Abstract

Houaphan Province is a peripheral upland region typical for Laos: ethnically heterogeneous, largely rural, economically marginal. Yet recent tendencies of state intervention, upland-lowland relations, and transnational dynamics make the province a special case for the study of Lao upland contexts. Three aspects of these tendencies shall be explored here: state-controlled memory and history politics in the context of ideological nation building, transnational tendencies as embodied by the tourism sector, and upland development politics directed by the state and international agencies. Examples from Viengxay, important revolutionary site of memory and tourism destination, and the surrounding rural areas affected by modernizing development projects will illustrate present sociocultural transformations in upland Laos.

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