Lao Language Ephemera








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SEASSI Lao Independent Study Project Presentations



Intermediate Student Presentation on the Life of the Buddha and the Vesendara Jataka

This is a video of a presentation by SEASSI 2005 Intermediate Lao student Chanphammala Luangphasy on the life of the Buddha 
as Sidhartha and the
popular story of his penultimate life, the Vesendara Jataka (Nithaan Sadok in Lao).  This very well-done presentation documents a summer
of research by Chanphammala, and features an interview with a local elder at the Elgin, Illinois Bun Phawet festival.

Below the link to the video (which will open in a separate browser window) is a link
to a PDF document which contains the word list that Chanphammala produced for her presentation.





  • See the Student's Word List on Nithaan Sadok
    




    

    Two Renditions of a Lao Folk Tale
    

    
Why The Dog Lifts Its Leg When It Pees: The Oral Performance Version
    
This is a cute and funny Lao folk tale explaining the origin of a certain [male] canine toilet habit.  It's told by master storyteller
 Wajuppa Tossa, a professor of Isaan and Lao literature at Mahasarakham University in Thailand.

    

    


    
Why The Dog Lifts Its Leg When It Pees: The Student Theater Version
    
After listening to the above version of the folk tale in their course materials at SEASSI, the Lao Intermediate and Advanced students of 2006
put together this excellent video version of the story in which they act it out.  

    



    


    

    A Short Play based on a Xiang Miang Episode
    

    
Dead Within Seven Days: An Episode from the Tales of Xiang Miang
    
Xiang Miang is a popular trickster character in Lao folklore, who, in a series of ongoing adventures, continually gets the better of the rich and 
powerful, even though he's a seemingly harmless, unassuming young lad.  This Xiang Miang adventure was acted out by a group of Intermediate and Beginning Lao students
and their instructors at "Poetry Night," SEASSI 2007.
    
You can both watch a video of the performance, and read the original folk tale in Lao (with vocabulary explanations in English), from 
the Intermediate/Advanced Lao Textbook
Than Samay by Frank Smith, by selecting the links below.

    

    

  • Read the text version (in Lao) of the above Xiang Miang Episode
    



    

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