สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

108 The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume III - 2011 108 The Dhamma Script Cultural Domain as a Contested Space in the Tai Lao World their respective spheres of influence. The negotiations about the founding of a buffer state were subordinated to this dominant interest. The historical tradition of the region was of importance to the British and French only in so far as it could be manipulated to justify their own territorial claims. 17 The Mekong offered the colonial powers a border that could easily be defined and controlled. But this border created by foreign powers divided traditional polities possessing political and cultural identities that had developed over centuries. For the Tai Lue in the Upper Mekong, as well as for the Lao in the Middle Mekong, their river was never a border, as their settlements extended to both banks of the river. The traditional pattern of tributary relations based on çmultiple overlordshipsé with overlapping margins of suzerainty enabled the Tai polities of the region to survive. European notions of sovereignty brought an end to the previous political autonomy. It was sacrificed for the new concept of uncontested sovereignty of nation-states which had to define internationally recognised borderlines. 3. The DSDC in modern Lao historiography This section deals with the question of how modern Lao historiography draws on the DSCD as a point of reference for Lao history. The ground floor of the National Museum in Vientiane exhibits an historical map designed to represent the territoriality or geo-body of the Lao nation. Showing the alleged territorial extension of the Lan Sang kingdom during the reign of king Fa Ngum, this map radiates a fascination that is partially the result of its being an anachronism. The boundaries of Lan Sang, reaching from Sipsong Panna in Yunnan to the Cambodian province of Stung Treng and from Sipong Chuthai in North Vietnam to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand comprise all territories that have ever been under the suzerainty of Lao rulers, albeit at different periods. The main fascination, however, arises from the irony that this map must have been adapted from a Thai map of the 1930s depicting the territorial claims of Greater Thailand. The border lines of the Siamese administrative circles ( monthon ) and their names prior to the introduction of the thesaphiban system (in 1892) are still visible (for example, Lao Phung Dam, Lao Phuan and Lao Kao). The territorial space of the Lao nation emerges simply by the amputation from the geo- 18 See Grabowsky 2011: 62›63. 98-112_mac9 4/26/12, 9:10 PM 108