1 I use pseudonyms for ethical reasons, and to prevent accusations of hidden advertising or any participation in regular controversies that occur in the world of Laotian textiles.

2 In this paper, when not referring to situated discourse, I use ‘Laotian’ to speak about textiles ‘made in Laos’. Unlike ‘Lao’ it cannot be unconsciously linked to an ethnic group reference. Indeed, the word ‘Lao’ as expressed by people conveys the evolving ideological idea of a ‘Lao’ national identity based upon the cultural reference imposed by the dominant Lao populations of the lowlands regardless of the great ethnic and cultural diversity in the country. In the same way, terms such as ‘culture’, ‘identity’ or ‘tradition’ are used solely when related to discourses of the agents.

3 The naga is an ophidian divinity very common in Southeast Asia.

4 Since there is no official transcription system for the Lao alphabet, I use the Aséanie transcription system based on the one used for the transcription of the Thai alphabet and in line with the official Lao orthography implemented in 1960 and modified in 1975. For the transcription of Thai words, I use the official system devised by the Royal Institute of Thailand.

5 Culture Division of the UNESCO's website: http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en (last accessed 1 May 2009), UNESCO Crafts Prize section.

6 Mayor, Federico, ‘Address by Mr Mayor, Director-General of the UNESCO’, in Textiles of Asia: A common heritage, ed. Prangwatthanakun, Songsak (Chiang Mai: Office of The National Culture Commission, Chiang Mai University, 1993)Google Scholar.

7 Sharples, Jennifer, Thai silk (Bangkok: Post Books, 1994), p. 72Google Scholar.

8 Howard, Michael C., ‘Identity and traditional and tradition-based T'ai textiles in contemporary Thai society’, in Traditional T'ai arts in contemporary perspective, ed. Howard, Michael C., Wattanapun, Wattana and Gordon, Alec (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1998), pp. 13–45Google Scholar.

9 Peleggi, Maurizio, ‘Refashioning civilization: Dress and bodily practice in Thai nation-building’, in The politics of dress in Asia and the Americas, ed. Roces, Mina and Edwards, Louise (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2007), pp. 65–80Google Scholar.

10 Ibid.

11 Howard, ‘Identity and traditional and tradition-based T'ai textiles’, p. 25.

12 Peleggi, ‘Refashioning civilization’, pp. 78–9.

13 This craft definition had been adopted by the UNESCO/ITC Symposium, ‘Craft and international market: Trade and customs codification’, in Manila, 6–9 Oct. 1997. See http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en (last accessed 1 May 2009).

14 Annabel Vallard, ‘Following the thread: An ethnography of the textile industry in Vientiane (Lao P.D.R.)’, (Ph.D. diss., University of Paris X, Nanterre, 2009), pp. 249–54.

15 Ibid., pp. 113–25.

16 See among others: Bounyavong, Douangdeuane, Pathoumvanh, Bandit and Chanthachit, Chanthone, Infinite designs. The arts of silk (Vientiane: Loa Women's Union, 1995)Google Scholar; Legends in the weaving, ed. Bounyavong, Douangdeuane and Nanthavongdouangsy, Viengkham (Khon Kaen: The Group for Promotion of Art and Textiles, 2001)Google Scholar; Cheesman, Patricia, Lao textiles: Ancient symbols/living art (Bangkok: White Lotus Co., 1988)Google Scholar; Cheesman, Patricia, Lao-Tai textiles: The textiles of Xam Nuea and Muang Phuan (Chiang Mai: Studio Naenna Co. Ltd., 2004)Google Scholar; Naenna, Patricia, Costume and culture: Vanishing textiles of some of the Tai groups in Lao P.D.R. (Bangkok: Amarin Printing Group, 1990)Google Scholar; Connors, Mary, Lao textiles and traditions (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1996)Google Scholar; Nanthavongdouangsy, Viengkham, Weave on our great grandmother's loom (Vientiane: Phaeng Mai Gallery and the Group for the Promotion of Art and Textiles, 1996)Google Scholar; Nanthavongdouangsy, Viengkham, Sinh and Lao women (Vientiane: Phaeng Mai Gallery, 2006)Google Scholar; or Ngaosysavathn, Mayoury, Lao women yesterday and today (Vientiane: Ministry of Culture, 1995)Google Scholar.

17 Annabel Vallard, ‘Following the thread’. See also, Esterik, Penny Van, ‘Fabricating national identity: Textiles in Lao P.D.R.’, Museum Anthropology, 23, 1 (1999): 47–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 See for example, Resettlement and social characteristics of new villages, ed. Goudineau, Yves (Vientiane: UNESCO, 1997)Google Scholar; and Goudineau, Yves and Evrard, Olivier, ‘Planned resettlement, unexpected migrations and cultural trauma in Laos’, Development and Change, 35, 5 (2004): 937–62Google Scholar.

