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a remote village in laos high above the clouds the people here speak their own language. time seems almost to have stood still. we meet a family that is holding fast to the old traditions while also making small steps out into the wider world. today is a special day a photographer has come to the village. when

i was over there and i had put it on. the father how can has wanted a family photo like this for a long time. he wants to put it in a golden frame and hang it up at home. with. his youngest son is only rarely here he's been living on his own since he was eleven when he moved to a town in the valley to attend school. the girls of the family will probably spend their lives here on the mountain like their older brothers. the family have penned their hopes and king long the youngest son as their best hope for a different and easier life for the younger generation. for

the women of the family the day begins with starting a fire cooking and feeding the pigs. you yeah. yeah yeah you gotta look at them on a saturday. much of clashing sometimes they sell a pig to a neighbor to bring in a bit of money. that goes to help support the youngest son. apart from that the family are subsistence farmers. one of the neighbor's pigs has snuck into their yard. so. has plenty of time to relax. because his wife your choice has chores that keep her

busy from dawn to dusk. and. among the are cut people of the mountains of laos fetching wood is women's work. for the women of the family walking without carrying a heavy load on their back is too leisurely so they spin cotton along the way. and in the past aka women were not supposed to wear shoes and your choice still prefers it this way. that.

was hard. i went to school until grade three then my father died and i had to work with my mother. i had to do all the men's work such as chopping down big trees. i built myself a letter out of branches so i could reach them. i worked very hard as hard as i possibly could and we still didn't have enough rice to last the family the entire year. long after my mother's. i married my husband he's rather old but he said that if i married him he would take care of me and my younger sister. he's twelve years older than me he now he now. how. you troy's is fifty nine years old. i can't wait. to

mourn me. i had my first daughter when i was twenty three my second when i was twenty four and my third twenty five. after that i had a child every year fifteen pregnancies in one because i had so many children i looked much older than my age almost like you knew i had to work very hard because i didn't want my children to go hungry. while in la. that you might. you know you can. live in the land of the one who. told me he. was going to hide on.

me. and her. were. over. this morning. to love her. one of her daughters in law has stayed home to cook a midday meal for the family. gets me to do it with them i got away they got all i could probably. do it i did him on the elevator with my

one on. my head on a close. all the money that didn't want. to turn. oh i go there every meal includes vegetables and rice breakfast lunch and dinner sometimes there are eggs and rarely some meat. allowed in family eat in the kitchen . the parents and the oldest son said it one table. in front of you all the way i would love it full on the other son the daughters in law and the grandchildren sit at the other. twelve people live in this house and all. that. much of life is governed by custom and tradition from the seating arrangements at meals to the women's dress to the work they do their daily routine and their festivals.

how can keeps a close eye on things and. he's a member of the village council of elders and a former village chief. and although no one says so directly he's also the shonen. i mean this is a fortune telling. footage not if someone is old and very sick then i can know the day of the death by looking at this. mate head. it's fine that i can make these predictions but it would not be good for me to tell someone else that bad luck is coming their way they would be off. with a. new.

neighbor comes to fetch him a child is sick with a high fever. the family says the boy was frightened in the forest and his soul left him and now the spirits are trying to lay claim to him they want the shah meant to prevent this. instead of entering the child the spirits will be lured into a doll made of paper gold tobacco and rice will entice the evil spirits. well you know last week i see that. the soul of the baby chick is supposed to enter the child.

the chick is also sacrificed to the evil spirits. that need to get. him. down there or to i go. oh my you have thought oh my god we're going to become you i hang out with all that to. do a bit of it. then you get. the evil spirits are now inside the paper dog the shaman is removing her from the village. because the sword will ensure that they remain banished from the village that afternoon the fever is gone and the child feels better he took a pill

a fever reducing medication but as far as the villages are concerned that's an irrelevancy. more than thirty years ago pal can pick this hilltop as the location for the village canyon sung by. three sacred trees marked the spot. that. we're not allowed to cut these trees. even the tiniest cut is forbidden no one can cut any of these trees and if you cut there you're also cutting here. but if the trees are sacred. if someone cuts them somebody in the village will get sick but tigers will come from the forest to eat

or kill our animals. there's no electricity running water roads or neighbors. the arca have maintained their traditions over centuries. but parking also experienced a different way of life when he served in the military. and he hoped. i thought in the vietnam war for this country and for the people of laos for sixteen years. my pop of the night before to liberate the country in the people being on my home i was a soldier fighting our enemies mali when i was at the loc a company shot down six airplanes. over there behind the harm out in that's where i was when the planes arrived i thought. my who we were not that is. i fought harder than anyone in the province.

if i hadn't returned to the village. i'd be a government official by now was i me a lot of our enemy. none. poking second son has just become a father again it's his fifth child but he lives next door. so sad. because it did your wife give birth already. knows how much how is the baby crying a loss why the car is she in the baby a well. that's it about why they. also.

must learn after the harvest the rice needs to dry under the sun every day at night it's put back into the sacks. when the women work the men take care of the youngest children.

i hope the. women move to their husbands village when they marry. they begin wearing the traditional dress and start adding to its decoration.

