[Tlc] L-"Red Prince"

[justinm at ucr.edu]

FYI.
Thanks,
justin



2009-0419 - DPA - Laos honours 'Red Prince'

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/264904,laos-honours-red-prince.html

Laos honours 'Red Prince'

Posted : Sun, 19 Apr 2009 05:29:54 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Asia (World)

Bangkok - Communist Laos will this July unveil a new monument in Luang Prabang to honour Prince Souphanouvong, better known as the "Red Prince," radio reports said Sunday. The monument is 80 per cent completed and scheduled to be unveiled on July 12 in Luang Prabang, Laos' ancient capital and the seat of the now defunct royalty, Radio Laos said in a broadcast monitored in Thailand.

The statue was built to honour Souphanouvong's contributions to Laos' independence struggle, the radio said.

Souphanouvong was born in Luang Prabang in 1902, the youngest of the 22 sons of Prince Boun Khong, the regent.

He was president of Laos from 1975 until his death in 1986.

Souphanouvong, called the "Red Prince," became attracted to radical politics when studying engineering in France in the 1930s.

He joined the Free Laos movement after returning to the land-locked country in 1938, and was forced to live in exile in Thailand between 1946 to 1949.

In 1950 he became a founding member of the Pathet Lao, the communist party which played a major role in the fight for independence from France in 1954 and went on oppose post-independence right wing regimes until Laos went communist in 1975.

His post as communist Laos' first president was largely ceremonial. The last king of Laos, Savang Vatthana, abdicated the throne in 1975 and died in a reeducation camp in 1978.
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Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu