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I knew there was a church in the village. What I didn't know was whether or not it still had any meaning to the people who lived there. Decades of suppression may well have destroyed its influence. Once over the pass, we continued along the roughly cobbled trail into the valley and soon the village came into sight. As we approached, the tinkling of cow bells that had accompanied us faded and I had my answer. Clearer and clearer came the sound of singing from inside the church.

That's the opening paragraph of a short travelogue I wrote several years ago. Luduke is the name of a small Hmong village in Yunnan, China. It's notable for its Catholic Church, one of several similar churches built in the area by the French in their days of colonial expansion. This post will start a series of posts about the Hmong, as I plan to visit their areas again in January 2005. This time I hope to see a little more of Northern Laos.

These are the full set of notes printed in 1975. They are shown here as the same size, but actually they range from 10cm X 5cm to 16cm X 8cm. They were printed under the Pol Pot regime but not issued until its overthrow in 1979. I assume they were printed in China as they are similar to Chinese designs of the same period. A couple of things I think are noteworthy about the notes is one, their militarism, and two, the prominence given to Angkor Wat.

Along with the various combat scenes, it's interesting to see the Kymer Rouge working closely with the peasants. They are never shown helping the factory workers. As for Angkor Wat, I think its prominence here belies the idea of the Kymer Rouge taking Cambodia back to the year zero. Pol Pot obviously wanted to set up Cambodian society along Maoist lines, but he was also drawn to revive the glories of the Angkor empire. Notice that Angkor Wat as depicted here is not a jungly ruin but vital and imposing.

I should also link to Yale University's photographic database of the Tuol Sleng victims. This is a chilling site.

This article about innumeracy among the Piraha is incredible.

I remember a story about counting crows. In order to rid a field of crows, a farmer walked into the field with his gun but the crows flew away. The stayed away until they saw him leave. Then the farmer had a friend accompany him into the field and when they reached the middle, where the crops were high and they were hidden, the friend walked back alone leaving the farmer hidden in the field with his gun. The crows still kept their distance until the farmer lost patience and returned home. He tried again with two friends, three friends and so on until finally the farmer gathered together seven friends. They all made their way to the middle of the field and after a short while they all returned leaving the farmer alone with his gun. This time the crows returned to feast on the crops and the farmer let loose with his shotgun.

The story sounds apocryphal. What farmer would go to so much trouble to get rid of a few pests? I seached the net for confirmation and I found this page which has several interesting anecdotes of bird intelligence. The parrots mentioned here outstrip the Piraha in numeracy.