and. that's. going to. be a choice had to sew each of her three daughters in law a full costume. shortly. i mean not that you'd rather not do that if. they do what. i did. my mother in law is old so she doesn't want to wear bright colors like us she doesn't want to outshine her daughters in law. then you're going to. tell her that if we can't take off the head dress even when we go to sleep. and he led them out that and we can't come our hair or wash it when

we want to only on certain days well now i have got. the most forbidden day is the birthday of our parents and our parents in law. that would mean they wished for their deaths. oh and i met a lot of young women have a lot of work i can't even listed all. i had to go to the rice fields cut firewood carry water do the washing. feed all the animals. there's no set bedtime who just go to bed when we finished all our work. that also includes their highly skilled production of textiles. they make dyes for their clothing out of wild indigo plants and slike to mine.

during the day one of the women is always at the wooden machine to separate the cotton from it seems then comes the spinning weaving and dying every family in the village produces their own clothes and. often we can't find the white limes so we have to buy from someone else and we make our clothing out of cotton fabric the fabrics have to be hung to dry for more than twelve months before we can make clothing out of them but did you like. him. that. she and her husband have five children. the youngest is two the oldest ten. am i can't remember the first time i went to have billets. until i married when i was twenty two years old. she was twenty one. i first met her at the new year. but we shouldn't talk about such things.

when our parents are around it's not good to talk about things like this. it's embarrassing. even sitting next to each other in front of the parents is considered unseemly. they've been living in this house as a married couple for eleven years. how can you choice two of their sons their wives and six grandchildren live in this house. make up. we are the parents. we can sleep in the same room but others have to be in separate rooms. but many will call it. an end of. my first daughter in law sleeps over there separate from my son this is the room up off first son's wife she sleeps beside the kitchen. putting the second son doesn't

live here anymore. the third son his wife sleeps here and he sleeps over there. you have. to pick on him my daughter in law may sleep on this side is not allowed by you know . how king has sent his sons out to look for a location for a new rice field. after

three years the soil is depleted. then the old rice field is abandoned and forest is cleared for a new one. the men also have a task to do when they head out on a longer mission. they hunt for wild animals and birds. their brother in law was accidently shot while he was out hunting. they found a spot for the new rice field how can told them they need to start clearing the ground straight away.

and i give you what day is it today and now that i know today is the day of the pig which is a good day and that's why we need to start clearing now we want to start on a good day. and that there will come back in about two or three days' time to start clearing properly. it was. halt so it will take twenty days to finish clearing this field homu of any millionth you know. until i am there is enough time you know i. will clear all the way to the crest of the hill as soon as the rice is growing well they will conduct a sacrifice to the spirits. of all but when the rice plants have grown to about fifty centimeters we slaughter four chickens for the ceremony one will have to be

a white chicken like chickens to feed the spirits in this area the second chicken is for the heart in the field the chicken is for all the animals around the field and the fourth for all the plants in the trees. they all need horses and cows to bring the harvest in later in the year being. this year our rice field will be closer to the village we last year was over there this year it's here but this year's harvest brought us more than one hundred bags of rice but it takes around one to two hours to get them up there. by you know. before they head home the brothers put markers down. that way the other villagers will know that their family is now farming this section of land.

for. the families youngest son eighteen year old ken long has come for a visit. he brought with him some t. shirts jackets and trousers which people from the town of gave him to want. her.

to celebrate the visit the women are making a large meal. today they were in the kitchen. only in that. job but they will say that i took the mobile phones away and they have a flat tire on the way to look once i reach park song village of a new one from an old man i'm trying to get but i have no carriage so i have to change myself yes. but he hasn't visited and if you know the right one of. his best childhood friend has come over here. he wants the same haircut. kenya is one of only three boys who left the village of three hundred residents to continue their studies after finishing primary school. it's based on what somebody would like him to go to university but we don't have money for that he'll finish

high school this year so many here i don't want him to come home i want him to work for the government you would have to help in fact i used to work for the government but i gave that up to come back to the village me to be so i want my youngest son to continue what i began. paddy. cornel west any whom. you did you know that. the. money i used to be in love with a girl from the uk i don't know any more than they love you but you and i live in forms of it where there are many different ethnic groups it is you know a little unique you i know i'm not just limited to the aca you and me. of a nato. and

. i don't want american girl i'm alien functionally and the women are beautiful they're. young. men peanuts in town then he can choose whether to follow our culture or not that's fine for him but not for us for us older ones we can't stop anything according to our traditional set to be you in the future if my parents are still alive are all invited in to live in time with me i'll take care of them once i have a job and earn some money and dave you know they have us there any member here. you know you call going to jail i don't know what i don't think they will move to turn over a city but i'm not sure of my brother's will go to it by now it will be and i'm going to before i knew caldwell county and if i know what.

the question of who might want to move away is a hot topic in the village. every three months a medical student visits the village to carry out vaccinations and to distribute vitamin a and medications against worms. the village is remote far from any hospital or doctor. when someone is seriously ill and the path is impassable due to heavy rain there's no way to get medical help . that's why the village chief wants to have the village relocated further down the mountainside. they would have access to a paved road as well as electricity and running water.

