Phongsali Province

ຜົ້ງ ສາ ລີ Phongsali
Basic data
Country	Laos
Capital	Phongsali
surface	16,270 km²
Residents	177,989 (2015 census)
density	11 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2	LA-PH
Phongsali: green mountains above the clouds

Coordinates: 21 ° 42 '  N , 102 ° 6'  E

Phongsali ( French : Phongsaly , Laotian : ຜົ້ງ ສາ ລີ , [ pʰòŋ sǎː líː ]) is a province ( Khwaeng ) in the far north of Laos . It borders the Lao provinces of Luang Prabang and Oudomxay , as well as the provinces of Yunnan in the People's Republic of China and Điện Biên in Vietnam .

Geography and climate

Outline map of the province

The Phongsali Province is located in the far north of Laos. The entire province is mountainous at an altitude of around 450-1800 meters. The Nam Ou River runs through Phongsali as the main waterway . It rises in the northernmost district of Gnot Ou and flows south from the place Muang Khoua into the province of Luang Prabang , where it flows into the Mekong. The landscape is characterized by large areas of evergreen subtropical mountain forest. In between there are small villages whose surroundings are marked by slash and burn.

population

With 10 inhabitants per km², Phongsali is the most sparsely populated province in Laos and one of the most sparsely populated regions in mainland Southeast Asia. Only 12.6% of the population lives in cities, while 58.5% live in villages with no road access.

Much of Phongsali's history remains in the dark. The area of ​​today's province was and is very sparsely populated. In addition, the history of the "mountain peoples" ( Lao Theung and Lao Soung ) is not written down, but passed on in narrated myths. Determining religions are Theravada - Buddhism and Ethnic religions . A mixed form of spirit cult is often lived within a Buddhist framework, which, for example, specifies holidays. In addition to language, traditional clothing for women is a distinguishing feature of the ethnic group. The rice given and continues to assert people's lives. The form of cultivation is often a characteristic of an ethnic group . The family is the center of life for all ethnic groups.

Phongsali Province is populated by ethnic groups from the three major Southeast Asian language families. With subgroups, the Laotian government officially distinguishes 28 different ethnic groups with almost as many languages ​​in the province. Ethnic Lao make up only a small part of the population in Phongsali, in contrast to most of the other provinces of Laos.

• Tai-Kadai language family: Lao , Tai Lü , Tai Dam , Tai Daeng

Phongsali was an independent Tai Lü principality with close ties to Xishuangbanna in what is now Yunnan Province in China . Tai Lü are Theravada Buddhists. The Tai Lü monastery Wat Luang in Ou Tai is already mentioned under sights. Women often wear very colorful long skirts made of silk . In addition to wet rice, maize is grown.

Tai Dam , black Tai, settle mainly in villages in valleys in the districts of Muang Khua and Muang Mai. From here it is not far to Điện Biên in Vietnam, a center of the Tai Dam. Tai Dam are "natural religious" with proximity to Theravada Buddhism. Women wear typical blouses with silver buttons at the front and a silk skirt. They cover their heads with a black cloth with a colored border. They often wear their hair in a high bun with a silver coin on the front. Tai Dam grow wet rice.

Ethnic Lao people live in villages on the lower Nam Ou in the Muang Khoua district. However, in the mid-1980s, many Lao settled from other provinces to the administrative center of Phongsali City. Women wear the typical Laotian skirt (Sin) . The Lao are Theravada Buddhists and grow wet rice.

• Austro-Asian language family: Khmu

Khmu populated the river valleys, especially the Nam Ou, coming from the south. Whereas in the past Khmu practiced their traditional animistic religion almost exclusively , today some Khmu are Buddhists. Traditional clothing is only worn on festive days. The villages are surrounded with a fence to keep the cattle out. Khmu mainly grow dry rice .

• Sino-Tibetan language family: Phunoi, Akha , Hor, Lolo , Sila

The higher mountain regions have been settled by tribes from Tibet and Yunnan through immigration for about 400 years.

Phunoi came to Phongsali from Tibet via Burma and northern Thailand with a longer stay in Luang Prabang. Today they mainly settle in and in villages around Phongsali city. Most of the Phunoi are Theravada Buddhists. Elderly women wear white leg warmers. In addition to growing dry rice after slash and burn, Phunoi also grow tea .

