Informal Northern Thai Group Bulletin

March 31, 2013

Note: This version is without pictures 1. MINUTES of the 358th Meeting, March 12, 2013 : “Mystery and Diversity at the

Plain of Jars, Laos”. A Talk and Presentation by Lia Genovese 1.1. Attendance list. 1.2. The text of the talk. 1.3. Presentation of a Basic List of Sources on the Plain of Jars in three academic

libraries in Chiang Mai. 2. NEXT INTG MEETING : 359th Meeting : 9 April 2013 : “Tai Khuen culture,

Burmanization and the 600th Anniversary of Songkran in Keng Tung”. A Talk by Klemens Karlsson, Head of the Department of Publication Infrastructure at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm Sweden.

3. FUTURE INTG MEETINGS. 4. ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE GATE THEATER GROUP 5. INTG CONTACTS.

1. MINUTES of the 358th Meeting, March 12, 2013 : “Mystery and Diversity at the

Plain of Jars, Laos”. A Talk and Presentation by Lia Genovese 1.1. PRESENT : Hans Bänziger, Saengdao Bänziger, Dianne Barber-Riley, Mark Barber-Riley, Daniel

Bellamy, John W. Butt, John Cadet, Roy Clark, Pat Corey, Kathie Culhane ???, Bernard Davis, Peter

Dawson, Harry Deelman, Margaret Deelman, Robert Dubiel, Dorothy Engmann, Eric Eustache, Rudolph

Ganz, Deborah Greenaway, Oliver Hargreave, John Henderson, Joachim Hincke, Penamyai (?) Hincke,

Celeste Holland, Janet Illeni, Jacques ???, Peter K. Pollak, Ping Pong, Judy Reid, Lindy Santitharangul,

Somchai Santitharangul, Sukanya Muenphomphrai, Thipsuda Jindaplook, Willem van Gogh, Edward van

Tuyll, Vijaya Makeaw, Renee Vines, Rebecca Weldon. A total of 38 at least.

1.2. The 358th Talk, March 12, 2013 : “Mystery and Diversity at the Plain of Jars, Laos”. A Talk and Presentation by Lia Genovese. I thank Ms. Rebecca Weldon Sithiwong and Dr. Louis Gabaude for inviting me to present aspects of my doctoral research. INTRODUCTION My talk this evening will begin with a geographical context, by placing Laos on the map, including details of Xieng Khouang Province and its eight districts. Next, I will provide some quantitative data from my Database, followed by a summary of current theories on the function and age of the jars. I will then provide a brief summary of the life and work of Madeleine Colani, the only researcher, to date, to have carried out substantial archaeological fieldwork at the Plain of Jars. The next section will illustrate examples of mystery and diversity at the Plain of Jars, from buried jars to iconographic details which recall motifs in Island Southeast Asia. My preliminary conclusions will bring this talk to an end. MAPS Laos is a landlocked country (Map 1) bordering China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. Xieng Khouang Province, where the majority of the jars are found, shares domestic borders with the provinces of Hua Phan, Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Xaisomboun and Bolikhamxai, and an international border with Vietnam’s Nghe An Province. Most of the archaeological sites in Xieng Khouang Province (Map 2) are positioned within North 19 and East 103, with a few sites in East 102, towards Luang Prabang Province.

DATABASE The total number of sites at 2012 stands at 76, of which 12 quarries and 12 mixed quarry-site. District officials have reported several new sites, which await documentation. Over 2,000 jars and 200 discs have been counted at these 76 sites. The smallest site can hold one single jar (Sites 19, 37, 41, 53, 54, 56, 58, 59, 63 and 74), while the largest can house more than 400 jars (Site 52/Ban Phakeo group of sites). Paek District accounts for 43 percent of all jars in the Province (865 mostly sandstone jars), followed by Phaxay (380 sandstone jars), Khun (308 mostly granite jars), Kham (287 limestone, conglomerate and breccia jars) and Phoukood (177 sandstone jars). As more sites are discovered, it is the diversity in jar shape and decorations that attract increasing interest, dispelling the notion of the Plain of Jars as a vast necropolis populated by barrel-shaped jars randomly scattered over the slopes of hills in a remote corner of Laos. Sandstone is the most prevalent rock, found in Paek, Phoukood and Phaxay. Granite is found in Khun, while limestone, breccia and conglomerate are found in

Map 1 – Laos and its 17 provinces. Mapsofworld.com

East 103

Map 2 – The eight districts of Xieng Khouang Province. Map drawn by Lia Genovese.

