The Tai Race Elder Brother Of The Chinese

This book examines the process through which Laos came into existence under French colonial rule through to the end of World War II. Here, Laos's position at the intersection of two conflicting spatial layouts of "Thailand" and "Indochina" made its national form a particularly contested process. Rather than analyze this process in terms of administrative and political structures, the book discusses how a specific idea about a separate "Lao space" and its culture was formed.

This first English translation of an Isan folk epic is both readable and faithful to the linguistic features of the Thai original. It is presented together with a thorough discussion of the historical background, explanatory material, and a glossary of Thai-Isan terms.