Ong Kommandam (also Ong Kommadam) was the confidant and successor of
Ong Keo
Ong Keo () led Austroasiatic-speaking minorities (formerly called Mon-Khmer) in what in Thailand was called the Holy Man's Rebellion, where it was a widespread but short-lived cause. Against French and Lao forces, however, Ong Keo continued th ...
as the leader of the Mon-Khmer tribes of southern Laos in their
struggle for independence from French and Lao rule. Ong Keo was assassinated in 1910 by the Commissioner of Salavan,
Jacques Dauplay. Kommandam survived the attack, which added to his status, and he united the highland minorities of Southern
Laos. An ethnic
Alak, he claimed that the "Khom" (a general term for the Mon-Khmer hill tribes) were indigenous to the area and previously held much more prestige and glory, first when the
Khmer Empire ruled them, and later when they were a part of the Kingdom of
Lan Xang
existed as a unified kingdom from 1353 to 1707.
For three and a half centuries, Lan Xang was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. The meaning of the kingdom's name alludes to the power of the kingship and formidable war machine of the ea ...
. As part of his resistance activities, he invented a secret script to convey messages, the
Khom script Khom script may refer to either of the following writing systems derived from the Khmer script:
*Khom Thai script, a script based on ancient Khmer and historically used in Thailand
*Khom script (Ong Kommadam), a script developed in Laos by the rebe ...
.
[Sidwell, Paul. 2008. The Khom script of the Kommodam Rebellion. '']International Journal of the Sociology of Language
The ''International Journal of the Sociology of Language'' is a peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of sociology of language. It was established in 1974 by the eminent sociologist of language Joshua Fishman, who has serve ...
'' 192. He continued the fight for independence from 1910 until 1936 when he was killed.
References
*Gunn, Geoffrey (1990). Rebellion in Laos: peasant and politics in a colonial backwater. Boulder: Westview Press.
*Moppert, François (1981). Le révolte des Bolovens (1901–1936). In Histoire de l’Asie du Sud-est: Révoltes, Réformes, Révolutions, Pierre Brocheux (ed.), 47-62. Lille: Presses Universitaires de Lille.
*Polsena, Vatthana; 2006; Post-war Laos: The Politics of Culture, History, And Identity; Cornell University Press; ; pp 121–138
References
Laotian military leaders
Year of birth missing
1936 deaths
Creators of writing systems
Guerrillas killed in action
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