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Vaudine England

Several thousand Vientiane residents were still enjoying themselves on the streets last night after the first celebration under the communist government of a royal birthday.

The centrepiece of the unprecedented official celebrations of the 650th birthday of king Fa Ngum was the unveiling of a statue of the man who became king in 1353.

Before that, ordinary Laotians made Buddhist offerings at the base of the statue, located on the main road near the Novotel hotel.

Formalities began with a lengthy procession through the capital led by four elephants, two of which were albino.

The elephants were escorting the Prabang, a golden statue of Buddha, with which king Fa Ngum first established the Kingdom of a Million Elephants, or Lane Xang, and a White Parasol at Luang Prabang. Surrounding them were about 1,000 monks and a full range of leaders, past and present, from the Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic.

With prayers and the crashing of a gong, the statue of king Fa Ngum was unveiled.

The ceremonies and the obvious enthusiasm of the population appear paradoxical in what remains a communist one-party state.

But Lao history proves categories of monarchism and communism are hard to hold.

King Fa Ngum is extolled by both government and exiled members of the royal family as the great unifier of Laos.

He is also described in some history books as a warlord who was able to found his dynasty by marrying the daughter of a Khmer king.

The Pathet Lao revolutionaries who formed the basis of the current Lao regime were led by a descendant of the king, known as the Red Prince.

Nonetheless, the regime forced the abdication of the ruling monarchs in 1975, descendants of whom live in France.

Despite the colour of yesterday's ceremonies, replete with religious and royal symbolism, their hopes for a glorious comeback are unlikely to be fulfilled.

'I do believe that most Lao would be happy to see a royal comeback, but the regime, I am certain, will not allow it,' said Grant Evans, a Laos scholar at the University of Hong Kong.

'[The government] cannot reestablish the monarchy without calling the whole revolution into question, so that establishes the outer limits of the process.

'I also believe that they have so thoroughly destroyed what might be called the infrastructure of the monarchy that it would have trouble re-establishing itself.

'But once you unleash this process of even selective royal revival there [is] no saying where it will end,' said Dr Evans.

Somsanouk Mixai, director of the Vientiane Times,  a state-run English-language newspaper,  said: 'The 650th anniversary was a good occasion. The kingdom of Lane Xang corresponds to the time when Laos was at its largest.

'The regime honours every era of history and national heroes prior to 1975.'

Dr Evans has described the regime as indulging in 're-traditionalisation', meaning it has revived ancient symbols to try to shore up its legitimacy.



Laotians seize a rare opportunity to celebrate an ancient monarch