สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

106 The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume III - 2011 106 The Dhamma Script Cultural Domain as a Contested Space in the Tai Lao World of the Lao had thus moved from the trans-Mekong territories in the east to the Khorat Plateau in the west. It ought to be mentioned that the large expansion of ethnic Lao settlements in a region which was, before then, dominated by Mon- Khmer speaking groups like the Suai or Kuy, facilitated the gradual assimilation of the latter groups by the newly arrived Lao settlers. 2. The disintegration of the DSCD in the wake of colonialism The Siamese-Lao war of 1826›1828 is usually called the çChao Anu rebellioné in Thai historiography but Lao historians speak › more accurately though not without nationalist sentiments › of a çwar between Bangkok and the Laoé. The official Lao history, the Pavatsat Lao commissioned by the Ministry of Information and Culture in 2000, attributes the crushing defeat of the Lao forces to the wide-spread defeatism and lack of patriotism among the Lao çfeudalé elite on both banks of the Mekong, including the Tai Yuan rulers of Nan and Phrae as well as the Phuan ruler of Siang Khuang in the Plain of Jars. 13 However, the real loss of Lao nationhood happened with the arrival of colonial powers in the late nineteenth century. Whereas Thai historians tend to portray Siam as a victim of French and British colonial ambitions, Lao historians view Siam rather as an imperialist and expansionist power colluding with her European, notably French, çrivalsé to dismember Laos. The Pavatsat Lao stresses the advantages that the government in Bangkok gained from the settlement with France in 1893: çThe population on both banks of the Mekong rose up to fight for independence; especially the local Lao soldiers who served in the Siamese army to resist the French were unwilling to die for Siam. This caused the Siamese to lose all military strongholds on the left bank of the Mekong and all the islands of the river. Thus the Siamese did no longer possess the hope to occupy the whole of Laos, a vast territory larger than that of Siam [proper]. Therefore, they agreed on the partition of Laos. They thought that this division would weaken the strength of the Lao people, preventing them from launching further uprisings. Thereafter they ruled and suppressed the Lao population with easeé. 14 13 Ministry of Information and Culture 2000: 444. 14 Ministry of Information and Culture 2000: 502. 98-112_mac9 4/26/12, 9:10 PM 106