Upper Xekong is locat­ed in south­ern Laos, in an Annamese cordillera occi­den­tal mean­der con­sti­tut­ed of rugged land­scape, long south­ward ori­ent­ed moun­tain ridges, pro­found val­leys, impetu­ous rivers, unin­hab­it­able forests and myth­i­cal groves: a wild land form­ing a nat­ur­al obsta­cle to the world uncer­tain influ­ences, an unseen Laot­ian small Ama­zo­nia, lost par­adise of some south­ern Pro­to-Indochi­nese Katu clans.

Dur­ing colo­nial times, Upper Xekong is unknown, unex­plored, inac­ces­si­ble, inex­plorable, locked, feared, a tâche-blanche, known as Blood hunters land. In 1938 Colo­nial France final­ly sub­dued and ephemer­al­ly gov­erns, a year lat­er a fierce armed revolt ensued and the region re-col­lapse into dark­ness. Dur­ing Indochi­nese wars, Upper Xekong con­verts in an NVA maquis, essen­tial part of the Hô Chi Minh Trail, con­se­quent­ly severe­ly bombed by USAF and in par­al­lel impact­ed by Amer­i­can secret war under­cov­er oper­a­tions. Odd­ly the leg­endary region per­sist­ed sealed until recent­ly per devel­op­ment-man­age­ment projects appear­ing in its south­ern part. Between 2011 and 2015, Secret Indochi­na pro­duc­tion depart­ment has lead­ed var­i­ous sur­veys in its heart, con­se­quent­ly has cre­at­ed spe­cial ethno­graph­ic and adven­ture pro­grams amongst Katu people.