Kumiko Kato
School of Letters, Nagoya University
Near Vientiane City in Laos, there are places where salt becomes crystallized above ground during the dry season. Areas with sites where salt becomes crystallized are called bo. Villagers living near these bo produce salt there.
The salt is eaten and also used by the villagers to make pa-daek (fermented fish with salt and rice), which is indispensable for them as a seasoning and a preserved food. Any remaining salt is given to relatives and friends, or used for trading. The salt is also taken to the Thai side of the Mekhong River.
Almost all of the goods received in exchange for salt are kinds of food. Among them, yam beans, tomatoes and rice were often mentioned in the interviews. It is unique in that the salt-producing villagers themselves visit other villages to proactively trade their salt for rice, while conversely most other goods are traded by people in need of salt.
However, this salt became less significant after 1975, when a salt factory was built a few kilometers from the bo, and the establishment of the Lao PDR made it more difficult for the villagers to cross the Mekhong River. Its use has become more a matter of preference than a necessity, and it is currently used mainly for making tastier pa-daek.
Production and trading of salt by villagers, however, still continues to play an important role in creating and maintaining social relationships among the people and their villages.
(Presented in the International Conference – Thai Food Heritage: Local to Global, 4-6 August 2009, Tawana Bangkok Hotel, Bangkok, organized by The Project of Empowering Network for International Thai Studies (ENITS), Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University with support from the Thailand Research Fund (TRF))