1. The Ethnic Diversity of Laos:
A Museum Perspective
Tara Gujadhur
Co-Director, Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre
INTG, 25 March 2014
2. Outline
• Introduction
• Ethnic Diversity of Laos
• Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre
• TAEC‟s communities
• Working with source communities
• Summary and lessons learned
3. Traditional Arts and
Ethnology Centre
• Started by Tara Gujadhur and Thongkhoun Soutthivilay in
November 2005
• Dearth of accessible, accurate and engaging information
on Laos‟ ethnology
• Start-up funding from private donors and foundations
Opened in July 2007 in heritage building in Luang Prabang
• Private, non-profit
• Dedicated to the understanding and preservation of ethnic
diversity in Laos
4. Local context
• Luang Prabang, UNESCO World
Heritage Site in north of Laos
• Over 400% growth in tourism in
last decade
• Lao PDR is still a developing
country, 83% of the population is
rural and dependent on
agriculture-based livelihoods
• Ethnic minorities make up a
disproportionate share of the poor
5. Mission
• “To promote pride and appreciation for the
cultures and knowledge of Laos’ diverse peoples,
support ethnic communities to safeguard their
tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and
promote their sustainable livelihood
development.”
• Not a strict museum-type institution
7. Exhibitions
• Permanent exhibition with text, photographs,
objects
• Temporary exhibits – currently “Carving a
Community: The Katu People”
• Archival lighting, mounting and rotation of objects
• Attempt to show changing lifestyles, the
contemporary and the traditional
8. Research, Preservation and
Documentation
• Collection of over 400 objects, 30 ethnic groups
• Use locally appropriate archival methods
• Collaborate with anthropologists
• Try to document changing ways of life and ICH
• Not all objects are “antique”
14. Advocacy and Livelihoods
• Rural ethnic minorities are poorest in Laos
• Over 600 producers – 50% of income from shop
goes directly to communities
• Promote livelihoods based on traditional skills
through the Museum Shop
• Support ethnic minority pride and identity-building
15. TAEC tries to provide:
• Public resource for learning, study and
research on Laos‟ ethnology
• Informative and engaging exhibit to help
tourists and Lao to appreciate a more
pluralistic and sensitive view of ethnic
diversity
• More responsive representation of ethnic
diversity with a view to cultural, political,
and socio-economic changes
16. Ethnic Diversity in Laos
• Laos is one of more
diverse countries in
this region
• About 6.7 million
• Tai Lao, 55% of
population
• 49 officially
recognised groups
17. Ethnic Diversity in Laos
• Historical categorisation:
– Lao Loum: inhabitants of lowlands, valleys
and riverbanks, between 200-400 meters
altitude.
– Lao Theung: inhabitants of mountain slopes
and upland valleys of 300-900 meters altitude.
– Lao Soung: inhabitants of mountain summits,
between 800 and 1,600 meters altitude.
