India-Laos Bilateral Relations

07-23-2003, 01:16 AM

Bilateral Relations

India and the Lao PDR share friendly and cordial relations, set on a
solid historical cultural basis and reinforced by mutually beneficial
exchanges in the political and economic spheres in more recent times.
India's principled role in Laos as the Chairman of the International
Commission for Supervision and Control (ICSC) in Indo-China from 1954
to 1975 is still remembered fondly and appreciated both by the
government and the Lao people.

Interaction between India and the Lao PDR dates back to the reign of
King Asoka. According to a legend, emissaries of King Asoka brought a
relic of the Buddha to Laos, which is believed to have been placed
beneath the That Luang temple in Vientiane. The Wat Phu temple in
Champassak Province (Southern Laos) is a standing example of the rich
cultural interaction between India and Laos in the 7th and 8th
century A.D. In many ways, the Wat Phu temple is considered to be a
precursor of the Angkor Vat group of temples in Cambodia. In a recent
excavation, Hindu religious icons like the Shiva Lingam have been
discovered in an area close to the Wat Phu. Similar icons were also
found in the northern province of Bokkeo (bordering Myanmar).

The impact of these traditional and cultural links is clearly evident
even today in various aspects of the Lao religion, with both Buddhist
and Hindu influences, language (with roots in Sanskrit and Pali), art
and architecture, philosophy, customs and social ethos. Lao PDR has
developed, almost as a fine art, its own version of the Hindu epic
Ramayana in ballet form.