebuilding of major structures older than
fifty years. In principle, the decisions on what to protect and why, draw upon
specialized knowledge —inside and outside the government— of art and aesthetics;
of history and religion; and of touristic development and practical
conservatorship. How effective are these laws in actuality, how well-used is the
available expertise, and how can the constituencies for cultural preservation be
mobilized and strengthened?
We could now only guess the significance of remittances from overseas Lao in the
redevelopmentof temple compounds in the mother country, especially when new vats
are springing up across the Lao loum diaspora. As Lao immigrants in North
America both resist and embrace assimiliation****, what are their views on the
transformation of the Buddhist cultural landscape back in Vientiane? Are some
Lao becoming more sentimental, more preservationist towards
previously-devaluated relics of “underdevelopment”?
During the weeks before the FICLS, in cooperation with the Lao loum communities
of Burlington, Elgin, and Rockford IL USA we will have installed interpretive
materials and conducted workshops in one or more nearby vats, and will present
our methodology and findings to this Conference.
**** “The process in which one group takes on the cultural and other traits of a
larger group”, (Microsoft Word dictionary).