Kham. At 2012, the districts of Nong Hét, Thathom and Mokmai remain largely undocumented, although deposits of jars have been reported in recent years. Eight of the 76 sites have been cleared of UXO (unexploded ordnance) from the 1964-73 conflict, when the Viet Minh-backed Pathet Lao fought against American-backed Royal Lao Government forces allied to a Hmong army led by Gen. Vang Pao (1929-2011).1 The decontaminated sites (Map 3) are: Sites 1, 21 and 52 (Paek), Site 25 (Phoukood), Site 16 (Khun), Site 23 (Kham) and Sites 2 and 3 (Phaxay). A visit to a few of these sites will be sufficient for an appreciation of the stone jar culture of Xieng Khouang, particularly since Sites 1 and 52 combined hold in excess of 700 jars and 100 discs. During the conflict, vast areas of Laos were carpet-bombed (Fig. 1) and it is estimated that around thirty percent of the ordnance failed to detonate, turning into UXO, the deadly legacy that continues to maim and kill children and adults alike.2 No jar sites can be open to the public until the ground is decontaminated and the necessary tourist infrastructure has been upgraded or developed from scratch. THE JARS OF XIENG KHOUANG - THEORIES For the people of Xieng Khouang, the jars are gigantic cups linked to a legend with roots in an historic event. Legend recounts that the megalithic jars were created around the seventh century CE, during the reign of Khun Chuong,3 a benevolent king who defeated an oppressive ruler when Xieng Khouang was a Vietnamese dominion. The gigantic jars were sculpted for the fermentation of rice wine, which was drank, in great quantities, by the army and the people over a seven-month long celebration. This legend is often accompanied by another myth, that the jars were fashioned not from natural rock, but by a boiled mixture of buffalo skin, brown sugar, sand and gravel. A practical function has been suggested, where the jars are used as post-death containers for the distillation of the body, akin to the treatment reserved for deceased “Thai, Cambodian and Laotian royalty during the early stages of the funeral rites”.4 However, as will be detailed later, this theory runs into difficulties for jars with limited internal capacity, like those in Phoukood District (Sites 27 and 55, for instance) and, to a lesser extent, in the Ban Phakeo group (Site 52) in Paek District. To date, there has been no research specifically aimed at locating settlements near the jars. Isolated jars have been found in remote and inaccessible corners of Xieng Khouang Province. Clay pots containing human remains – mostly teeth and bones – have been found buried around the jars. To date, a whole skeleton has not been found. Ashes from cremated remains were discovered by Colani inside the stone jars. The objects accompanying the burials are often relatively modest, pointing to communities for whom the Plain of Jars may have been a ritually sacred expanse of land with undulating hills, mountain slopes, rivers, spring water stations, abundant sources of stone and, above all, a place associated with ancient burials. Regional burial ground is the interpretation given to a recent discovery in southwest Cambodia, part of an area collectively known as the Cardamom Mountains: “The presence of five wooden coffins, all of different shapes, suggests they were brought in individually, from other regions, for burial”.5 One little-researched area concerns the makers of the jars. It is commonly believed that the monolithic jars of Xieng Khouang were carved by an Austroasiatic group displaced by Tai settlers from 500 CE onwards, the start of their journey west and south of their area of origin in the Tai highlands of northwest Vietnam, northeast Laos and southern China. Colani proposed that the jars were erected by caravaneers of the salt trade traversing the Tran-ninh plateau of Xieng Khouang, from Sa-huýnh to Assam, northeast India. This theory rested on her conviction that the Plain of Jars functioned as the central node in a chain of three rings, with Assam as the westernmost point and Sa-huýnh as the easternmost node.

