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"Sabaydii, is this Euay Mayouri?" I asked a middle aged woman coming out to open the gate for me.
"Yes. This is her." She looked at me with a big question mark in her eyes.
"My name is Kongkeo. I come from the U.S. Yet, you don’t know me but I read some of your books." I came clear to her as to who I was. With that said, she gave me a big smile.
"I thought we met somewhere before, but for some reasons, I don’t recognize you. If that is the case, it will be an awkward thing indeed." Euay Mayouri led me into her house. In fact, it is not a house perse but a 3-story apartment. Hers is at the corner and by Wat Mixay.
"How do you know that I live here?" she asked me point blank.
"Euay Dara told me that your house was by Wat Mixay." Yes, if it was not for Euay Dara, I wouldn’t be able to locate her. I first tried to contact her by using the number I got from the telephone book but it was to no use as no one picked it up no matter how many times I tried.
"You are good. Even my friends said that I was hard to find." Euay Mayouri gave me a big compliment. In a way, it was like she claimed. I asked some people around Wat Mixay but nobody knew her. Being a person who hardly took a ‘no’ for an answer, I didn’t give up. Luckily, I ran into an old lady who finally knew who Euay Mayouri was. Still, I had to wait at least an hour before she had got home. She said that Euay Mayouri was kind of a mystery person for she was hardly home. The same went with her husband, Ai Pheuiphanh. I guess that helped explain why nobody knew who she was.
I first knew about Euay Mayouri when I ran across a book that had something to do with Chao Anou. At that time, I was doing the undergraduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley. As I liked to read books so much, the school library became my second home. For those who are not familiar with the UC Berkeley main library, I would say that it was huge about 8 stories high (now, it is even bigger because they remodel and connect the main library to the undergraduate library, the Moffitt). Each story could become another library by itself. Of the 8 stories, I most frequented the first and seventh story that had a large collection of Lao and Thai books. Though, in general, the books written in English are better overall but getting a taste of the language I was born or familiar with since childhood is something my heart always yearns for. That was 1991. Then, in 1998 – the very year I went back to Laos, I happened to read "Path to Conflagration" written by Euay Mayouri and her husband. I would say that book helped crystallize my determination to meet this scholar couple at whatever cost. Maybe, because of this resolution and of the will to know Chao Anou better, I ended up spending half the time I stayed in Vientiane talking at length with Euay Mayouri. If it were not for the seminar on history in Thailand, I would have met her husband, Ai Pheuiphanh too. Thinking back, I find it incredible for two people who had not known one another before suddenly clicked at first meet. I would say that if it was not for a shared destiny, what would it be?
It would be a good idea if I tell you about who Euay Mayouri is. She holds some kind of ph. D. I am not sure where she got the degree, presumably from France since she is very fluent in French and she also met her husband, Ai Pheuiphanh, while studying over there. She prides herself on being a social scientist. From what I know, she did the research from various sources namely the French, the American, the Vietnamese, the Chinese, the Thai, the Burmese, the Cambodian and, of course, the Lao. It is her tendency to let the fact speak for itself. She, along with her husband, has produced a number of scholarly works that were well recognized by the intellectual community. In my opinion, this couple is an authority on Lao/Thai history. Besides working for the international agency (the only place where one can get a decent wage comparable to the one scholars receive worldwide), she taught at the only one law school in Vientiane. She had two grown up boys who studied in Switzerland. Of the more curious note, she had a song named after her. This song was entitled ‘Mayouri’ – the same as her name, and it was sung by Ai Voradeth Ditthavong – a well known Lao singer. Euay Mayouri told me that Ai Pheuiphanh wrote that song while Ai Voradeth claimed that it was his work. Or maybe, both of these gentlemen fell in love with her who, at a younger age, must be quite a beauty herself. You be the judge!
According to Chaosinh Saysanom, a respected elder, Euay Mayouri and Ai Pheuiphanh are of a mixed blood – half Lao, half Vietnamese. Maybe, because of this fact, both of them want to prove that they love Laos as much as any other full blood Lao, if not more.
In our many conversations, she constantly rebuked the government for being a pawn of Vietnam no less than of Thailand. She was kind of saying that the government didn’t go far enough in reviving Chao Anou’s spirit. At that time, there was a wide interest in Chao Anou among the educated, namely the young. The government even sponsored an academic seminar on Chao Anou at DongDok University. Their objective was to rally the Lao youth against Thailand during the border dispute. Also, there was some faction in the Lao power structure who increasingly came to detest the growing power of Thai influence in Laos. All signs seemed to suggest that faction lost as the fermenting idea of building Chao Anou monument was completely dropped out of the face of this earth. She inferred that while we, the Lao, didn’t control our own destiny. Politically, we were under the Vietnamese while, economically, the Thai controlled us. The saddest part was that we had no identity of ourselves. When the Thai king visited Laos, the maidens of almost all high government officials kowtowed to the Thai king as if he were their king.
She also told me that those maidens and their husbands were talking about nothing else but golf. If you didn’t play golf, you were like an alien in their eyes. What a metamorphosis the leaders of our country had become! She sadly confided with me that part of the reason she and her husband got into the research about our country past was to give our people a sense of pride in their country. This couple covered all corners of Laos searching for the lost piece of history – in the private collection and temples. Also, they interviewed old people and respected monks extensively. After all this labor (Chao Anou’s book was the crowning of their sacrifice), was this the kind of Quon Lao and Muang Lao they wanted to see? Only heaven knew.
"Why didn’t you leave the country?" I couldn’t help asking her this question, sensing a big dissatisfaction in her tone.
"First, Laos is my country. Second, I still have faith in the new regime. I thought, with time, things would get better. And lastly, I want to make it happen." I would say that her voice would be as resounding as a decade or two ago if only I could go back in time and hear it again.
"I bet you will." I let out those words as my heart told me. I could see that, with a quality people like her, a proud and independent Laos will not be beyond reach any more. Like she said: "Chao Ratsavong is the future of Laos." And is she. To me, Euay Mayouri and the people of her like are the determined and courageous Chao Ratsavong of Muang Lao.
May I live long enough to see and contribute to the land Chao Anou sacrificed his life for belong to all Quon Lao, namely our heroic figure - Chao Ratsavong.
Hakphaang,
Kongkeo Saycocie
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