Laos - The People And The Land - A Journey Through Postcards

People of Laos from different ethnic groups in the early of the 20th century - Raquez PC's 1906

Landscapes of Laos in the early of the 20th century - Raquez PC's 1906:

Last group of Raquez PC's from 1906 shows different subjects:

- Flood in Vientiane
- Lao, Vietnamese (Annamite) and Cambodian Militia soldiers
- Lao monks during Lao religious festival
- Lao Royal ballet performing the epic Phra Lak Phra Lam (Hindu: Ramayana)
- King Sisavang Vong in procession

Lao Women representing Laos in the Colonial Exposition held in France - 1907

Other company issued postcards in the early of the 20th century for Laos is Claude et Co. Editeurs, Saigon. In the next series of posts I will show what I have in my album:

People of Laos in the early of the 20th century - Claude

Buddhism in Laos in the early of the 20th century - religious festivals and temples - Claude postcards

That Ing Hang Temple, Savannakhet, Champasak province - Claude postcards

People of Laos in the early of the 20th century - Claude postcards

The last group of Claud's Postcards, different subjects:

Rocket Festival (Bung Bang Fai);


Weaving and using mortar:


Lao landscapes:

The next group of French Indochinese postcards show Laos is from different publishers produced postcards for tourists. All of them were issued in the first half of the 20th century. I will show them in the next several of posts:

Elephant of Laos:

Peoples of Laos in the early of the 20th century - different PC publishers. From now, color postcards are artificially colorized:







The upper photo of a woman from Huaphanh province was used as a model to design a French Indochinese stamp issued in 1907 in the first pictorial set of Indochina:

This postcard was sent in 1905 from Attapeu, Laos to Meuse, France. It was applied with several interesting and very clear postmarks:
- Postmark from Attopeu (Attapeu), Southern Laos applied on February 25, 1905.
- Transit postmark from Bassac (called today Champassak), applied on March 2, 1905. The capital of Champasak is Pakse which regarded as one of the main cities of Laos and I assume one of the central Lao post offices was located in this city.
- Arrival postmark from Meuse, applied on April 5, 1905.

The front of the postcard shows people on a bridge in Khone Island, Champassak, southern Laos:

Peoples of Laos in the early of the 20th century - different PC publishers

Daily life and landscapes of Laos - different PC publishers






The last photo was used as a model to design the first stamps of the Kingdom of Laos in 1951:

Buddhism in Laos (except the last PC) - different PC publishers:




Christian missionaries in Laos: