Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE BOLAVEN REVOLT
A chanting mob, two-thousand strong, descended on Savannakhet in April 1902, convinced
by a holy man that any bullets fired at them would be miraculously transformed into fran-
gipani flowers. Three times they attacked, and each time they were mown down by troops
from France's “Garde Indigène”. The rout, which left 150 dead, marked the climax of the
so-called
Holy Man's Revolt
, which had its origins with the arrival of the French in 1893
and simmered on for many years afterwards in the highlands of the south.
The French brought with them administrative changes and increased taxation, and re-
shuffled the traditional relationships that had guided life in Laos for generations. At first,
resistance was textbook Lao. Villagers avoided direct confrontation, preferring to make
their displeasure about the new order known through passive means: villages undercounted
their populations, adapted a generally uncooperative attitude, or simply left. The first seri-
ous opposition didn't arise until eight years after the French employed gunboat diplomacy
to wrest control of Lao territory from Siam.
When
OngKaew
, an Alak tribesman believed to possess supernatural powers, prophesied
that “the end of the world as we know it” was nigh, he found willing listeners among
midland tribes living along the plateau, chafing under increased taxes and
corvée
labour
demands instituted by the French commissioner of Salavan. Sensing that Ong Kaew was
gaining too much influence, the commissioner ordered the burning of a pagoda erected in
the holy man's honour. This only served to increase support for Ong Kaew, and in April
1901 he and a band of rebels attacked the commissioner and his guard. Soon after, nearly
all of the Bolaven region was in revolt.
By 1902, the revolt had spilled across the Mekong and briefly gained the support of older
lowland Lao families, who felt threatened by the collapse of the social and economic order
to which they were accustomed. After the disastrous march on Savannakhet, Ong Kaew
and another Lao Theung leader,
OngKommadam
, whose son would later continue to res-
ist the French and ultimately become a Pathet Lao leader, retreated across the Xe Kong as
villages were burned and less fortunate leaders rounded up and executed. But the defeat at
Savannakhet and renewed attempts by France to pacify the Bolaven region did little to dis-
pel the holy man's popularity, and it took a new commissioner at Salavan,
Jean Dauplay
,
to force Ong Kaew to surrender in 1907. Three years later, with the holy man's influence
over the Bolaven inhabitants as strong as ever, Dauplay arrested Ong Kaew, who died “dur-
ing a jail break” the next day. The revolt was effectively over.
Not all was lost during the insurrection. French authorities were careful to place more of
the burden on lowland Lao when they raised taxes in 1914, and Ong Kaew had unwittingly
