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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
For Lao Loum, Lao Theung, and Lao Sung, the rhythm of
life is
strongly tied to the changing seasons and the requirements
of
farming. For swidden farming villages, the work year
begins in
January or February when new fields are cleared. This time
of the
year is also good for hunting and for moving to a new
village.
Opium farmers harvest the resin between January and March,
depending on location and variety of poppy, but otherwise
there are
few agricultural activities. Swidden fields are burned
around March
and must be planted in May or June, just before the first
rains.
From the time the seeds sprout until August, work revolves
around
the never-ending task of weeding. Hunting and fishing
continue, and
with the coming of the rains, the forest begins to yield
new
varieties of wild foods.
For paddy farmers, the agricultural year begins with
the first
rains, when a small seedbed is plowed and planted. The
seedlings
grow for a month or so while the remaining fields are
plowed and
harrowed in preparation for transplanting. Transplanting
requires
steady work from every able-bodied person over a period of
about a
month and is one of the main periods of labor exchange in
lowland
villages.
Swidden farmers begin the corn harvest as early as
September,
and short-season rice varieties mature soon after the
corn. Paddy
rice seldom ripens before October, however, and the
harvest may
continue through early December in some areas, although
midNovember is more usual. Even late swidden rice is finished
by early
November. Harvesting and threshing the rice are the
principal
activities during the second period of intense work in the
farm
year. Dry-season rice farmers repeat the same cycle, but
vegetables, tobacco, or other cash crops require a more
even labor
input over the season.
Food availability parallels the seasons. Wild foods and
fish
are abundant during the rainy season, although the months
just
before the corn ripens may be difficult if the previous
year's
harvest was inadequate. Fruit is available during the
rainy and
cool dry seasons, but becomes scarce, as do most
vegetables, from
March through May. Hmong and Mien celebrate their new year
in
December or January, when the harvest is complete but
before the
time to clear new fields. Lowland Lao celebrate their new
year on
April 15, also shortly before the start of the farming
year. The
harvest is marked by the
That Luang (see Glossary)
festival, on the
full moon of the twelfth lunar month, which falls in late
November
or early December
(see Buddhism
, this ch.).
Because most roads are in poor condition, travel in the
rainy
season is generally difficult, and villagers tend to stay
close to
home, because of farmwork as well as the ever-present mud.
The dry
season brings easier land travel and the free time it
allows. Since
the late 1980s, a few rural villagers have begun to travel
to
regional population centers in search of temporary wage
employment,
often in construction.
Data as of July 1994
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