1 Born in Xieng Khouang’s district of Nong Hét, his real name was Vaj Pov. He died in the USA in January 2011. 2 At June 2012, MAG (Mines Advisory Group) has cleared more than 38.7 million m2 of suspect land in Laos, destroying

161,802 items of UXO. Further details and updates from: http://www.maginternational.org. 3 Also spelt Jeung, Jeuang, Chuang, Chueang, or Cheuang. He was Khmer according to some accounts but for others he was a

member of the Kmhmu, the largest Mon-Khmer ethnic group dwelling in the highlands of northern Indochina. 4 Rogers et al. 2003: 473. 5 Duggleby 2012: 98.

MADELEINE COLANI – PIONEER OF THE PLAIN OF JARS Madeleine Colani was born on 13 August 1866 in Strasbourg, Alsace, the daughter of Dr. Timothée (1824-1888), a French biblical scholar, and Josephe Maria Gauthey (1843-?), a housewife from Seville, Spain. Her childhood was marred by war, which erupted exactly on her fourth birthday, 13 August 1870, when Prussia invaded Alsace.6 Under the terms of the Treaty of Frankfurt, signed in May 1871, Prussia annexed Alsace and part of Lorraine but the Colani family, unwilling to assume German citizenship, left Alsace to preserve their French identity. They settled in Royan, in western coastal France, where financial ruin followed a series of ill-advised business ventures. In April 1877, in severely reduced circumstances, the family moved to Paris where Colani senior took up a position as librarian at the Sorbonne University. Shortly after, on 22 July, Eléonore was born, the fourth child. Sometime in 1912, she moved to Hanoi, working first as a telephonist and later as Madeleine’s companion on all her fieldtrips. Madeleine Colani arrived in Indochina from France in January 1899. She taught at various schools in Hanoi until 1914, when she joined the Geological Survey of Indochina and conducted excavations at prehistoric sites, initially under the guidance of Henri Mansuy (1857-1937), a self-taught palaeontologist. In 1928, aged 62, Colani was forced to retire from the Survey on the grounds of age. But it was not long before Louis Finot (1864-1935), interim director, invited her to join the École Française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO)7 as a correspondent. It was January 1929 and this new professional position heralded the start of a long and rewarding association which ended with Colani’s death in Hanoi in 1943. From 1929 to 1930, Colani surveyed numerous prehistoric sites, including a number of rockshelters. She is credited with coining the term ‘Hoabinhian’, a cobble industry characterised by flaked implements and tools often worked only on one face, as well as by short axes and bone tools, dating back to 10,000 BCE. In May 1931, the EFEO posted Colani to Site 1 at the Plain of Jars. Between 1931 and 1933, she led several seasons of archaeological excavations, surveying a total of 29 jar sites. Aged 74, in the summer of 1940 she led her final expedition to the Plain of Jars, to present-day Sites 16 and 48, in Khun District. One important distinction concerns present research and Colani’s fieldwork. Whereas contemporary surveys tend to be limited to sites containing jars and discs, Colani’s scientific remit covered four different types of archaeological sites: 1) fields of jars and discs; 2) mixed fields of jars and stones; 3) fields populated exclusively with stones and 4) fields of standing stones. The first two are spread over Xieng Khouang Province and Luang Prabang’s Phou Khoune District, the third type are found west of the Plain of Jars, towards Luang Prabang Province, and the fourth type are found in Hua Phan Province, to the northeast of Xieng Khouang. Colani’s lavishly-illustrated two-volume monograph, Mégalithes du Haut-Laos, published by the EFEO in 1935, documented her extensive surveys at all four types of cemeteries. To Colani also we owe the very first presentation on the Plain of Jars at an international forum, at the First International Congress of Far Eastern Prehistorians (Fig. 2), held in Hanoi in January 1932, where she was welcomed as an expert in the prehistory of Southeast Asia.

