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»Ecotourism sites in Champasack
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Champasack was once, 1400
years ago, the centre of power in the lower Mekong
basin, later a revered outpost of the Khmer Angkor
empire and, later still, one of the three kingdoms to rule over the
remains of
Lane Xang. A fine heritage that, according to the last prince of
Champasack,
was brought to hard times by a former queen's indiscretion |
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The beautiful Nang Pao ruled
over
Champasack in the mid-17th century. But it's lonely at the top and the
queen
found comfort in the arms of a prince from a neighbouring kingdom.
Alas, for
the lady's pennyroyal was ineffective, and Nang Pao fell pregnant. A
great
scandal ensued and, though the queen remained in power and was
succeeded by her
illegitimate daughter, Nang Peng, the unhappy Nang Pao decreed that all
unmarried
mothers in the kingdom must sacrifice a buffalo for their sins. The
practice
survived in some local communities until the 1980s, the unfortunate
women being
known as 'Nang Pao's Daughters |
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Though the Kingdom
of Champasack prospered for a
while
after the final dissolution of Lane Xang, at the beginning of the 18th
century
of its fortunes faltered quickly and it was reduced to a vassal state
of Siam
before the
century had passed. For its part in Chao Anou's abortive attempt to win
freedom
from the Siamese for the Lao kingdoms, Champasack lost all of its
territory
east of the Mekong. Under French rule
the once
mighty kingdom became a mere administrative block; its royalty stripped
of many
of its privileges |
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| "With an
unmarried mother as
queen," Prince Boun Oum na Champasack, the last of the kingdom's royal
line, once said. Everything started so badly that the game was lost
before it began |
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Boun
Oum, who died in
French exile in 1980, may have griped about his family's downfall
(though he
was not a direct descendent of Nang Pao), but it did not stop him from
using
his remaining royal privileges to loot the nearby Wat Phu. The
magnificent
Angkorian temple complex was recently made a UNESCO heritage site and
is
considered one of the finest Angkor-inspired edifices outside of Cambodia |
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