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Critical Praise for
Bamboo Palace
"Much like Kremmer′s previous book, The Carpet Wars, this new work combines politics and history, and culture and travel, with a narrative that belts along blending journalistic curiosity and good old-fashioned detective work... Kremmer′s challenge was to navigate the complex bureaucracy of the local communist authorities in which the most direct question would be answered with elaborate obfuscation. Ordinary Lao people, too, were loath to be questioned on such matters. Those members of the royal family still living in the country, now as ordinary people, were less than keen to make a fuss or draw attention to themselves...Kremmer was lucky to find alive a former prison inmate and, with his help and the aid of others, is able to tell the extraordinary story of the final moments of the royals. If there is sympathy for them, it is for individuals whose accidental birthright bestowed privileges but also made them victims of history. Among the themes of Bamboo Palace is a familiar one, although it′s no less potent for that: it′s easy to snuff out human lives, tougher to extinguish the spirit of a people. In January this year, the Lao government declared a national holiday in honour of the 14th-century Lao king, Fa Ngum, who founded the dynasty they wiped out." - Paul Bailey, The Bulletin, September 10, 2003
"Award-winning journalist Christopher Kremmer pieces together the deaths of three members of the Laos royal family who disappeared immediately after the communist government took control in 1975. Continuing on from Stalking The Elephant Kings, he provides a convincing account of the last days of a royal dynasty that can be traced back to the 14th century." - Jane Roscoe, Sun Herald, October 19, 2003
"Now this is what I call a travel book: a journey of exploration in the jungles of Laos, searching for the lost royal family, which disappeared when the Vietnamese-backed Pathet Lao toppled the US-backed monarchy in 1975. Until now, it appears that nobody much cared what happened to this particular royal family or thought there was political mileage to be gained in discovering its fate. When Kremmer first started exploring Laos on occasional leave from his job as a newspaper correspondent in Vietnam, he became fascinated by the beauty and history of the former royal palace in Luang Prabang. When he describes it as ‘‘the still eye in the typhoon of Indochina′s history′, you know you are with a writer who not only appreciates the ethos of the country he is exploring, but who also has the words to express that appreciation. He first wrote about his sojourns into Laos in Stalking the Elephant Kings, a book that ended with a failed quest. His search for the truth of the fate of the Lao royal family was originally met with obfuscation and officials who were "armed with rubber stamps". After publication of the book, however, he was put in touch with a former colonel of the Royal Lao Armed Forces, Khamphan Thammakhanty, who told Kremmer what he knew: he was there in the camp, in the remote province of Houaphen, where the royal family was kept secretly for several years, until one by one they died of hunger and neglect and a final defeat of the spirit. While a tough old journo such as Kremmer wouldn′t dream of casting himself as Marlow in Heart of Darkness, (but) for me it was hard to resist the image. - Dianne Dempsey, The Age, October 4, 2003
"With his award-winning travelogue Stalking the Elephant Kings, Kremmer went close to discovering the truth about Laos′s dark past even though he was hindered by its secretive government. He returned seven years later to find out what happened to the 600-year-old dynasty overthrown in 1975 by the communist Pathet Lao. This was never going to be an easy task in a nation where no one seems to know what happened to the King but, Kremmer foreshadows, "There was one person who knew. And one day, he would speak." Kremmer was sent a document by Khamphan Thammakhanty, a former colonel in the Royal Lao Armed Forces, and the last known survivor of a secret prison known simply as Camp Number One. A total of 30,000 people were incarcerated in such camps and as many as a third of them were starved or executed, or died from lack of basic medical care. The two prisoners of great interest to Kremmer, and the people of Laos, were King Savang Vatthana and Queen Khamphoui. The King and Queen were brought to the prison "for their own safety" but Khamphan knows the true story. He not only reveals a nation′s dark past, but shows that little has changed. Political prisoners are still detained. In 1999, five students taking part in the first anti-government protests since the fall of the monarchy were arrested and "the Lao Government has refused to reveal their fate, or publicly acknowledge that they have been detained." Kremmer writes as though his own life depends on it, and it makes Bamboo Palace an immensely powerful account of Laos′s tumultuous history and uncertain future." - Patrick Cullen, Newcastle Herald, December 13, 2003
"Kremmer is passionate about South-East Asia and following the success of his award-winning Stalking the Elephant Kings, he′s on the trail of the lost 600-year-old royal dynasty of Laos. His quest takes him from Vientiane and Luang Prabang to Portland, Oregon, and he maintains the pace of a forensic investigation as he discovers there is as much to learn from the Lao community in far exile as could be discovered in the mouldering towns and steamy jungles behind the bamboo curtain." - Susan Kurosawa, The Australian′s Weekend Review, December 6, 2003
