Around Laos in 1900: A Photographer's Adventures

This extensive report presents information on the daily life and livelihood of various groups of people in Laos. First published in 1902 as a travelogue around Upper, Central and Lower Laos, this book also includes an assessment by a Frenchman critical of development work already undertaken by the French colonial administration. Raquez was traveling with the chief administrator of a recently unified Laos and thus he was close enough to power to obtain information no other writer of the time managed to obtain. Contemporary personalities, colonial administrators and scholars pass before Raquez’s sharp eyes as do Laotian and Siamese personalities of the time. Besides presenting a number of straightforward pro-French political considerations on the Indochinese colony and its neighbor, Siam, the book also provides a multitude of facts about its natural setting, economic products, food, history, geography, legal system, customs and religions and about the life and struggles of various highland tribes. The book includes 135 period photographs made by A. Raquez during his journey around all provinces of the country.