DATING OF THE JARS - THEORIES Colani was the first researcher to assign the stone jars to the “Iron Age”.8 There is now broad agreement that the jars date to the Late Iron Age (500 BCE-CE 500), largely on the basis of stylistic comparisons (Fig. 3) with other archaeological sites in the region, mainly Samròng Sèn (Cambodia) but also with the material culture from the Khorat Plateau (Thailand) and Sa-huýnh. More recently, affinities have been suggested with finds from prehistoric caves (Fig. 4) in Mae Hong Son Province, northwest Thailand.

6 Alsace, in northeast France, has been variously under the control of France (1697-1870, 1919-1940) or Germany (1871-1918

and 1941-1944). In 1945, at the end of WWII, Alsace reverted to France. 7 Established in Saigon on 15 December 1898 by order of Paul Doumer (1857-1932), Governor-General of Indochina from

1897 to 1902, the EFEO started life as the Mission Archéologique d'Indochine and assumed its present name on 20 January 1900, two years before its seat was moved to Hanoi. Its activities spanned beyond Southeast Asia, to encompass India, Japan and Korea, among others.

8 Colani 1934: 352.

Bernard P. Groslier (1926-1986), a French archaeologist, placed the Plain of Jars “somewhere between the 5th and 1st centuries B.C.”,9 on the basis of affinities with the material culture of Sa-huýnh and Samròng Sèn. The British archaeologist Peter Bellwood has reiterated Colani’s comment on affinities in the “small bells of Somrong Sen and Sa-Huynh“ but restricts the geographical area: “The artefacts found in and around the Tran Ninh jars and in the cremation cave [Site 1] relate the sites most closely to Somrong Sen, and rather less closely to Dong-Son [north Vietnam] or to Sa-Huynh“.10 Charles Higham, an expert in the archaeology of Southeast Asia, proposes that “The parallels with the material culture [of the Plain of Jars] lie in the Iron Age of the Khorat Plateau“ and “A date in the region of 300 BC-AD 300 is consistent with the material found in and around the stone mortuary jars”.11 Burials in the Plain of Jars may have been practiced in prehistoric times, long before the first jars were deposited on its soil. The Japanese archaeologist Eiji Nitta is a proponent of this theory. In 1994, Nitta set up some test pits12 at Site 1 and found prehistoric artefacts: “cord-marked sherds and clay earrings were found in the layers under the burial layer. This shows prehistoric habitation or burial activities were done before the construction of cemetery”.13 Carbon-dating results support the notion of the Plain of Jars as a burial ground in prehistoric times. The results of an AMS analysis on a human skull fragment excavated at Site 1 suggest that: “burial activity in the site might have commenced as much as 3000 years ago, but cultural materials definitely from this date, which would obviously be pre-iron, have not yet been identified”.14 DIVERSITY: I will now illustrate some instances of diversity at the Plain of Jars. Buried jars Four sites are known to exist where the jars are buried in the soil. Three of these sites were reported by Colani. The first, Site 48 in Khun District, contains granite jars (Fig. 5). In 1933, Colani visited two further sites with jars buried up to the rim, located in the San Hin Oume area (Map 4): one known as ‘Eleven Jars’ and another identified as Sop Nam Miang. In 2011, I visited Site 51 in Khun District, set at a distance of 20km to the northwest of Site 48. There is no record of Colani visiting this site, where some of the granite jars are buried in the soil. Buried jars continue to generate interest but Colani is the only researcher to have suggested that the practice may be linked to the occult, an early theory which has not received wide support. Buried jars were not confined to one area but stretched to sites set at distances of 80km. There could be an element of relatively recent use of the jars, buried either because the communities no longer associate with these stone artefacts or because of the human and animal figures carved on some of the stone discs, as at Site 48. At the time of my visit in July 2012, all the jars at Site 48 were again buried up to the rim (Fig. 6), even though Colani had had them exposed during her surveys in 1933 and 1940.

9 Groslier 1962: 30-31. 10 Bellwood 1978: 198. 11 Higham 2002: 184. 12 A test pit is an archaeological trench, usually 1 m2, to scientifically investigate the ground for past activities. 13 Nitta 1996: 16. 14 Sayavongkhamdy and Bellwood 2000: 106. AMS results published in Table 3, p. 108 of the paper. AMS (Accelerator Mass

Spectrometry) is a carbon-dating technique suitable for very small samples.

