Ethnicity
Sekong is ethnically diverse. Only about 3% of the population is ethnic Lao. The vast majority (97%) come from one of at least 14 distinct ethnic minority groups. The Alak (21% of the provincial population), Katu (20%), Tarieng (19%) and Nge/Krieng (11%) are the main ethnic groups. The Lao government classifies them as “Lao Theung” (mid-slope Lao), but an ethno-linguistic categorization, based on language families, places them under the Austroasiatic family. Within this broad family, the ethnic groups of Sekong fall into two linguistic branches: the Katuic (including the Katu and the Nge/Krieng) and the Bahnaric (Alak and Tarieng).
These groups have always existed on the margins of society. Lowland groups – be it the Lao-Tai majority in Lao PDR, or the Vietnamese over the border – have traditionally viewed them as uncivilized, for several reasons. First, their agriculture is more focused on swidden cultivation than paddy rice cultivation, a powerful symbol of civilization for lowland societies. Second, since swidden is a form of forest management, and because forest products are so important in their livelihoods, they have always existed in close relation to the forest – a wild and unpredictable place full of spirits (good and bad) in the minds of lowlanders. Third, they do not practice Buddhism, another benchmark of civilization. Rather they practice ‘animism,’ or what can be translated as ‘spiritualism,’ and they are believed to wield powers (ethnic Lao people call it ‘black magic’) used to deal with the dangerous spirits resident in their villages and forests. Furthermore, they have no written language, another sign of civilization. Finally, they do not traditionally recognize political organization outside the village. Thus to lowland Lao these Austroasiatic groups have traditionally represented savagery, godlessness, witchcraft, illiteracy, and anarchy. However, these groups have always been given the place of honor in traditional ceremonies of the Lao state, because they are considered original owners of the land. They have always been represented in all major rituals, and even newly-built palaces of the Lao kings could not be occupied until the upland chiefs had ceremonially opened it.
These views – and the fear engendered as a result, the fear of peoples who have mastered the wild periphery – has in some ways worked to the advantage of the minorities. They have enjoyed relative autonomy over the centuries, as the power of great kingdoms of the lowlands (Cham, Khmer, Vietnamese, Lao) changed hands, and ebbed and flowed. Historically, their lands have been an important buffer zone between powerful and often warring lowland groups – alternatively a staging point or hideout for rebellions or retreats, with minorities acting as essential guides through the forests and mountains. Therefore, these groups have been a part of many of the great battles of mainland Southeast Asian history; but not until the French colonial takeover in the 1890s were their lands ever totally claimed by an outside power.
This is when the first substantial organizational push beyond the village level – including collaboration with lowland groups – occurred. Many rebellions against the French were organized from the time of French conquest in Laos. Ultimately, a great number of minorities joined the Pathet Lao communist movement during the resistance war against the French, and then later the American-backed Royal Lao Government forces. Though they were fighting for “independence,” in a very real way this was the beginning of the end of autonomy for Sekong’s ethnic groups. Many moved as a result of the heavy bombing in Sekong (the Ho Chi Minh trail runs through the province), and many remain today in the settlements made then.
Read more about this topic: Sekong Province