Reconsidering the Highlander-lowlander Dichotomy through the Phu Mi Bun Rebellion of Southern Laos

Abstract

Prevailing views of mainland Southeast Asia have maintained that the lowlands are areas of civilizations and states, while the highlands are uncivilized, non-state areas. Meanwhile, James Scott argued that mountain people deliberately choose specific occupations, lifestyles, and collective organizations in mountainous areas to escape the state. These dichotomous frameworks are challenged when we examine the Phu Mi Bun rebellion of southern Laos, which took place during the French colonial period. Both lowland Lao and highland Mon-Khmer people participated in the rebellion, which was led by a charismatic leader from a Mon-Khmer group. Despite this, previous studies have failed to explain why the Lao, especially many nobles and mandarins, followed a Mon-Khmer leader, who was ordinarily deemed undeserving of respect. To explore this question, I draw mainly on the poems of a Lao bureaucrat at the time, which, left unknown for nearly a century, represent a rare first-hand account of French colonialization from a Lao’s perspective. Analyzing this text, together with archives and reports of the French colonial period, this paper finds that the relationship between the Lao and Mon-Khmer people was fluid and complex and that the boundary between them was often blurred.