Stone discs UNESCO differentiates between “lids” and grave markers, the former identified as discs with a pommel and the latter as flat discs devoid of decorations. Over 200 discs have been documented at the Plain of Jars, plain or decorated with human figures or concentric circles. A sandstone disc at Site 52 is decorated with an animal figure (Fig. 7). Colani also remarked that the central button of some granite discs at Site 48 was decorated with human or animal figures but these discs can no longer be found at the site. No disc has ever been found atop a jar. Colani documented some distinctive mushroom-shaped discs in the Kéo Tane-San Hin Oume areas, to the west of the main Plain of Jars fields. Some of these discs were decorated with figures. Iconography Very few human or animal representations have been found at the Plain of Jars. In 1994, Eiji Nitta discovered a spread-eagled figure (Fig. 8) on a sandstone jar at Site 1. Also in the 1990s, Thongsa Sayavongkhamdy discovered a schematic couple, naked, locked in an amorous embrace, carved on a stone block, in the terrace opposite the limestone cave at Site 1, but no images have ever been published. At Nanong, present-day Site 13, Colani documented a unique granite disc. The artefact was strapped to a frame of bamboo poles (Fig. 9) and transported to the mansion of the French representative in Xieng Khouang, 6km away. Another spread-eagled human figure is carved on a sandstone disc in the west hill of Site 2. The human representation is carved in the inner section of a series of concentric circles (Fig. 10). In August 2009, I discovered an animal figure on a south-facing jar (Fig. 11) at Site 2. The image (Fig. 12) displays wide orbits, a three-branched crown and the features of a feline or other big cat. Jars and stones A unique feature of the Plain of Jars’ heritage is the presence of artefacts carved from a variety of rocks and deposited at any one site. At Site 1 in Paek District, for instance, jars carved from conglomerate are scattered among the numerous urns carved from sandstone. Blocks of quartzite, such as the one deposited close to the largest jar at Site 1,

Map 4 – Fields of buried jars. Sòng Meng, in Khun District, has been identified as present-day Site 48. Some buried jars are found at newly-discovered Site 51, also in Khun. The large circle identifies sites of buried jars in the San Hin Oume area, including Eleven Jars and Sop Nam Miang. M. Colani. 1935, v1, Carte VII.

