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History
This section contains
articles on the origin of the Hmong people and the history of the
Hmong in Laos. Many books have been published on the so-called
“secret war” that lasted from 1961 to 1973 in Laos. Countless
debates and discussions have also been conducted on the impact of
the war, who did what, and whether there was a promise by the CIA to
take care of the Hmong, the main recruits into its “secret army”
there, should it lose the war. There has been much historical
revision and (mis)appropriation since the end of the war in 1975. I
have tried to be as objective as possible in depicting the events
during this period or since the Hmong settlement in that small
country.
Three articles are devoted to this subject:
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Ethnic Minorities and Nation-building in Laos: the Hmong in the
Lao State - before 1975.
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Minority Policies and the Hmong in Laos - after 1975.
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Refugees from Laos – newly updated
(2008) on war refugees from the
beginning of Lao history to the present time.
A
new article in this 2008 update, entitled “Diaspora and the
Predicament of Origins”, tries to bring together the different
theories about where the Hmong could have originated from. For many
years now, scholars have been asking questions about where the Hmong
as an ethnic group could have come from. Missionaries have
speculated that they originated from Mesopotamia (the origin of
Biblical mankind) in the Middle East. Others think they came from
the North Pole and Siberia while some believe they migrated from
Mongolia.
The
new article, based on new genetic and other researches, comes up
with its own conclusion about the real geographical and historical
origin of the Hmong, and the dilemma they face in coming to term
with this origin. It is a fascinating exploration of Hmong
postcolonial history that focuses on ancient as well as contemporary
issues found in China as well as the global Hmong diaspora.
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