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Laos
Index
The territory of Laos thus consisted of the Kingdom of
Louangphrabang, under French protection, and the provinces
south of
the Nam Kading, which were administered directly by a
résident
supérieur in Vientiane. The latter had direct
authority over
the provincial résidents, who were on an equal
footing with
the Lao chao khoueng (provincial governors). The
résident
supérieur also acted as the representative of the
French state
to the king of Louangphrabang and supervised the
administration of
the kingdom through provincial commissioners. The affairs
of the
kingdom were conducted by a four-member council headed by
the
viceroy. The résident supérieur also coordinated
the
activities of the public services of the Indochinese
Federation,
which operated in both the north and the south, and
employed
French, Vietnamese, and Lao civil servants.
The treaty also reinstituted the position of viceroy,
which had
been abolished by the French at the death of Boun Khong in
1920.
Boun Khong's son, Prince Phetsarath, became one of the
major
figures of modern Laos. Among his accomplishments were the
establishment of the system of ranks and titles of the
civil
service, promotion and pension plans, the organization of
a Laotian
consultative assembly consisting of district and province
chiefs,
the reorganization of the king's Advisory Council along
functional
lines, and the establishment of a school of law and
administration.
Phetsarath also reorganized the administrative system of
the
Buddhist community of monks and novices, the clergy
(sangha), and established a system of schools for
educating
monks in which the language of instruction was Pali, the
sacred
language of Theravada Buddhism.
Data as of July 1994
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