Laos: Kong Le & the Dragon

Prince Souvanna Phouma, the neutralist Premier of Laos, is a sophisticated fellow who was educated in Paris. He was in the U.S. last week to advise President Johnson on Asian policy and to discuss with Dean Rusk the problems of his own divided kingdom. Not once, however, did he mention the problem that matters most, because Washington, with all its marbled wisdom, just would not have understood. A dragon threatens to defeat him in the January elections.

Stolen Eggs. The dragon, who lives in the Mekong River in front of the Lan Xang Hotel in Vientiane, is a powerful force to the spirit-worshiping Laotians. He is also angry. His daughter laid three eggs this summer; they were stolen, and the dragon wants them back.

The eggs are under guard in the headquarters of General Kong Le, commander of Souvanna Phouma’s neutralist army. Kong Le got them from a peasant, who dug them up near the neutralist base two months ago. True enough, they did not really look like a dragon’s eggs. They were hard-shelled and white, instead of being soft-shelled and mottled, as dragons’ eggs in Laos usually are. But there was no mistaking them for the real thing: no sooner had the peasant taken them home than he fell into a delirium and was visited by the dragon, who told him that unless he put them back, “I will flood Vientiane to a depth of six feet.” And, added the dragon, “The people of Vientiane must atone themselves to me, and it is your General Kong Le who must lead the rites.”

The peasant fled in terror to Kong Le, who sent Souvanna Phouma a telegram warning of impending disaster. Souvanna, who does not believe in dragons, shrugged it away. Even when the Mekong River started to rise, he attributed it simply to the annual monsoon rains. But the river kept on rising, to a 40-year high, which put the lower sections of the city ‘deep under swirling brown water. Suddenly, Parisian education or no, the prince changed his mind: he could be blamed for the disaster unless he followed the dragon’s instructions. He called on Kong Le to perform mass atonement ceremonies.

Fiery Tongues. But the right-wing generals who are Souvanna Phouma’s principal election opponents had no intention of letting him off the hook. No sooner had he called for Kong Le than they sent the neutralist commander a telegram warning him to stay out of Vientiane or face “our cricket,” which “is even more powerful than your dragon.”

The river eventually went down without the benefit of atonement ceremonies, but Kong Le was so infuriated at the right-wing generals’ interference that he refused to return the eggs. As a result, all of Laos was at the mercy of an infuriated dragon. As far as Souvanna Phouma is concerned, the principal disaster may come at the polls. The Laotian electorate never pays much attention to fiery-tongued orators, but dragons are something else again.