Stalking the Elephant Kings - In Search of Laos
Christopher Kremmer Investigates the Fate of the Last King of Laos
Mar 25, 2009
Published in 1997, Stalking the Elephant Kings is a fascinating snapshot of Laos, the Kingdom of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol, as it began its tentative opening up to the outside world. An Australian foreign correspondent based in Hanoi at the time, Christopher Kremmer travels the length and breadth of the country, from Champassak in the south to Houaphan in the north, in his quest to unravel the mystery of what happened to Laos’ last king.
Luang Prabang, the Former Royal Capital of Laos
Stalking the Elephant Kings starts off in Luang Prabang, the temple-strewn, monk-filled former royal capital of Laos. Kremmer explores the city’s temples and meets an array of former royal retainers, among them dancers, puppeteers and silversmiths who are happy to reminisce about the good old days of royal patronage. It is in Luang Prabang, with its discreet royal reminders at practically every turn, that Kremmer gets the idea to investigate the mystery of what happened to King Savang Vatthana and his family.
The king abdicated in 1975, bringing a 600-year old monarchy to an end, and was subsequently held under house arrest in Luang Prabang by the communist Pathet Lao. He and his family were then sent to a “re-education center” at Viengsai in 1977. What happened next is shrouded in mystery. The stories are many and various, and ultimately impossible to verify.
In Search of the Last King of Laos
Accompanied by his guide Boun Kham – once a colonel in the Royal Lao Air Force and then an inmate of one of Laos' infamous re-education camps - Kremmer meets an array of intriguing people during his search for the last king of Laos. These include the philosophical Princess Mahneelai, the wife of the last Crown Prince, to optimistic Lao returned from exile, to evasive politicians, all of whom appear to have developed selective amnesia when it comes to details of the past.
Boun Kham and his friends, on the other hand, remember everything. Their tales – of detention, of relatives disappearing never to be seen again – are poignant reminders that no-one in Laos escaped the effects of the war. Boun Kham’s time in detention certainly could not have been easy, given his outspokenness.
His search takes Kremmer to places previously off-limits. He visits Sam Neua and Viengsai in Houaphan Province, whose caves sheltered the leaders of the Pathet Lao from American bombardment. He also visits the ancient Plain of Jars, a reminder that mystery was a Laotian attribute long before the advent of the Pathet Lao.
Official Silence Regarding Aspects of the Past
This secretive sleepy place was in the wrong place at the wrong time. As Kremmer notes at the beginning, were it not for great power politics, the civil war in Laos would have remained an intimate, small-scale affair. As it was, Laos was dragged into the maelstrom of the Vietnam War, and Kremmer makes it clear that the country is still dealing with its aftermath. By focusing on the mysterious story of the last king of Laos, Kremmer paints a picture of a beautiful country and resilient people, held back by a reluctance to deal with its past.
Christopher Kremmer, Stalking the Elephant Kings: In Search of Laos (Silkworm Books, 1997), 215 pages ISBN: 9747100487.
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