Lao Steampunk Sundays: Russian Wood Watch

In the 1800s in Russia, there were master wood-workers who were capable of creating working wood watches that today are worth over $20,000. Few exist today that survived the various wars and revolutions.

An interesting complaint was the lack of access to good wood that would let them craft such object. Most wood available was intended for architectural construction. These are said to have kept time rather well.



From a Lao perspective it leads to an interesting question of what might have happened if this technology had made it down to Southeast Asia, given the quality of hardwoods such as teak, and of course bamboo, mulberry trees or tea trees, among others.

What if the Russians had more actively spent time in Southeast Asia in the 1800s or earlier seeking warm water ports and built a stronger base of operations there, had they not been mired down in the Crimean War with the Ottomans, the British and the French?

The knowledge to construct such objects or even having seen or heard one described could have spurred significant innovation that might affect other technologies.

Little Laos On The Prairie: Sompaseuth Chounlamany

Chanida Phaengdara interviewed Lao American artist Sompaseuth Chounlamany this week at Little Laos on the Prairie. Sompaseuth does some amazing work, and hopefully will continue to share the results of his artistic journey with our community. He's one of the exciting new visions emerging in the community, especially on the East Coast of Lao America. Check it out! 

You can see more of his art at http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/sompaseuth-chounlamany.html

Lao Essential Artistry in Laos this month

One of my favorite Lao American vendors, Lao Essential Artistry, is headed to back to Laos in the last half of this month, so they're not taking any orders after this week.

However, they'll also be making their purchases for the year out there, so, if you want them to look for art and cultural items such as a traditional Lao sinh(s) for a special occasion, such as a wedding, now is the time to get in your order. Email peterlaos@hotmail.com and see what you can work out with them.

Lao Essential Artistry stands out to me as an excellent example of what a Lao American business can do. They not only offer a great variety of traditional and contemporary items, they also put many of them into context, such as the translated legend of Sang Sinxay, which I would consider an essential addition to any Lao American family library.

I'm also fond of their great collection of pins they found from an artist overseas of the traditional creatures of Lao myth and legend. I wish there was a way to get the artists in Laos to broaden their selection over time. They're really fabulous:

Check it out!

Lao festival vendors: Expecting more

If you've been to Lao celebrations across the US over the last few years, you know one of the consistently frustrating things is finding good examples of Lao art and literature. Culture. Food, yes, culture, no. Increasingly, expressing our culture is pushed to the background in favor of quick sales and easy cash.

Over the long-run this undermines our community efforts to preserve and transmit our heritage to the next generation.

Typically, we see tents set up like this:

Cheap, disposable culture. We can't be too surprised when it leads to scenes like this at the temple:

Among other dramas.

On the one hand, this is a festival, and it's not the environment to be bringing in priceless antiques. But at the same time, as a community we can and ought to do more to encourage vendors to seek wares to sell that are of genuine interest for our community and build community character.

We wouldn't put up with a Lao festival that doesn't sell tom mak hung or awesome barbecue. Why do we put up with festival vendors who are basically toy weapons dealers or trying to peddle shoddy goods that promote the cheapest vision of what our culture can be?

We can and must expect more. As we approach 2555, the Year of the Dragon, we should approach it with good humor and a festive heart, but we also need to show some spine and be clear that vendors should offer something that adds to the true spirit of the event.

This isn't to say everyone must sell the same thing. Far from it. in fact, were we to actively encourage it and support it, it could become quite exciting to see all of the amazing approaches people have to express their sense of connection to not only our tradition, but our vision of the future. Things beyond slogans.

Without it, pretty soon, Lao festivals will degenerate into little more than mere gatherings, with no greater sense of cultural expression than a t-shirt or two with 'LOA PRIDE' scribbled on it and kids wondering why we bother to call it a Lao event at all. And they'd be right to call us out on it.