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it to shun the fresh fish it is accustomed to by beating the cat every time it nears a fish placed
on the floor. The cat soon learns to eat rice and when the king arrives to claim his cat, Xieng
Miang “proves” it doesn't belong to the king by letting the cat choose between a plate of rice
and plate of fish. Knowing that going near the fish will bring on a beating, the cat chooses
the rice and the king goes home empty-handed. The stories of Xieng Miang remain popular
today among Lao children, and work recently began on creating animated short films about
the character, which is testament to its enduring popularity.
The present climate for Lao writers living in Laos has been described as “tricky”. Laos is
still rather restrictive in what it will allow to be published, but a few Lao writers manage to
make social commentary without the government's approval by publishing in Thailand in the
Thai language.
THE RAMAYANA
Of the Indian literature to become established in Southeast Asia, the Hindu Ramayana is
by far the best known. This epic poem, with its host of vivid characters possessing comic-
book hero attributes, arrived in Southeast Asia during its “Indianization” at the hands of
Hindu traders. In the original, Hanuman, the King of the Monkeys, assists the god Rama in
rescuing his wife Sita from the many-headed, multi-armed demon Ravana.
Once the Ramayana became established in Southeast Asia, however, it didn't take long
for local variations to emerge. The inhabitants of Java, Bali, Burma, Cambodia and Thail-
and all composed their own distinct versions and eventually the story spread from coastal
areas into the Indochinese hinterland. Although a version of the poem was well known to
the Khmer who once inhabited what is now southern Laos, the Ramayana's introduction to
the ethnic Lao came much later via Siam.
French colonization brought scholars who, perhaps because they were already familiar
with the Khmer version of the poem, tended to overemphasize the Ramayana's significance
to Lao literature, proclaiming it Laos's most important work. Later, Indian scholars, eager
to aggrandize the influence of Indian culture in a country they considered an outpost of
“Greater India”, echoed French opinions. In fact, the Lao version of the Ramayana, known
as PhaLakPhaLam , was never popular at the village level. Suitably modified to suit Lao
tastes, it did, however, become a favourite of the Lao court. This popularity is reflected in
depictions of the Ramayana in murals and reliefs found at Buddhist monasteries, especially
those that were patronized by the monarchy.
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