19 For a description and analysis of the procession that was organised during the promotion of Visit Laos Year 1999–2000, see Pholsena, Vatthana, Post-war Laos: The politics of culture, history and identity (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006), pp. 46–76Google Scholar.

20 Ibid., pp. 52–3.

21 The Institute of Research on Culture is the heir of the Institute on Artistic and Literary Research that was founded in 1983 under the patronage of the Ministry of Information and Culture. This Institute organised two major conferences in 1991 and 1992 to heighten Laotian public awareness of the problem of its cultural heritage's protection. See Ketavong, Khamphèng, ‘Some characteristics of Lao fabrics’, in Laos and ethnic minority cultures: Promoting heritage, ed. Goudineau, Yves (Paris: UNESCO, 2003), p. 125Google Scholar.

22 The Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted in 1972. The World Heritage Committee was established in 1976 and inscribed the first sites on the World Heritage List in 1978. But, it was the Nubia Campaign in Egypt in 1960 that launched UNESCO's worldwide policy of architectural protection. See http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en (last accessed 1 May 2009).

23 Goudineau, Resettlement and social characteristics of new villages.

24 See various articles in ibid. Among them, H. Leedom Lefferts (pp. 89–110), Bouabane Vorakhoun (pp. 247–50) and Khamphèng Ketavong (pp. 111–18).

25 Nanthavongdouangsy, Weave on our great grandmother's loom.

26 Viengkham Nanthavongdouangsy, ‘Lao weaving and natural dyeing techniques’, in Legends in the weaving, Bounyavong and Nanthavongdouangsy, pp. 29–51.

27 Kongthong Nanthavongdouangsy, ‘Terminology and local terms for predominant motifs in traditional Lao textiles’, in Legends in the weaving, Bounyavong and Nanthavongdouangsy, pp. 111–41.

28 Nanthavongdouangsy, Sinh and Lao women.

29 O'Connor, Stanley J., ‘Critics, connoisseurs, and collectors in the Southeast Asian rain forest’, Asian Art, 4, 4 (1991): 51–67Google Scholar; O'Connor, Stanley J., ‘Memory and discovery in Southeast Asian art’, Asian Art and Culture, 8, 1 (1995): 2–6Google Scholar.

30 See SEAL websites http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/our-projects/cultural-industries-and-creative-enterprises/award-of-excellence-for-handicraft-products (last accessed 1 May 2009); and http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/creativity/award-of-excellence-for-handicrafts (last accessed 22 Mar. 2011).

31 Ibid.

32 ‘Beyond tradition’ is the title of an exhibition of Laotian textiles that was held in New York in 1995.

33 SEAL websites.

34 Callon, Michel, Méadel, Cécile and Rabeharisoa, Vololona, ‘The economy of qualities’, Economy and Society, 31, 2 (2002): 194–217CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 SEAL websites.

36 Ibid.

37 Bortolotto, Chiara, ‘From objects to processes: UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage’, Journal of Museum Ethnography, 19 (2007): 21Google Scholar. From the same author, see also, ‘From the “monumental” to the “living” heritage: A shift in perspective’, in World heritage: Global challenges, local solutions, proceedings of the conference at Ironbridge, 4th–7th May 2006, ed. Carman, John and White, Roger [British Archaeological Reports International Series] (Oxford: Archeopress, 2007), pp. 39–45Google Scholar.

38 Bortolotto, ‘From objects to processes’, pp. 27–9.

39 Ogino, Masahiro, ‘La logique d'actualisation: Le patrimoine et le Japon’, Ethnologie Française, 25, 1 (1995): 57–64Google Scholar.

40 SEAL websites.

41 Coombe, Rosemary J., ‘The properties of culture and the politics of possessing identity: Native claims in the cultural appropriation controversy’, Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, 6, 2 (1993): 258CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 UNESCO's website on copyright: http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=12313&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html (last accessed 1 May 2009).

43 An intellectual property law including copyright and related rights was in preparation with promulgation expected in 2010. See WIPO website: http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/details.jsp?id=5890 (last accessed 10 Apr. 2011).

44 On brand names, see, among others, Miller, Daniel, ‘Alienable gifts and inalienable commodities’, in The empire of things: Regime of value and material culture, ed. Myers, Fred R. (Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 2001), pp. 91–115Google Scholar.

45 Vallard, ‘Following the thread’.

46 Van Esterik, ‘Fabricating national identity’.

47 Choron-Baix, Catherine, ‘L'art et la vertu: La broderie au fil d'or dans l'ancienne cours de Louang Prabang’, Gradhiva, 27 (2000): 53–61Google Scholar.

48 Pemberton, John, On the subject of Java (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994)Google Scholar.

49 Coombe, Rosemary J., ‘Intellectual property, human rights and sovereignty: New dilemmas in international law posed by the recognition of indigenous knowledge and the conservation of biodiversity’, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 6 (1998): 65–6Google Scholar.

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid.

52 de Certeau, Michel, The practice of everyday life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984)Google Scholar.