your bridge home
The Great Epics
The Lao national epic is named for Lakshmana before Rama. And the hero is not an avatar of Vishnu, he is the Buddha, in an earlier life.
The title tells you what happened. It is Phra Lak Phra Ram, Lakshmana first, and Rama second.
Laos did not keep the geography.
In Phra Lak Phra Ram, the events do not take place in a remembered northern India. They take place along the Mekong. In cities on the river.
In a landscape the audience walks through. With the river as the artery of the whole story.
Ayodhya, Lanka and the forests are re-founded on Lao ground. The story is not set in a foreign country long ago. It is set here.
That is a more thorough localisation than the Thai or Khmer versions attempt, and it changes the experience completely. A listener in Luang Prabang is not hearing about a distant kingdom. He is hearing about the next bend in the river.
The rest of this story, read aloud, and a new one every day.