Sop Nam Miang

Site 51

have also been brought to the site from a nearby location. In the same district, jars carved in limestone and sandstone are found at Site 43. Site 47, also in Paek, houses jars carved from granite, sandstone or conglomerate. At Site 25 in Phoukood District, blocks of andesite (Fig. 13) have been brought from 8km away. These exceptionally hard rocks bear toolmarks and are scattered among the sandstone jars at the site. At sites to the east of the province, such as Site 23 in Kham District, jars carved from conglomerate are mixed in with others carved from breccia. At Site 16 in Khun District, one single sandstone jar (Fig. 14) shares the space with 35 granite jars. Jars and sculptures We owe it to Colani for bringing to our attention the unusual jars and discs found in Phou Khoune District, Luang Prabang Province. Some of these sites may never be visited because the area is now out of commission due to the hydropower station built in recent years in the area.15 Colani identified numerous deposits of jars and discs, all carved from sandstone. These sites are Kéo Tane (with jars south and east of here), Eleven Jars, San Hin Oume and Sop Nam Miang, the latter mentioned earlier as one of the sites with buried jars (Map 4 refers). The location of some of the jars in Phou Khoune District makes them prone to damage from the dam, instigating their removal to higher ground, after their original location has been recorded. In 2012, I visited a recent assembly (Fig. 15), just moved from an unsafe location. The superficial damage (Fig. 16) caused by chains and cranes during the removal operation was plainly visible. In Xieng Khouang Province, Colani reported some distinctive jars (Fig. 17) at Site 48. Also in Khun District, recently I was able to document what may be the largest granite urn (Fig. 18) anywhere at the Plain of Jars, in Ban Nahor. The jar, with an elaborate rim, reaches a height of 190cm, almost 30cm taller than the tallest jars recorded in the district. Although only one gigantic sandstone jar remains at the entrance to Site 1, one other massive jar was located on this prominent area at least until December 1931, when it was photographed (Fig. 19) by visiting American couple Sydney and Gertrude Legendre, who made the acquaintance of Mr. Emmanuelli, the French representative for Xieng Khouang. It is likely that the jar in question was jar no. 020,16 which nowadays lies in ruins down a hill, a short distance from its original location, possibly dislodged by an explosion during the 1964-73 conflict, as witness the massive bomb crater nearby. Similarly to non-local rocks transported to sites at the Plain of Jars, some stone artefacts can defy the concept of “jar”. At Site 27 in Phoukood District, for instance, is found an exceptionally smooth sandstone boulder (Fig. 20) with a small aperture carved into the side. QUARRIES Abandoned jars, fully carved or in the process of being sculpted, are found at sandstone quarries, but sources of granite have eluded geological surveys. Jars were transported, fully carved, from the quarry to the field, often over several kilometres away Quarry Site 8 (Fig. 21), in Phaxay District, was the source of sandstone for the jars at Sites 2 and 3, located immediately to its north. Site 18, in Paek District, was likely to be an important quarry and the source of sandstone for the jars at nearby Site 17. In January 2012, Quarry Site 21, in Paek District, was inaugurated for tourist visits, where finished and partially carved jars can be inspected. As for granite, boulders in the river beds (Fig. 22) of Khun are increasingly being seen as potential sources of granite for the jars in the district. HOW CONNECTED WAS THE PLAIN OF JARS? Recent findings hint at potential connections between faraway sites. At Site 31 in Phoukood District, two sandstone jars have been carved with double openings, one at each end of the boulder. One jar measures 220cm in length (Figs. 23-24) and another 275cm. Colani was the first to suggest that the two receptacles could have been used for “two

15 The Nam Ngum 5 project is a joint-venture between China’s Sinohydro Corporation and Électricité du Laos (EDL). The dam

is located in Luang Prabang Province, on the Ting River, a tributary of the Nam Ngum River, but the powerhouse is located in Xieng Khouang Province. The dam began generating electricity in December 2012.

16 Site 1, one of the most visited, is the only site where the jars have been sequentially numbered.

offerings”.17 Double-ended stone coffins have been reported in parts of Island Southeast Asia. According to F. M. Schnitger, who led archaeological and anthropological expeditions to Sumatra in 1935-38, though stone coffins generally have one hollow, at Hoeta Gindjang [Huta Ginjang], in Lake Toba’s Samosir Island, north Sumatra, one of the coffins has two chambers: “In the foremost are kept the skulls of the radjas, in the rear those of the family”.18 A third double-ended jar came to light during a recent geological survey, which reported that at Site 44, in Paek District, the mason had attempted to carve two openings on an unfinished jar. Two districts share similarities in jar construction: Phoukood and Paek. Numerous jars at these districts have a long and narrow body (Figs. 25-26) and have been carved to a shallow depth, typically only 50cm in a boulder measuring up to 300cm in length. Although the decision to carve to a shallow depth was largely dictated by the structural qualities of the boulder, such a shallow depth casts doubt on the notion that the jars were used as post-death containers for the distillation of the body. PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS New sites are being reported in areas never before associated with the stone jar culture and this is widening the spatial reach of the Plain of Jars. A Late Iron Age dating is often suggested for the jars, based on the grave goods found in clay pots buried in the immediate vicinity of the stone jars. However, it is likely that Site 1 was used for burials in prehistoric times, as confirmed by a carbon dating on a human skull fragment unearthed at Site 1, which gave a reading of over 3000 years. Quarries are often local to the sites. The jars were transported, fully carved, from the quarry to the field, over a distance of several kilometres. Though sources of sandstone have been located, the source of granite for the jars in Khun District continues to elude geological surveys but river beds are deemed potential sources. The considerable diversity in jar shape and design would suggest that different communities, over some considerable period of time, may have made use of the Plain of Jars as a ritually sacred ground. Thank you. Lia Genovese, PhD Candidate, History of Art & Archaeology Dept. School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London trinacria_1955@yahoo.co.uk http://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff56273.php ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Some of this research has been made possible by a small grant from the Centre of South East Asian Studies (CSEAS), School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bellwood, P. Man's conquest of the Pacific: The Prehistory of Southeast Asia and Oceania. Auckland: Collins, 1978. Box, P. "Safeguarding the Plain of Jars: Megaliths and Unexploded Ordnance in the Lao People's Democratic Republic". Journal of GIS [Geographic Information System] in Archaeology, 2003, vol. 1, pp. 90-102. Clémentin-Ojha, C. & P. Y. Manguin. (2007). A century in Asia: The history of the École Française d'Extrême-Orient 1898-2006 (Helen Reid tr.). Singapore: Editions Didier Millet; Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 2007, 236 p.. Colani, M. "Note sur des Mégalithes du Haut-Laos (Montagnes du Tran Ninh et des Hua Pan)". Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française, XXXI, no. 7-8, 1934, pp. 335-352.

