Word: vong
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...French tobacco and sipping lemonade. Suddenly there was a stir. Official limousines swept out of the royal palace amid shrieking sirens and flapping royal banners (a three-headed elephant against a red background), bearing Prime Minister Prince Souvanna Phouma to the airport to meet his half brother Prince Souphanou Vong, who happened to be leading a Communist revolt against the government...
...half brothers hugged one another happily and headed back to the palace for talks. The agenda: how to terminate the Communist rebellion on terms acceptable to both sides. Two years ago the French bequeathed Laos to Souvanna Phouma's Nationalists, but the Communists, headed by Souphanou Vong, illegally set up a puppet state in two provinces adjoining Communist North Viet...
...still its own native Thai. Its religion is still Buddhism. Even the French prefer to channel their rule through Laotian kings, and they have established their own purely administrative capital at Vientiane 130 miles from Luang Prabang. Since 1904 the French have ruled through one venerable monarch, King Sisavang Vong, now old (68) and gouty, but no easy man to scare. When the Communists threatened Luang Prabang November 1952, the King refused to quit, declaring: "This is my country. This is my palace. I am too old to tremble before danger." The King's elephant's were used...
Tranquil Buddha. In a modest white palace overlooking the mile-wide Mekong sits worried 67-year-old King Sisavang Vong, afflicted with gout, but refusing all urgings that he leave his capital. Like his Thai people, the King is a fatalist. In the temples his people lay offerings and burn incense before tranquil, smiling images of Buddha, confident that whatever comes, it will inevitably change, as the mystic circle of life completes itself. It is exactly 500 years since Luang Prabang was last invaded...
...temple opposite King Sisavang Vong's palace sits the most celebrated Buddha of all: the golden Luang Prabang, at least 1,100 years old, from which the town takes its name and its religious and political significance. The expression on this graven, gilded 'image is one of silent, secretive, comforting contemplation. People come thousands of miles to worship before it. Black-haired Thai maidens pray that the enemy will be defeated, and this week the chief bonze assured them that the enemy would be. The battle that is in preparation will, in effect, be fought for possession...