Houaphanh province (, , Romanization of Lao: ''Houaphan'' also ''Huaphan'') is a province in eastern

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

. Its capital is Xam Neua. Houaphanh province covers an area of . It is bordered by

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

to the north, east, and southeast,

Xiangkhouang province Xiangkhouang (Lao alphabet, Lao: wikt:ຊຽງຂວາງ, ຊຽງຂວາງ, meaning 'Horizontal City') is a province of Laos on the Xiangkhoang Plateau, in the nation's northeast. The province has the distinction of being the most heavi ...

to the south and southwest, and Luang Prabang province to the west.

Geography

Houaphanh province covers an area of . The province is bordered by

to the north, east and southeast,

to the south and southwest, and Luang Prabang province to the west. Forest forms most of the province, particularly on the western side. Settlements include Xam Neua, Muong U, Houamuang, Chomsan, Muang Pan, Muang Hom, Muang Peu, Muang Xon, Ban Muang-Et, Ban Nampang, Muong Vene, Xamtai, Muang Na, and Poungthak. A road running through the province is Route 6. The principal rivers are the Sông Mã (which flows from and into Vietnam, passing the village of Ban Muang-Et) and the Nam Sam (which the town of Xam Neua lies on).

Protected areas

Areas of Houaphanh province are in the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA) and the Nam Xam National Biodiversity Conservation Area. The Nam Neun IBA area of Nam Et is adjacent to the NBCA. Nam Neun is 85,450 ha in size, and is at an elevation of . The habitat is characterized as mixed deciduous forest, and dry evergreen forest, with stands of bamboo, and occasional conifers; cleared areas have been replaced by areas of secondary grassland. Avifauna include great hornbill (''Buceros bicornis'') and Blyth's kingfisher (''Alcedo hercules''). The Phou Louey

Massif A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an ...

IBA is in the Nam Et-Phou Louey NBCA and adjacent to the Nam Neun IBA. The Phou Louey IBA stretches beyond Houaphanh province into Luang Prabang province. It is 60,070 ha in size and is at an elevation of . The habitat is characterized as mixed deciduous forest, semi-evergreen forest, lower montane evergreen forest, upper montane evergreen forest, and secondary grassland. Avifauna include beautiful nuthatch (''Sitta formosa''), rufous-necked hornbill (''Aceros nipalensis''), Blyth's kingfisher (''Alcedo hercules''), and yellow-vented warbler (''Phylloscopus cantator''). There are 4 confirmed species of turtles and 2 confirmed species of

ungulate Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Euungulata ("true ungulates"), which primarily consists of large mammals with Hoof, hooves. Once part of the clade "Ungulata" along with the clade Paenungulata, "Ungulata" has since been determined ...

. The 69,000 hectare Nam Xam IBA is in the 70,000 ha Nam Xam National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA). The IBA's elevation varies between . The topography is characterized by hills and mountains. The habitat includes dry evergreen forest, Fokienia forest, mixed deciduous forest, and stunted, mossy upper montane forest. Avifauna includes beautiful nuthatch (''Sitta formosa''), brown hornbill (''Anorrhinus tickelli''), great hornbill (''Buceros bicornis''), red-collared woodpecker (''Picus rabieri''), and rufous-necked hornbill (''Aceros nipalensis'').

Administrative divisions

The province is made up of the following districts:

History

The province, along with Xiangkhoang, was part of the Muang Phuan Kingdom (Vietnamese: Bồn Man) since the 14th century. Following a Vietnamese invasion in 1478 led by King Lê Thánh Tông, it became Trấn Ninh Territory of the Đại Việt Kingdom with the capital at Sầm Châu. The area was known as Hua Phan Tang Ha Tang Hok, 'the fifth and the sixth province", and listed by Auguste Pavie as "Hua Panh, Tang-Ha, Tang-Hoc."Mission Pavie, ''Indo-Chine, 1879-1895: Etudes diverses'', Volume 3, Page 142, 1900 "Ces territoires, dont le nom serait: Hua Panh, Tang-Ha, Tang-Hoc. comprendraient, en plus des six grands cantons énumérés ailleurs" It remained a Vietnamese outpost territory until 1851 when it become part of Thailand, after the 1893 Franco-Siamese crisis. Ownership was switched by French authorities, then back to Laos during the French colonial period. Under the French spelling, the province was sometimes ''Hua Phan''. The province is home to the Viengxay caves, a network of caves used by the

Pathet Lao The Pathet Lao (), officially the Lao People's Liberation Army, was a communist political movement and political organization, organization in Laos, formed in the mid-20th century. The group ultimately gained control over the entire country of ...