thirty families live in the village not all of them want to move some because they don't have the money. others because they fear that they will lose touch with their culture and traditions. to naenae calling on the government should the israeli chief account simply leave the village we have to move together. they're going to move on my own i would have done that already. know now they if they want to move let's go by we have enough to stay here if they go they'll go but we'll stay. while the chief isn't here anymore we just keep living here and.

they hold fast to their traditions the ceremonies the sacrifices of animals to ward off bad luck and their relationship to the spirits and to their ancestors. was. the biggest taboo in our culture is one that they are not permitted to mention within the confines of the village. they hit it it's a topic that the older people always told us we shouldn't talk about. only the elders

can talk about it. well you who when there are pregnant women in the house they must never hear anything about this topic we have it's so terrible i mean people hate it as much as war. hemo popo wanted a californian it's always been this way. that if you give birth to twins the family can't stay in the village. and they can't move to another village either. you know you know you've got a cousin in the old village had twins once and we took them away and carried out all the ceremonies he. my one of them all the parents who give birth to twins have to build a small hut in the forest next to a small stream net that would have even when we bring them food we can't look at or talk to them so we just say here is food for you. we're not allowed to say anything about their family when we bring them food. we talk as though we were talking to

ourselves and to the train is. not going to live up. almost they try to talk to us we're not allowed to respond. oh you know what. that's what we believe. you know we mustn't talk about this topic in the village it's forbidden. we can't raise twins even if someone wanted to force us to. that's our culture. of the you know all along that. the. four years ago you know government officials came to not post sun village. they came to ask if we could change. i was told but even if the government requests this abbas we can't change this anymore that we can't raise twins we have to respect our traditional culture. it grudgingly otoh for all people are never allowed to step across the river where

they buried the twins did it or would there gush a cooma life moved. by god i get an idea. the parents of twins are permitted to return to the village after they have killed their newborn twins. their home is burned down everything it contains come for an entire year no one is permitted to speak to the couple. people believe that only animals can give birth to more than one baby at a time. line is that when a woman gives birth to twins an evil spirit must be at work.

and. your choice cousin has died. a member of the family must attend the funeral which is being held in a village on a nearby hill located partway to town. king mum the youngest son is leaving. he won't visit again for a month. the funeral ceremony began a week ago. the

figure on the horse represents the deceased. on the second horse some of his belongings will accompany him on his final journey. the deceased rides into the forest where he will be buried at night. the shaman must kill the water buffalo with a single stab of the spear as part of the ritual sacrifice. to make sure the family continues to prosper the head of the buffalo must be noisily brought to the roof.

of the car that. the more prosperous the deceased the longer the funeral ceremony lasts and the more animals that are sacrificed. the. last. that was. the the. whole. when i die i will have two horses to ride. and about six or seven cattle will be slaughtered sure but the about midnight here me i've done so much and i work for the government but so much so that my funeral isn't the biggest i won't rest well it partly i want my funeral to be the biggest heartening

and they would do you know. tom. hanging on still has a three hour drive ahead of him. he has to go into the valley and cross the lake in order to reach town. hall. peak cab or. it's a journey into another world a world he's been living in for seven years now in which he hopes to make his future. mum has some rice in his bags.

every morning the residents of fung sally are woken by a news broadcast through the loudspeaker courtesy of the socialist government here . ken mum remembers how coming to live here on his own at age eleven was a bit frightening but also exciting. back then he found a grandmother an elderly woman without any family in town. she cooked for him sometimes and let him watch t.v. . he only comes to the market hall to shop on special occasions he can't afford most of what sold here.

he has the rice he brought from home and cooks meals for himself in his room in six months kingdom will finish his high school degree oh. god saying i'll do my best to get a high score on the leaving saturday and so that i can go to university to be hands on this assay to do at least as a full on. only the top three in his class will get a scholarship. thirty seven students are competing for young mum doesn't want to disappoint his father a fine. young. man my dream is to study something about i t v he and yes but it might be become a police officer you have been but my father doesn't really support those ideas and on the money. but you know there's a point in the end my financial situation will determine whether i can go to university or note we don't have the money for it.

he can't imagine returning to the village. after seven years in town he's left behind the customs and traditions of the village high above the clouds. the. king long gets up early every morning to exercise. the kind of university then i think i'll become bitter. oh i've began and. what would that mean for his family who have such high hopes for him. call coverlid bad tanking common good work as

a chauffeur to earn money to. you know i want to have money i'll buy a van and operate a shuttle service. is determined to earn a living. he and his friend from school are making plans for their future. returning to the village is no longer an option. even if he leaves the traditions of the people behind he'll have fulfilled his father's hopes. his life in town will certainly be easier than in the village above the clouds. lul. who've.

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this is d w news coming to you live from berlin a stark choice for israel in crucial elections sputters are deciding whether to extend the tenure of. prime minister benjamin netanyahu for a fifth term or to shift to a centrist candidate a strong military can the shoulders also on the show guilty verdicts for the defiant leaders of the pro-democracy demonstrations in hong kong their umbrella movement peacefully shut down the city for months in a battle ultimately with beijing.