17 Colani 1935, v1: 149. 18 Schnitger 1939: 140. Radja is one of three castes and identifies the village founder and his male descendants. The other two

castes are the ripe, or free and prominent citizens, and the hatoban, or slave caste (Schnitger 1939: 134).

Colani, Madeleine. Mégalithes du Haut Laos. Paris: Les Éditions d'art et d'histoire (Series: "Publication de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient" XXV), 1935, 2 volumes. Duggleby, L. "The Mystery of the Jars", Discovery Channel Magazine, 2012, pp. 90-101. Groslier, B. P. The Art of Indochina, including Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1962. Higham, C. Early cultures of mainland Southeast Asia. Bangkok : River Books, 2002. Kiernan, K. et al. (1988). "Prehistoric Occupation and Burial Sites in the Mountains of the Nam Khong Area, Mae Hong Son Province, Northwestern Thailand", Australian Archaeology, No. 27 (Dec., 1988), pp. 24-44. Nitta, E. "Comparative study on the jar burial traditions in Vietnam, Thailand and Laos", Historical Science Reports of Kagoshima University, Kagoshima University, vol. 43, 1996, pp. 1-19. Rogers P. et alii. "The UNESCO project: Safeguarding the Plain of Jars". In: A. Karlström, and A. Källén (eds). Fishbones and Glittering Emblems: Southeast Asian Archaeology 2002. Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 2003, pp. 471-479 + map, p. 539. Sayavongkhamdy Thongsa & Peter Bellwood 2001. "Recent Archaeological Research in Laos". Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 19 (Melaka Papers, Vol. 3), 2001, pp. 101-110. Schnitger, F. M. Forgotten Kingdoms in Sumatra. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1939. ONLINE RESOURCES http://www.maginternational.org (accessed March 2013). http://www.unescobkk.org (accessed March 2013). 1.3. Sources about the talk on “The Plain of Jars” available in three academic libraries in Chiang Mai or on line. Chiang Mai residents who want to expand their knowledge and look for tools about most of the topics presented in our INTG talks can now enjoy academic resources on three sites : 1) Chiang Mai University offers not only a Central library but as many libraries as Faculties and Institutes. 2) Payap University offers also a main library with unique holdings on Archives for the Protestant missions

in the North, Linguistics and Christian theology. 3) The École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) or The French School of Asian Studies has now a

new library with not only sources in French on Indochina and Asia but also with many holdings in English and Thai on Anthropology, Archaeology, Arts, History, Literature, and Buddhism. However, their electronic catalog is not yet complete.

Attached to these Minutes, you will find two other PDF lists of documents available in these Chiang Mai libraries: "Plain of Jars" and "Madeleine Colani: A Bibliography". L.G.

2. NEXT INTG MEETING : 359th Meeting : 9 April 2013 : “Tai Khuen culture,

Burmanization and the 600th Anniversary of Songkran in Keng Tung”. A Talk by Klemens Karlsson, Head of the Department of Publication Infrastructure at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm Sweden.

