Dropping like flies

My eyes on the ground in Laos have reported that Luang Namtha's lone picture hall, the long-decommissioned Tungsavang VDO, has been demolished. Word of this comes as a slight surprise. When I photographed it back in early 2009 the Tungsavang VDO was undergoing a makeover into a "youth activities center" courtesy of the local Ministry of Culture. Either the Ministry found additional funds to build a bigger center, or, the more likely case, somebody got hold of the land for private development and is cashing in.

Row "S" placed in front of its former refuge, before it was razed.

The Tungsavang VDO was built in the early 1980's. When first opened, it would have represented one of the very few tools used for political indoctrination by the State in this remote mountain region of the country. Such application would have been particularly pertinent due to Luang Namtha being home to numerous ethnically non-Lao residents, for whom a Lao national identity, communist or otherwise, would have been alien. Nationalistic messages, lets not forget, can easily take on the guise of good old fashioned movie entertainment. Though to be realistic about it all, the Lao Communists never did a very thorough job of developing their nation-building propaganda techniques. With the Tungsavang VDO, though, I'm sure that's what they had in mind.

Hand painted signage on the cornice of Tungsavang VDO, reduced to memory.

There's a fancy new all-weather highway bisecting the province, which makes overland shipping between Kunming, China and Singapore, and all points between, a reality. The economic benefits it will bring to Luang Namtha, however, probably won't be felt by too many locals, but rather outside investors capitalizing on the new business opportunities.

The likelihood of Luang Namtha ever being home to another movie theater is practically nil. Lets not forget that it used to have one.

Tung Savang VDO - Luang Namtha, Laos

Most of the inhabitants of Luang Namtha are Sino-Tibetan speaking peoples such as the Hmong, Akka, Lisu, Haw Chinese, as well as a sizable Tai Lue population. For centuries, these bucolic highlands have been perched well above much of mainland Southeast Asia; remote, relatively independent and very rural. It wasn't incorporated into Laos until the French consolidated the colonial territory of Indochina in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Being so remote and insular as it was for many years, you can imagine what an impact the coming of film had on the local population. Enter the Tung Savang VDO Theater.

The Tung Savang VDO was built in the early 1980's, replacing an older wooden theater dating from some time during the French colonial period. Like all theaters in Laos, after the Communist Party came to power in 1975 the Tung Savang VDO was partially nationalized under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture.

Painted signage atop the Tung Savang VDO Theater.

The Tung Savang VDO was truly an entertainment bastion in this extremely remote part of Laos...

...so much so that the ticket window had to be remodeled to protect the ticket person from the onslaught of movie-crazed crowds hoping to get seats. A builder doing some renovation work on the Tung Savang VDO recalled that as a kid movie-goers were so ecstatic to buy tickets that the ticket window would be bombarded with people throwing money, willy-nilly, in the face of the ticket seller. To create some order, two little holes, just big enough for one hand at a time to pass through were punched in the wall.

Wooden bench seats: row S.

The Tung Savang VDO is being renovated and turned into an activities center for the town of Luang Namtha. The wooden poles running down the middle are to help reinforce the old ceiling. They were not there originally.

In the above photo, contractors are recalling the life and death of the Tung Savang VDO from its foyer. How it came to be called VDO is not clear, as it showed film movies while it was operating, not video. The original building was wood, so I imagine when it was rebuilt from brick and concrete in the early 1980's it got the name VDO to keep with the most current theme.

Tung Savang was likely the family name of the original owner, but the theater now belongs to the Lao Ministry of Culture.

The Tung Savang VDO Theater has been closed since 1996, shortly after Laos began allowing slightly freer trade and the importing of TV's.