<figcaption>Phu Sang map</figcaption>

Locat­ed in the north­ern Laot­ian province of Phongsaly, the Phu Sang is home to mys­te­ri­ous Tibetan-Burmese sub­groups belong­ing to the Akha (Iko) group, lit­er­al­ly the inter­me­di­ate or in-between peo­ple. The Tibetan-Burmese of Laos is of rare eth­nic com­plex­i­ty since they are divid­ed into 33 groups, includ­ing the Akha, Sila, Sida, Pous­sang, Keu, Alou, Black Lolo, Hayi, Ho, Pounoy and Mousseur. The Akha them­selves are divid­ed into 22 sub­groups, with a pop­u­la­tion of 30,000 in Phongsaly province.

<img alt="The Opa of Phu Sang" src="https://www.secretindochina.com/upload-images/programmes/phu-sang/phu-sang-opa-1578316874.jpg" />
<figcaption>The Opa of Phu Sang</figcaption>

The Phu Sang, or Ele­phant Range, extends a dis­tance of 100 kilo­me­ters long and 40 kilo­me­ters wide on a north-south axis par­al­lel to the Nam Ou Riv­er. Ris­ing to an alti­tude of 1,300 meters, it is dis­tin­guished by its unique human rich­ness; with­in a rel­a­tive­ly small area, there are about 15 minor­i­ty groups and sub­groups belong­ing to the four main eth­no­lin­guis­tic fam­i­lies of Laos: Tibeto-Burmese, Aus­tro-Asian, Thai-Kadai and Hmong-Dao. The Black Thais and Laos live in the val­leys, the banks of the Nam Ou or its trib­u­taries, while the Khmu, Akha and Akha Hmong Akha set­tle on the ridges and peaks on the east­ern edge of the mas­sif. The Akha are in the major­i­ty and divid­ed into sev­en sub­groups: the Loma, Opa, Pala, Nu Quay, Muchi, P’u Sang and Puli.

<img alt="Elephant" src="https://www.secretindochina.com/upload-images/programmes/phu-sang/elephant-mountain-1578316889.jpg" />
<figcaption>Ele­phant</figcaption>

<img alt="The Opa people of Phu Sang" src="https://www.secretindochina.com/upload-images/programmes/phu-sang/phu-sang-opa-2-1578316906.jpg" />
<figcaption>The Opa peo­ple of Phu Sang</figcaption>

In addi­tion to its unique pop­u­la­tion, the Phu Sang stands out for its land­scapes and nat­ur­al envi­ron­ments. To the north, long lines of par­al­lel ridges plunge towards the South with steep val­leys. A pri­ma­ry for­est lies to the west, with moun­tains and wood­ed val­leys where ele­phants can be found. To the east, a set of steep peaks over­look the myth­i­cal Nam Ou Riv­er and, less than 100 kilo­me­ters away, Viet­nam and the Dien Bien Phu val­ley. This loca­tion has giv­en the Phu Sang nat­ur­al bar­ri­ers that have pro­tect­ed its inhab­i­tants over the past decades.

<img alt="Northern Phu Sang" src="https://www.secretindochina.com/upload-images/programmes/phu-sang/northern-phu-sang-and-opa-villages-1578316524.jpg" />
<figcaption>North­ern Phu Sang</figcaption>

In 1937, the Taupin guide to French Indochi­na described the Phu Sang as fol­lows: The ter­ri­to­ry extends over the upper and mid­dle Nam Ou basin, an impor­tant trib­u­tary of the Mekong with it con­flict­ed upstream and around Luang Pra­bang. It is only an inex­tri­ca­ble entan­gle­ment of steeply slop­ing moun­tains, more than three-quar­ters of them bare, sep­a­rat­ed by ravines and val­leys, real ditch­es where mul­ti­ple arroyos wind their way through ragged forests. These are that pro­jec­tions, con­fused ele­va­tions of hills, peaks, cones, nip­ples, pyra­mids, which extend as far as the eye can see, over­lap, stretch and undu­late one behind the other…

In ancient times, the Phu Sang relied on the leg­endary Khmu king­dom, the Aus­tro-Asian group endem­ic to Laos, for sur­vival. It was enclosed by the three Thai prin­ci­pal­i­ties: to the north and west by Siphong Pan­na (South Yun­nan); to the east by Siphong Chaû Taï, lit­er­al­ly the coun­try of the 12 provinces with its cap­i­tal at Dien Bien Phu; and to the south by the king­dom of Luang Pra­bang. The Siphong Chaû Taï even­tu­al­ly annexed the Phu Sang area, and they suc­cess­ful­ly defend­ed the region against the Dai Viet and the king­dom of Luang Pra­bang until the end of the Indochi­na war. This remark­able feat was main­ly due to the skill of its lead­ers, the Deo fam­i­ly, and their alliances with the French colo­nial admin­is­tra­tion. Phu Sang was briefly con­trolled by the king­dom of Luang Pra­bang before becom­ing the south­ern part of the French 5^th Mil­i­tary Territory.

<figcaption>The Opa of Phu Sang</figcaption>

In the 1930s, with an ephemer­al peace reign­ing in the Phu Sang, the French cut path­ways along the ridge­lines to con­nect the com­mu­ni­ties and facil­i­tate the set­tle­ment of the area by a Reinette, a maqui of the Groupe­ment de Com­man­dos Mixtes Aéro­portés (GCMA), a spe­cial unit cre­at­ed by the French in Indochi­na. On Decem­ber 18, 1957, Phongsaly offi­cial­ly became a province of the Roy­al Gov­ern­ment of Laos. Dur­ing the Secret War in Laos, the south­ern part of the mas­sif was bombed by B‑52s. Since 1975, some vil­lages have been regrouped into com­mu­ni­ties along the path­ways, while oth­ers, notably the Opa, remain rel­a­tive­ly isolated.

<img alt="Western Phu Sang" src="https://www.secretindochina.com/upload-images/programmes/phu-sang/western-phu-sang-1578316959.jpg" />
<figcaption>West­ern Phu Sang</figcaption>

Secret Indochi­na orga­nized sev­er­al sur­vey mis­sions to this enig­mat­ic area in the 1990s and 2012 and has offered trekking and immer­sive pro­grams since 2013.

<img alt="Southern Phu Sang" src="https://www.secretindochina.com/upload-images/programmes/phu-sang/SOUTHERN%20PHU%20SANG%20(2)-1578387074.jpg" />
<figcaption>South­ern Phu Sang</figcaption>

<img alt="" src="https://www.secretindochina.com/upload-images/programmes/phu-sang/2013%20-%20AKHA_LAOS-1577702632.png" />