Fire

One of the newer cash crops for Lao villages is latex rubber. While synthesized rubber is used for most everything in the modern world, some things require real latex.

The manufacture of condoms requires vast quantities of latex. Latex still gets harvested by slicing the bark of rubber trees and letting them bleed into a catch plate. Laos supplies lots and lots of latex, milked from rubber trees that are replacing native jungle.

To clear the ground initially, and to weed the stands of rubber trees, the Lao people use fire, as they have for millennia.

Just outside of Muang Ngoi, I came across this rubber tree stand, recently denuded of understory by the use of fire.

At this time of year, in preparation for the rainy season, Lao villagers are readying new fields.

Lao, and everything in it, smells of fresh woodsmoke.