Women of the Akha Pixor ethnic group

Akha immigrated from Tibet via Yunnan to northern Laos and Phongsali about 300 years ago. They have most conspicuously preserved their culture. Ethnologists describe up to 18 Akha subgroups in Laos. What all groups have in common is the settlement in villages between 900 and 1400 meters above sea level. Usually only the huts are surrounded by a fence. Akha have a rich traditional spirit world. A gate at the entrance to the village is supposed to keep the evil spirits away. Almost all women wear traditional, self-made clothing. Cotton from our own cultivation is spun and dyed dark blue with indigo . It is decorated with colored, mostly red embroidery or red chains. Some Akha women also adorn themselves with piasters silver coins from the time of the French colonization, some with Chinese or old Laotian coins made of aluminum. After slash and burn, dry rice is grown.

Hor , ethnic Chinese, have settled in the region for centuries. They live mainly in Phongsali City and speak the Chinese dialect from Yunnan. Known as traders between China and Thailand for centuries, they trade in Phongsali. Most of the shops, restaurants and guest houses are run by Hor.

tourism

Picnic in the jungle while trekking

Hotels, guest houses and restaurants in the province belong to the simple national category. Phongsali City has three hotels, about five guest houses and five restaurants; Muang Khoua one hotel, about seven guest houses and three restaurants; Boun Neua three guest houses and two restaurants and Ou Tai two guest houses and two restaurants.

Ecotourism is the guideline of the Lao Ministry of Tourism. With the integrated approach to sustainable special consideration be made to issues of the environment and local population. At the provincial level, this is implemented in the "Provincial Tourism Departments / Offices".

Boat trip on the Nam Ou River

The Provincial Tourism Office is headquartered in Phongsali City and has offices in Muang Khoua and Boun Neua. One-day and multi-day trekking tours with local, English-speaking and trained guides are offered from these three locations . They lead through the jungle and over rice fields in villages of the mountain population with overnight stays with host families.

Boat trips in the deep gorge of the Nam Ou are particularly attractive. The boat trip between Hat Sa and Muang Khoua is a serene travel experience. It lasts a day. From Phongsali town it's 21 kilometers downhill by bus to Hat Sa, then about 6 hours by boat. One of the last adventures for die-hard river boaters is the route from Luang Prabang to Phongsali or vice versa. It can be done in three days. Overnight places are Nong Khiau and Muang Khoua.

Tourism in Phongsali is still in its infancy. A thirst for adventure and the willingness to see things from a different perspective should be brought along.

Transport and economy

Laos is a developing country . Phongsali is one of the poorest provinces in Laos. This is mainly due to the remote, impassable mountain landscape. As before, the only connection road to the neighboring province of Oudomxay is largely unpaved. For a journey of 232 km with the public bus from Oudomxay to Phongsali city ten hours have to be planned in good road conditions. Since 2008 Lao Air has been offering direct flights from Vientiane (VTE) to Boun Neua (PSL) twice a week . The flight takes about 1.5 hours. From the airport in Boun Neua to Phongsali City it is a paved 41 km by car, approx. 75 minutes drive. The distance from Boun Neua to Ou Tai in the north is 93 km. The ride on the slopes takes about 5 hours in the public bus.

Phongsali tea

Tea plantations in the mountains around Phongsali town

Before 1998, when the connecting road from Ouodomxai was completed, Phongsali City could only be reached in the classic way of the former French colonial rulers. By boat on the Nam Ou River. Even today, the slightly more expensive boat is popular with bus-weary people. The boat trip from Muang Khoua to Hat Sa can be scheduled for 6 hours. From Hat Sa it is 21 km uphill by bus to Phongsali Town.

Since May 2007, the only international border crossing in Muang Mai to Điện Biên in Vietnam has been open. Two border crossings, each in the districts of Boun Neua and Gnot Ou, to China are only passable for Laotians and Chinese so far .

For a long time border region between Laos and China, trade with China is significant. In addition to wood, sugar cane, tea and, in the future, raw rubber are exported and finished products are imported. There is a tea factory in Phongsali town. Phongsali City is the administrative center of the province. There is a police school and a barracks of the Lao army. Tourism is becoming increasingly important.

Rice cultivation for subsistence farming determines the economy in Phongsali Province. Wet rice is cultivated in the lowlands and dry rice (mountain rice) on the mountain slopes. Many families cultivate their own vegetable gardens and keep chickens and ducks . Extensive livestock farming of water buffalo , cattle and pot-bellied pigs is of great importance for the population of the mountain villages.

International development aid is active in Phongsali Province. UN organizations such as the World Food Program ( WFP ), United Nations International Drug Control Program (UNDCP) , as well as the European Union ( EU ), the German Development Service ( DED ), Comité de Coopération avec le Laos (CCL) and non-governmental organizations NGOs , like the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere ( CARE ), among others, are currently doing development cooperation .

history

After the end of the battle known as the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, part of the previously independent but Chinese-based Tai-Lü Principality of Sipsongpanna ( Chinese : Xishuangbanna ) became part of the Phongsali province in the Laos protectorate within the French colony of Indochina . The seat of governor of the new province was initially Muang Houn on the Nam Ou River. In 1916 he was relocated to Muang Khoua, some 80 km downstream; Finally in 1921 to Phongsali City. In addition to strategic considerations, the colonial rulers found the temperate mountain climate more compatible.

