Dimensions
155 x 233 x 21mm
It began as a travelogue, turned into a mystery, and finally made history.
Christopher Kremmer's travels in Laos became a quest to solve one of Indochina's enduring puzzles - the fate of a 600-year old dynasty overthrown by communist guerrillas in 1975. His adventures produced the award winning travelogue, 'Stalking The Elephant Kings'. But frustrated by a secretive regime, he failed to solve the mystery - or so he thought.
Long after leaving Laos, the author was sent a document written by a former inmate of a communist prison camp. By then, Kremmer had moved on, reporting from Afghanistan, Kashmir and Iraq and writing his bestselling account of chaos along the old Silk Road, 'The Carpet Wars'. The prisoner's story lay collecting dust in a garage for five years until the author returned home to Australia, realised its importance, and decided to make one last effort to solve the mystery.
The result is 'Bamboo Palace', an extraordinary book that blends the authors enchanting portrait of a poor, landlocked country with the last known survivor of the royal death camp.
For 14 years, Khamphan Thammakhanty, a former colonel in the Royal Lao Armed Forces, was held incommunicado in the jungles of north-eastern Laos. Never charged or convicted of any crime, he was among forty people incarcerated in the country's highest security prison. Only four survived.
Among the prisoners in that forbidding gulag were the king, queen and crown prince of the "Kingdom of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol".
'Bamboo Palace' reveals in graphic detail one of a tragic region's most moving, and until now, secret stories. A definitive account of the fate of the monarchy, it closes a chapter in the history of a country where history itself has been held prisoner for almost thirty years.
Masterfully told in sensitive and at times lyrical prose, it is the story of two men - a writer and a prisoner - whose determination made history. It will amply reward those familiar with Kremmer's previous work, and new readers of one of Australia's most talented authors.