"Leaving Luang Prabang, Christopher Kremmer fittingly observes, is always a melancholy experience. From Henri Mouhot, the first European to visit this fabled royal Laotian city in 1861, to the backpackers who have discovered its charms in recent years, Luang Prabang is one of those rare places that are even better when experienced than in advance billing. And not only Luang Prabang, for Laos, as the author makes clear, offers many rich experiences. Vientiane, the capital, has a limited visual charm by comparison with the old royal capital, but few will fail to be impressed by its great Buddhist stupa, the Pha That Luang, a golden mass that shimmers in the morning sun and is thronged by pilgrims during a festival each November. Then there are the ancient ruins at Wat Phu, in southern Laos, some older than the famed Cambodian temples at Angkor, where Kremmer paused after searching for the truth about what had happened to the King of Laos and his immediate family after the Communist government took power at the end of 1975. At the heart of this book is an investigation into the melancholy experience that ended in the deaths of King Savang Vatthana, his wife, Queen Khamphoui, and their son, Crown Prince Sisavang, after they, too, left Luang Prabang. Exiled to a remote and unhealthy prison in northern Laos, first the crown prince, then the king and finally the queen all died, victims of of the harsh regime under which they were forced to live. Bizarrely, the Lao People′s Democratic Republic has never officially confirmed their deaths, though they have been mentioned by senior government figures in unofficial conversations. Few foreigners who enjoy Luang Prabang′s gilded Buddhist temples and colonial buildings in its superb setting beside the Mekong River know much of the dark side of recent Laotian history. And what happened to the Laotian royal family was only one thread in the web of tragedies that enveloped Laos after 1975. No one can be sure how many Laotians were sent to re-education camps because of their association with the losing side in the complex political and armed struggle that ended in 1975. Certainly the number was not fewer than 30,000 and the conditions under which they were held were harsh. Indeed, a strong case can be made that the losers in Laos suffered more severely than those sent to re-education in Vietnam. Strikingly, those who were confined, if they survived, seem to have been hardened in spirit. This was certainly the case with the old, grizzled former colonel I met in Pakse in 1997 who had been imprisoned for 13 years but who said proudly, "They had my body, but never my soul". In his earlier book Stalking the Elephant Kings - at a rough estimate making up some 70 per cent of the present volume - Kremmer came closer than any previous writer to discovering what had happened to the Laotian royals, but he still lacked many details about exactly what had occurred. Now, armed with further information from a colonel in the royal army, Khamphan Thammakhanty, who shared the king′s confinement, he has provided readers with a definitive account. There is more to the book than the solving of a mystery. Fascinating characters bob in and out of the narrative and events seen and heard are described sympathetically, none more so than the account of the royal puppets being brought back to life in a ceremony in Luang Prabang. Sadly, these puppets that could once be seen within the Wat Xieng Thong compound have also vanished from view. Like the king and his family, they seem to have been regarded as too great a reminder of a very different past." - Milton Osborne, Sydney Morning Herald, September 20, 2003
"Christopher Kremmer follows the success of The Carpet Wars with a return to Laos documenting, with the testimony of a former colonel, the re-education, incarceration, ordeals and deaths of King Savang Vatthana, Queen Kamphoui and Crown Prince Sisavang after the communist victory of 1975. It is a grim tale. While the royals were the most notable victims, there were so many others - in Laos as well as the better-known conflicts and horrors of Vietnam and Cambodia. - Tony Baker, The Adelaide Advertiser, November 15, 2003
"Bamboo Palace is an extraordinary book that blends Christopher Kremmer′s enchanting portrait of a poor, land-locked country with the testimony of the last known survivor of the royal death camp. It reveals in graphic detail one of a tragic region′s most moving, and until now, secret stories. Masterfully told in sensitive and at times lyrical prose, it is the story of two men - a writer and an inmate - whose determination re-wrote our region′s history." - Coaldrakes Books
"Christopher Kremmer has spent more than a decade attempting to find out the fate of the missing Lao royal family. In his quest he′s travelled through steamy jungles, battled bureaucratic red tape, stumbled his way in damp hidden caves and opium dens, discovered ancient arts and finally found the answers in the most unlikely of places - in his Sydney garage at home." -- ABC Radio "Asia Pacific" program
"Christopher Kremmer′s absolutely absorbing book about contemporary Afghanistan, Kashmir and Iraq, The Carpet Wars, was short-listed for last year′s The Courier-Mail Book of the Year Award, so fans of that excellent read will be keen to get more of this talented journalist. Bamboo Palace is a portrait of Laos, moving along from Kremmer′s Stalking the Elephant Kings to find out what did happen to the Lao royal family." - Rosemary Sorensen, The Courier Mail
"An investigative journey through the Lao People′s Democratic Republic, Christopher Kremmer attempts to find out what happened to the Lao royal family, deposed after the Vietnam war. Kremmer spends three months travelling through Laos, asking questions. The only replies, however, are whispers - contradictory whispers. What he hears speaks not only of the fragility of life, but of the fragility of a people and their culture. The author tells the story of the Lao royal puppets, locked away and languishing. Yet for one performance, the puppeteer painstakingly unwraps each one, and ceremoniously brings them to life. Kremmer′s description is exquisite. Here he has found the metaphor for the royal family. We glimpse another world, another time - destroyed by the post-1975 Lao revolution. Kremmer - journalist and author of The Carpet Wars - has been in many hot spots around the globe, yet he believes it′s in the ′cold spots′ (places no longer making news) that some of the best stories can be found. In Bamboo Palace, Kremmer searches for the universal voice, ′one of thousands lost in the abyss of war and revolution: a voice of resilience and survival and faith.′ He finds it, in the testimony of Khamphan Thammakhanty, a salt trader′s son - the last known survivor of the royal death camp. It is Khamphan′s testimony - worthy of a book in its own right - which is gripping. The author′s travelogue serves simply as a device to hold the more powerful story." - Michele M. Gierck, Eureka Street, December 2003
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In the dying days of the Vietnam War, a royal family is rounded up and flown by helicopter to a remote prison camp. Behind the bamboo curtain erected by victorious communist guerillas, the tragic final days of an Asian king and his dynasty will play out. Bestselling author of The Carpet...
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