Presentation of the talk The city of Keng Tung and the Tai Khuen people have a long and close connection to north Thailand and Lanna. It was established in the middle of the thirteenth century by King Mangrai and the Wa people who used to live there were forced away or assimilated. This talk will be about the specific Tai Khuen visual culture and recent Burmese influence in Keng Tung. It will also deal with Tai Loi, the people that are supposed to be descended from the Wa and live in the mountains outside Keng Tung. They still have an important role in the annual Songkran (สงกรานต)์ festival that is mentioned in both the Padaeng Chronicle and the Keng Tung State Chronicle. The 600th Anniversary of Songkran was celebrated 2011 and the talk will be rounded off by a description of that event. The Speaker Klemens Karlsson's research has focused on religion and visual art in South and Southeast Asia. His PhD was about the so-called aniconic Buddhist art in early India (See Abstracts below). More recently he has done research about Buddhist visual culture and ethnicity in the Eastern Shan State of Burma. Today, he is head of the Department of Publication Infrastructure at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm Sweden, with special interest in scholarly communication and bibliometrics. PhD Title & Abstracts : Karlsson, Klemens, Face to face with the absent Buddha: The formation of Buddhist aniconic art, Uppsala universitet, (Serie: Historia religionum), 2000, ISBN: 91-554-4635-3. Early art in Buddhist cultic sites was characterized by the absence of anthropomorphic images of the Buddha. The Buddha was instead represented by different signs, like a wheel, a tree, a seat and footprints. This study emphasizes the transformation this art underwent from simple signs to carefully made aniconic compositions representing the Buddha in a narrative context. Buddhist aniconic art has been explained by a prohibition against images of theBuddha or by a doctrine that made it inappropriate to depict the body of the Buddha.This study rejects such explanations. Likewise, the practice of different meditational exercises cannot explain this transformation. Instead, it is important to understand that early art at Buddhist cultic sites consisted of simple signs belonging to a shared sacred Indian culture. This art reflected a notion of auspiciousness, fertility and abundance. The formation of Buddhist aniconic art was indicated by the connection of these auspicious signs with a narrative tradition about the life and teachings of the Buddha. The study emphasizes the importance Sakyamuni Buddha played in the formation of Buddhist art. The Buddha was interpreted as an expression of auspiciousness, but he was also connected with a soteriological perspective. Attention is also focused on thef act that the development of Buddhist art and literature was a gradual and mutualprocess. Furthermore, Buddhist aniconic art presaged the making of anthropomorphic images of the Buddha. It was not an innovation of motive for the Buddhists when they started to make anthropomorphic images of the Buddha. He was already there.

3. FUTURE INTG MEETINGS (7:30 p.m. at the Alliance Française, Chiang Mai)

359th Meeting : 9 April 2013 : “Tai Khuen culture, Burmanization and the 600th Anniversary of Songkran in Keng Tung”. A Talk by Klemens Karlsson, Head of the Department of Publication Infrastructure at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm Sweden.

360th Meeting : 13 May 2013 : “Beyond Tolerance, Working for Community Legal Education”. A Talk by Wendy Morrish, Director of the Community Legal Education Initiative, on community legal services in the Region

361st Meeting : 11 June 2013 : “Coping with HIV in Adolescence: the Situation in Thailand”. A Talk by Dr. Sophie Le Cœur, Institut National d’Études Démographiques (INED) & Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), France + Program for HIV Prevention and Treatment, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

4. ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE GATE THEATER GROUP Now playing: "The Dodo Bird" at Kad Suan Kaew, 7th Floor on April 4, 5, 6th at 7 P.M. and April 7th at 2 p.m. See: http://www.gate-theater.com/now-playing.html#.UVp_G3Dexj0 and/or: www.gate-theater.com 5. INTG CONTACTS : Convenor - Secretary - Website 1) Convenor : Rebecca Weldon : e-mail : < rebecca.weldon@gmail.com>. Mobile : 087 193 67 67. 2) Secretary : Louis Gabaude : e-mail : <gabaudel@yahoo.com>. Mobile : 087 188 50 99. 3) INTG Website : http ://www.intgcm.thehostserver.com