สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume III - 2011 Volker Grabowsky 109 body of Greater Thailand of all provinces considered to be cLaoe by the pre- twentieth century Siamese elite. 18 For reasons of fairness we have to admit that at least four-fifths of the ethnic Lao today live outside the borders of the Lao PDR. The vast majority of them, 15-18 million people, inhabit the northeastern region of Thailand (Isan). For more than three generations Thai nationalist discourse has denied their Lao identity. To call the Lao speaking population of Northeastern Thailand çKhon Isané or çThai Isané reflects a Bangkok-centred perspective. It is therefore understandable that Lao historians seek to challenge the pan-Thai myth created by the Thai nation-state, according to which the people of the Khorat Plateau possess a çThaié identity. While contemporary Lao historiographers include not only the right bank of the Mekong River but also Lan Na and even Sipsong Panna in the geo-body of the Lao nation, they have difficulties in integrating the çlocalé histories of these çlost territoriesé into the overarching çnationalénarrative that focuses on the large royal centres Luang Prabang and Vientiane. The Pavatsat Lao mentions, for example, the implementation of Siamese administrative reforms in Isan and Lan Na during the late eighteenth century but it fails to discuss in any depth the political, social, cultural, and economic developments in these two regions which nowadays are part of the Thai nation-state, though it has to admitted that developments in the three administrative circles ( monthon ) of Isan are given relatively much more attention than those in Lan Na (one short paragraph on page 484). A completely different perspective on the DSCD is reflected in a quite different historiographical work composed in the Lao PDR. It is neither written by a professional historian nor authorised by the communist party leadership. In a certain way it can be called çhistory from belowé. This quite challenging work is a manuscript, composed probably in 1987 by a man called Noi Insongkariyawong. The manuscript runs over 160 pages, each of which has 18›20 lines, written on European-style paper, called cia falang in Lao. The manuscript is a compilation of miscellaneous texts related to the history of the entire Dhamma Script Cultural Domain. The Preservation of Lao Manuscripts Programme catalogued this manuscript, kept at Ban Wiang Nuea, Luang Nam Tha district, under the code 03.01.03.14 and gave it the artificial title Pawatsat lao-tai (Lao-Tai History). On the first 30 pages the manuscript provides abridged histories of Lan Na, Siam, and finally Lan Xang. They are short genealogies recording the « 98-112_mac9 4/26/12, 9:10 PM 109