• Oversimplified representation of the
country‟s ethnic make-up
18. TAEC Exhibits
• Try to move away from
categories
• Focus on specific aspects of
cultural and social life of a
select number of groups
• Depict both traditional and
contemporary practices
• Moving towards thematic
representations
19. TAEC’s communities
1. Tourists
– 25,000 kip entry ticket for foreigners
– Lao citizens enter free
– 80,000+ foreign visitors to date
– Foreign tourists read about it in guidebook or
brochure
– Foreign tourists accustomed to museum
experience
20. TAEC’s communities cont’d
2. Lao visitors
– Around 10% of visitors
– Need to be drawn in, engaged,
facilitated
– Many view TAEC as a shop or
tourist site
– Children‟s outreach activities
– Local students and
researchers
21. TAEC’s communities cont’d
3. Ethnic minority
communities – TAEC‟s
“source communities”
– Research in communities –
primarily on exhibition
content
– Collection acquisitions and
documentation
– Handicraft development and
sales
– Community cultural
revitalisation
22. Engaging source
communities
and building relationships
• Exhibition content based on and enhanced by primary
research
– Field visits by TAEC team about twice a year, mostly north of
Laos
• Identifying communities
• Approaching and engaging communities
– First approach formal village leadership; village chief and
elders
– Community knowledge persons
– Language and gender barriers (issues of “voice”)
– Community cultural mapping
23. Engaging communities and
applied research
• Building relationships
– Informal, friendly, steady
– “Give and take”
– Photos
– Emergency assistance and
supplies
– Visits to TAEC
– Directors main point of contact
– Livelihoods through handicrafts
24. Handicrafts and livelihood
development
• Museum Shop
– Distinctive village handicrafts
based on traditional arts
– Handwoven textiles, bamboo
weaving, embroidery, hand-
worked silver, applique, batik,
pottery
– Primarily from source
communities
– Challenging, time-intensive
process
25. Importance of handicrafts and museum
shop for source communities
• Important supplementary
source of income for vulnerable
communities
• Extend loans, prepayments,
design input and fair prices
• Average of 50% of shop income
returns to communities
• Benefits to women and families
• Currently supports over 600
producers in 30 communities
26. Cultural safeguarding
and representation
• Challenges of a museum representing living
cultures
• In a developing country, the issue is even more
acute
– Changes in community cohesion, religion, social
norms, education
– Cash dependency, sale of cultural artefacts
– Integration into the majority culture
27. Documentation of ICH
• Documentary photography (not posed, series
documenting an activity)
• Life stories (recorded audio-visually)
• Video and film of ceremonies, activities,
production of objects
28. Key Questions
• How to empower these communities in
their own identity building process?
• Can the museum play a role in community
recognition of its local resources,
traditional skills and identity?
• How can the museum actively partner with
a source community?
29. Splendour and Sacrifice “Taoism
in Northern Laos”
• Research and exhibition project funded by US Embassy
• 2009 – 2011
• Objective:
“To document the religious rituals of the Iu Mien and Kim
Di Mun ethnic minorities of northern Laos, to recognize
the importance that Taoist and shamanistic rituals play in
their identity, and to promote appreciation and
preservation of these cultural resources for future
generations.“
• Research and documentation, exhibition, education and
handicraft development
30. Splendour and Sacrifice “Taoism
in Northern Laos” (cont’d)
• Research and documentation:
– Worked with community
resource persons
– Recorded ceremonies by video,
photos and observation
– Recorded object names, key
words and phrases in minority
language
– Documented making of
(ephemeral/impermanent) ritual
materials and equipment on
video, e.g. paper making
– Contracted anthropologist
31. Splendour and Sacrifice “Taoism
in Northern Laos” (cont’d)
• Exhibition:
– Emphasised ICH and TCH –
video, recreation of a ritual,
documentary („action‟) photos
– Community resource persons
came to install the exhibition,
assist with labelling and display
– Community recreated
ephemeral materials for the
ordination „scene‟, such as
paper decorations and offerings
to gods
– Participated in the opening,
including giving demonstrations
of arts and crafts and talking to
visitors
32. “Stitching Our
Stories”
• Community research project
partnering with PhotoForward,
a media-arts organisation from
the US
• Women and girls using
photography, video, and
research to document their
cultures, women‟s roles, and
modernisation
33. “Stitching Our Stories”
• Have run two years of the project so
far, 3 terms each:
– Photography
– Interviewing and video
– Independent research
• 20 young women total
• Photos exhibited at Asia Society –
Texas Center
• 3 films shown at Luang Prabang Film
Festival, Angkor Film Festival
• In September 2014, will open a
“community curated” exhibit at TAEC
34. Conclusion
• TAEC has a relatively complex mission and
activities, for a small organisation
• Being private, financial viability is ever present
concern
• In a developing country
– Human, knowledge, material resources are limited
– Education and museum context lacking
– Basic human development needs
35. Summary
• Representing ethnic minority cultures, vital to be
engaged with the communities themselves
– Time-consuming and costly
– Demands creativity and patience
• TAEC has developed a multi-faceted approach
– Informal relationship-building
– Applied research
– Handicrafts development and income generation
– Moving into more cultural revitalisation
• TAEC‟s relationships with its source communities are
probably its strongest asset