. Caves in the province served as hideouts for figures in Laos in the 1950s and 1960s. Tham Than Souphanouvong Cave was the hideout of the revolutionary leader and later the President, Souphanouvong, who built a base there in 1964. Revolutionary leader and later the President Kaysone Phomvihane hid out in Tham Than Kaysone Cave from 1964, and later President Khamtay Siphandone hid at Tham Than Khamtay Cave from 1964. He established a base there, with meeting rooms, reception rooms, and a research room. Houaphanh province was noted for its ''samana'' ('re-education') camps. The Lao royal family were believed to have been taken to 1 such camp near Sop Hao in 1977. Crown Prince Say Vong Savang allegedly died at the camp in May 1978, followed by his father, King Savang Vatthana, of starvation 11 days later. Religious minorities sometimes face persecution in the province, and at the end of 1999 some minorities were arrested.

Economy

In 1998, 3 quarters of the population were classified as poor. In 2002 GDP per capita was US$50–204, compared to the national average of US$350. Socio-economic problems plague the province, with a higher infant mortality rate and lower access to safe water and medical facilities than the national average. Bamboo is used as a principal building material. In Viengxay District there are 2 bamboo processing factories that produce items such as floormats,

fence A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or net (textile), netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its ...

s, chopsticks and toothpicks for the Vietnamese market. Xam Neua, the provincial centre, is a market centre for regional trade. Villagers come here to sell their goods. Saleu and Nasala villages in Xiengkho District along Route 6 are noted for their skills at weaving and handicrafts. Samtay is noted for its textiles.

Rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

farming is practiced in the province, while agriculture employs fewer than livestock farming. Cash crops include

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

, sesame,

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean. Soy is a staple crop, the world's most grown legume, and an important animal feed. Soy is a key source o ...

, and medicinal plants such as '' man on ling'', '' duk duea'', and '' kalamong'', paper

mulberry ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinat ...

, styrax, cardamon and

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

. Up to 15% are involved in

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

cultivation and up to 10% involved in making handicrafts. Attempts to control poppy cultivation have been made through the Narcotics Crop Control Project and the Houaphanh Project Agreement. A tourism development plan has been created for the province, capitalizing on the caves as tourist attractions, providing information and services at the sites.

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...

launched a project in 2006 specifically covering 31 villages of Xam Neua and Samtay Districts to wean people away from shifting cultivation practices and to eliminate opium addiction; as of 2006, opium was grown in the province in an area of about 30 ha. The project includes programs to increase income, conserve forest resources, eradicate opium, and experiment with pilot projects to enhance livelihood sources.

Demography

The population of the province, as of 2015, was 289,393. The capital is Xam Neua.

Landmarks

Xanglot Cave is where weddings and traditional festivals were held during the war. Wat Pho Xai or Wat Pho Xaysanalam is on the outskirts of Sam Neua. Hintang Archaeological Park, a UNESCO

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

, is a pre-historic site in northern Laos, dotted with about 2,000-year-old ''menhirs'' (standing stones) or

megaliths A megalith is a large Rock (geology), stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging ...

, which were unearthed in 1931. Locals refer to it as Sao Hin Tang, meaning "Standing Stone Pillars". It is known as the

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

of Laos, with stones. Apart from these finds, funerary burial sites with artifacts of trinkets, standing rock slabs and stone disks were found. These archaeological finds are older than the

Plain of Jars The Plain of Jars ( Lao: ທົ່ງໄຫຫີນ ''Thong Hai Hin'', ) is a megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos. It consists of thousands of stone jars scattered around the upland valleys and the lower foothills of the central plain of ...

and are seen along a 12-km mountain ridge in the southern part of the province. Local animists believe that the stone discs at the site once sat atop the megaliths and fed Jahn Han, the sky spirit. from Sam Neua is the Ban Tham Buddha Cave. Tat Saloei (Phonesai) Waterfall lies off the road to Nam Noen, about south of Sam Neua. Nameuang Hot Springs is another landmark amidst the valley of paddy fields on the way to Xam Neua, where there is the Houaiyad waterfall. The springs are the source of a river. In Houaiyad village, crashed aircraft parts and cans of war relics are recycled into belts.

Villages

* Ban Kenpha

Gallery

File:PathetLao002.jpg,

, Xam Neua, 1953. File:Market Woman in Sam Neua, Laos.JPG, Market vendor, Xam Neua File:Sam Neua - Wat Pho Xai.JPG, Wat Pho Xai, Xam Neua

Citations

General and cited references

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