Culture, Art and Architecture in Laos

Lao culture, like that of neighbouring Cambodia, suffered under the Communists; but traditional art forms have survived and are re-emerging into daily life.

The traditional art and culture of Laos are closely related to those of neighbouring Thailand, and especially to those of Thailand’s Lao-speaking northeastern provinces. The very close relationship between Lao and Thai culture is immediately apparent to anyone crossing the Mekong River between the two countries.

Yet the 15 years of rigid Communist domination and isolation behind the “bamboo curtain” between 1975 and 1990 have had a lasting impact which, given the slow-moving pace of Laos, is unlikely to disappear completely for some years to come. Some of the most interesting aspects of contemporary Lao cultural arts are directly related to the brief period of Communist ascendancy.

State-sponsored dances in both Laos and Cambodia generally feature smiling minorities dancing in unison with the dominant Lao or Khmer ethnic group. It’s likely that few of the performers are really from minority ethnic groups.

Literature

The most popular and enduring epic in Lao literature is the Pha Lak Pha Lam, the Lao version of the Hindu Ramayana. This classic is thought to have come to Laos about 1,000 years ago, when the southern part of the country was dominated by the Hindu Khmer Empire. Also derived from Indian tradition are the jataka, the stories of the life cycle of the Buddha, called saa-tok in Lao. Traditionally, religious texts and other literature were written by hand on palm leaves.

Music and dance

Traditional Lao music is much less complex than that of Vietnam and Cambodia. When sung it is always memorised, and improvisation is popular.

The main Lao instrument is the flute-like khene, which is made of bamboo. There are two types of orchestra, the seb gnai which uses large drums and wind instruments to play religious music, and the seb noi which employs khene, flutes called khuy, a two-stringed instrument called the so, and the nangnat, which is a form of xylophone. To this is generally added the music of the khong vong, a semicircular instrument made from cane which carries 16 cymbals around its periphery.

Modern popular Lao music is often based on khene music. However, most Lao living in the Mekong Valley tend to tune in to Thai radio stations and watch Thai TV programmes, and in Thailand’s Isaan provinces the influence of Thai popular music culture is predictably great.

Lamvong, the Lao equivalent of Thai ram-wong dancing, is extremely popular. At its best this is performed by graceful female dancers who use their arms and hands to relate stories from the Ramayana and other epics. In general, though, lamvong may be performed by anyone of either gender, spontaneously at parties and festivals.

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A vestige of Lao Social Realism architecture. Photo: Shutterstock

Contemporary Lao socialist art

With Social Realism established as the sole legitimate art form in both the Soviet Union and Communist China, it followed naturally that the genre was introduced throughout Vietnam following the Communist victory in 1975. The Lao Communists, always strongly influenced by their Vietnamese “elder brothers”, had long applied Social Realist standards in their northeastern base in the provinces of Hua Phan and Phongsali. Following the establishment of the Lao PDR in December 1975, the highly formalised style was extended to the rest of the country as a matter of course – as usual, brooking no rivalry.

In easy-going non-industrialised Buddhist Laos the results of this policy seemed particularly incongruous. Images of heroic peasants shooting down marauding US planes with AK47 assault rifles alternated with images of massively muscled Lao “shock workers” building steel mills for the socialist society. Other unlikely images included, for example, Lao hill tribes demonstrating their unshakeable solidarity with Cuban forces in Angola.

In Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, following the collapse of Communist power, Social Realism was abandoned almost overnight as people celebrated their new-found cultural freedom. Some countries of the former Soviet Bloc even established museums to house especially lurid examples of totalitarian kitsch. In cautious, sleepy Laos, by contrast, change has been rather more gradual.

Today, militant images celebrating the anti-imperialist struggle have all but disappeared – except from the walls of the People’s Museum of the Lao Army, which is, in any case, generally closed to visitors. By contrast, hoardings celebrating the more pacific side of Communist aspirations – mass inoculation campaigns, the construction of heavy industry, and the “bumper harvest” – still survive.

A revealing change around the start of the new millennium was the introduction of two previously uncelebrated elements of Lao society: the monk and the businessman. In downtown Vientiane these formerly shunned figures have joined those stalwarts of Lao Social Realism, the peasant, the soldier and the worker, in hoardings celebrating the achievements of the government. In the Lao PDR the writing is, literally, on the wall – Buddhism and private enterprise are both back in style.

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Wat Xieng Thong, the Golden City Monastery in Luang Prabang. Photo: Shutterstock

Architecture

Laos is blessed with a surprisingly rich range of temple styles, with most traditional Lao architecture relating directly to Theravada Buddhism. A Lao wat complex will typically consist of several structures including a sim, or building where phra – that is, monks – are ordained; a haw tai, or library; kuti, or monks’ dwelling places; that, or stupas; and generally a haw kawng, or drum tower.

The classic temple style of Vientiane and the lower Mekong differs from that of the north. The sim is generally narrower and higher than in the north of the country, with heavy columns and much steeper eaves, and is often distinguished by an elaborately carved wooden screen over the front entrance porch. Figures in such carvings may represent the Buddha or be mythical figures such as the garuda (a fierce half-bird, half-human creature from Hindu and Buddhist mythology) or the kinnari (a female creature with a human upper torso but the wings and legs of a bird). The main part of the sim is generally made of brick and stucco. Roofs are high-peaked and culminate in characteristic jao faa or upward-sweeping hooks. The architectural school in evidence here is Rattanakosin, from Bangkok in central Thailand, and quite different to the various northern schools – it’s grander, certainly, but less intimate.

Luang Prabang temples differ quite markedly in style from those of Vientiane. The north of the country shares cultural and artistic links with the ancient northern Tai Kingdom of Lan Na, now the region around Chiang Mai, as well as the Thai Lu principalities of Sipsongpanna, now at the heart of China’s Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Region. Part of the sophisticated Tai Lu architectural heritage lies in Laos, notably at Muang Singh in the far northwest.

The temples of Luang Prabang are lower and broader than those of Vientiane, with sweeping, multi-tiered roofs and “eyebrow” pelmets, the sim being reached by a narrow flight of naga (river snake spirit) -lined stone steps. Wat Xieng Thong, with its spectacular roofs and liberal use of gold, is probably the best example of this style.

There was once a third Lao temple style, that of the ancient Phuan Kingdom centred on the Plain of Jars. This style – known as Xieng Khuang after the old Phuan capital – resembled the Luang Prabang temple style but with single rather than tiered roofs. Unfortunately the unrestrained bombing of the Plain of Jars during the Vietnam War resulted in the total destruction of all Xieng Khuang temples in their native Phuan region. Fortunately, however, a few still survive in Luang Prabang, adding to the richness of the architectural heritage of the northern capital – Wat Sop on Thanon Xieng Thong is the best such example.

The pre-eminent religious building in the country is That Luang in Vientiane – effectively the symbol of Lao nationhood. It is part of a distinctive style associated with Vientiane and the northeast, distinguished by tall, gilded chedi (that), reliquaries for venerated Buddha relics. That Phanom, just across the Mekong in Thailand, is similarly impressive and is sacred to the Lao people of northeastern Thailand.

There are other religious traditions present in Vientiane and the central Mekong Valley – French colonial-period churches and chapels, and even a tiny mosque in central Vientiane – while the architectural treasures of southern Laos are in fact Cambodian, and are best represented by Wat Phu in Champasak, which was founded in pre-Angkorean times, but also has later Angkor-era structures.