During the First Indochina War , Phongsali was next to the province of Houaphanh a stronghold of the Laotian anti-colonial forces, which cooperated closely with the Vietnamese communists under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh . In the decisive battle between France and Vietnam near Dien Bien Phu, the Lao-Vietnamese border area functioned as a strategic retreat for the anti-colonial troops. Fighting broke out in Muang Mai and Muang Khoua districts.

After Laotian independence in 1954, the troops of Pathet Lao ("Land Laos", name for the anti-colonial, communist-minded movement in Laos and the nucleus of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party) were assigned the provinces of Phongsali and Houaphanh as temporary collection areas. The planned integration of the guerrillas into the government troops of the Laotian central government was prevented by the flare-up civil war and from 1959 the underground struggle - this time against the royal government in Vientiane associated with the USA - resumed.

Until the 1970s, China operated a consulate in Phongsali City for strategic reasons as well as because of the ethnic Chinese population (Hor). In the Second Indochina War, better known as the Vietnam War, Muang Mai and Muang Khoua were again involved in acts of war. Americans bombed the northern Ho Chi Minh Trail that ran through the two districts. Phongsali City was one of the few places in Laos that was not destroyed. After the end of the war in 1975, the Lao People's Democratic Republic was proclaimed. For a short time Muang Mai, then Muang Khoua became the provincial capital of Phongsali. Again Phongsali was the retreat of the Pathet Lao fighters. In 1986 the provincial capital moved back to Phongsali City. The provincial government has decided that it should move again from 2010, this time to Boun Neua, 41 kilometers away from Phongsali town.

Sights and activities

Wat Luang Temple in Ou Tai (before 2009 renovation)

• Wat Luang, Buddhist monastery ( Wat ) in Ou Tai in the north of the province - The monastery in Ou Tai in the Gnot Ou district on the upper reaches of the Nam Ou River from 1445 is an original example of Tai-Lü temple architecture. The wooden beam roof construction is architecturally remarkable. Renovation work was completed in spring 2009. There are other interesting Tai-Lü style monasteries in the area.
• 400-year-old tea plantation in Ban Komaen - In the village of Ban Komaen, 18 kilometers of slopes from Phongsali town, tea trees up to six meters high and, according to local information, up to 400 years old are harvested, according to tea experts, the oldest tea trees in the world . As a pu-erh tea, it is one of the top quality teas. The large root system of the old trees extends deep into the mineral-rich soil. This gives the 'Phongsali tea' its special smell and taste.
• Eco-Trekking - A large number of tried and tested trekking tours lead through jungles and remote mountain villages on often narrow paths. The Tourist Information Phongsali offers day tours or multi-day tours with experienced local guides. You will spend the night in the villages in a family's house, which is equipped with mattresses and blankets. The families also prepare the food for their guests.

Administrative structure

Phongsali Province is made up of seven districts:

code	District	Lao
	02-01	Phongsali (Phongsaly)	ຜົ້ງ ສາ ລີ
	02-02	May	ໃໝ່
	02-03	Khoua (Khua)	ຂວາ
	02-04	Samphan (samphanh)	ສຳ ພັນ
	02-05	Boun Neua (Boon Neua)	ບຸນ ເໜືອ
	02-06	Nhot Ou	ຍອດ ອູ
	02-07	Boun Tai (Boontai)	ບຸນ ໃຕ້

literature

• Laurent Chazée: The Peoples of Laos. Rural and Ethnic Diversities (Bangkok, 2002), ISBN 974-8434-86-9
• Joachim Schliesinger: Ethnic Groups of Laos'. Volume 4. Sino-Tibetan-Speaking Peoples (Bangkok, 2003), ISBN 974-480-031-3
• Stefan Loose travel guide: Laos (Ostfildern, 2008), ISBN 3-7701-6179-3
• Martin Stuart-Fox : A History of Laos (Singapore, 1997), ISBN 0-521-59746-3

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lao population census, 2005.
2. ↑ http://www.ecotourismlaos.com/
3. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Current information in German about Phongsali and Northern Laos
5. ↑ News from Laos at iley
6. ↑ http://www.lao-air.com/fligthschedule.php
7. ↑ http://www.ccl-laos.org/

Web links

Commons : Phongsali Province  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Unofficial information page
• http://ecotourismlaos.com/phongsaly.htm
• Official website of the "Provincial Tourism Office Phongsali"