Transgender Friendship Bridge Vang Vieng Laos
© by Richard Fisher
Transgender friendships in so many unimagined and surprising ways in Laos.
Opening a whole new doorway into the human condition and a deeply personal level.
A profound level of love and respect never imagined before starting in Laos.
One of the most beautiful evenings in my entire life Vang Vieng.
We did not know if "she" was a girl or a boy but it did not matter.
"She" was just starting her transgender life transition.
Walking in beauty with Beautiful People in Beautiful Places.
I was out by the bridge photographing two lovely tourist on the bridge when the ballon floated over head. In Vang Vieng in the wintertime the breeze blows gently up the river each afternoon just before sunset when several hot air balloons usually make the scenic tour over the town....several boats were tethered to the bridge and a bicycle crossed at that moment as well. I was visiting Vang Vieng Laos with my Chinese girlfriend Summer, and we were "friended" by Pan.
A Honored Third Gender - Transgender photo documentary and heart felt personal story from Laos.
2010-2015
@Richard D. Fisher
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At lasts, since The Caitlyn Jenner transgender story broke in Vanity Fair in the spring of 2015 I felt comfortable in writing and publishing photography and home stay story that I had the blessing and pleasure to experience with my Transgender friend Pan on an island in a large lake in southern Laos in July 2012. I did not feel comfortable publishing it before the Caitlyn story broke worldwide in Vanity Fair, as I had no idea what transgender was exactly and I did not know how I personally and others felt about it as topic for a photographic documentary and story. I did know that Pan was just incredibly person and very enjoyed her company and felt great pleasure in photographing her all around the beautiful countryside of south-central Laos. They say the more beautiful the girls are the more she likes to be photographed, which was dramatically true in Pan's case. "She" was a fully professional fashion lady model in natural, rural as well social settings.
Transgender Transwoman Supermodel at Nam Ngum Lake southern Laos.
Pan Transwoman Transgender Supermodel Laos with documentary art photographer writer
Richard D. Fisher July, 2012
Home Stay visits are one of the tourism activities in remote canyon and mountain areas in south-central Laos. In this case I was invited to do a Home Stay and Temple Offering journey to a remote island in the middle of the largest lake in Laos, the Nam Ngum Lake. The tradition is that children who are of working age take home some gifts for their parents and siblings and gifts for the home village temple. In this case I was going home with with a very beautiful transgender young woman "Pan" who I knew very little about to her beloved Laotian family, a very new type of adventure.
It was very wonderful to see every one dressed in their most lovely traditional clothing, traveling home, and the deep emotions of visiting with their families, city to countryside.
Laos Ladyboy Transwoman Supermodel. "She" was actually quiet a strong and capable person but
moved like a woman naturally. "She" was being observed by me, her new friend and also
her home villagers who she had known all of her life. I was perhaps the first foreigner
they had ever seen, certainly with Pan.
Transwoman Laos Village Island home in Nam Ngum lake.
Laos Lady Family and Home.
"She" said she had grown up a girl along side the other girls and had not really thought about her gender affiliation until she reached puberty. She played girl games with the girls in her home and school. Only when she moved to nearby Vientianen, the capital of the country, did she feel that the "adjustments" she faced were a difficult challenge. It was rather a crisis as she became know as a "lady boy" during her late teen years.
Transgender in Laos, such a beautiful person.
Friends Ladyboy Transwoman Laos walking to the temple to make offerings.
Ladyboy Transwoman Village path in Laos.
Boun Awk Phansa is the last day of the Buddhist lent.
On the first day at dawn, donations and offerings are made at temples around the country; in the evening, candlelight processions are held around the temples and it is the celebration of lai heua fai or Loi ka thong, when everyone sends small lighted ‘boats’ made of banana stems or banana leaves decorated with candles and flowers down the rivers.
These are said to pay respect to the Buddha and to thank the mother of rivers for providing water for our lives. Some believe that the lai heua fai procession is an act to pay respect to nagas that lives in the rivers, while others send the lighted boats down the river to ask for blessing and to float bad luck of the past year away enabling the good luck to flow in. Most towns with a river bank nearby will engage in this lovely ceremony. In bigger towns there are also processions of lighted boats, and the ceremony is more popular especially among young romantic couples. Villagers who live far from rivers set up model boats (made of banana stems) decorated with flowers and candlelight, while others simply light up some candles in front of their houses and do their little prayer wishing for good luck. This colorful rituals have been carried on by Lao people for thousands of years.
Traditionally a Heua Fai like this is made at every temple to mark the end of Buddhist lent - Boun Awk Phansa
In addition, the evening before the boat race is the day the celebrated Naga fireballs are supposed to appear. TheNaga fireballs are a phenomenon peculiar to the Mekong. The Naga is a mythical water dragon believed to live in the Mekong and on the night of 15th day of 11th month in the Lao lunar calendar at the end of Buddhist Lent he is supposed to shoot up pink-red fireballs to signify the occasion. Some believe, while others doubt they are real. Still today there is a festival surrounding this time and certain areas of both the Thai and Lao sides of the river are packed out with willing sightseers, who also take the time to enjoy the multitude of food and drink stands which spring up to cater for them during the festival.
I didn't see any of that when I was there but then probably I missed a lot of local culture due to lack of cultural experience and insight.
The normal temple offerings in small villages in Laos.
Laos Temple Lady. Her heart was really into it.
Lady at Laos Temple.
Another Laos island village in the Nam Ngum Lake.
The photograph below taken February, 2012 to April, 2015.
Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang, Laos.
I was out by the bridge photographing two lovely tourist on the bridge when the ballon floated over head. In Vang Vieng in the wintertime the breeze blows gently up the river each afternoon just before sunset when several hot air balloons usually make the scenic tour over the town....several boats were tethered to the bridge and a bicycle crossed at that moment as well. I was visiting Vang Vieng Laos with my Chinese girlfriend and we were "friended" by Pan.
At the time Summer and I occasionally debated if Pan was a boy or a girl. As it turns out years later he was in transition for male to female during those years 2010-2014. We had not idea what that was at the time but since then we have become educated on the issues, challenges joys and physical discomfort to becoming transgender in Laos and indeed the world. In fact we had never heard the word "transgender" and had no idea what that was. We had just discovered the word "ladyboy" but had no idea what that was exactly either. In Thailand we had gone to a "Ladyboy" or "Kathoey or Katoy" floor show and found it exiting, interesting and colorful but did not know how we felt on a personal level. Laos and Thailand goes to extraordinary lengths to accommodate its transgendered kathoey. Knowing Pan, as a very personal friend, she left us with a good impression for a good start, but it was some years before we had any specific feeling on the subject. The Caitlyn Jenner transgender story helped a lot.
I was relating to Pan as an outdoor model and benefited and enjoyed that relationship more than I can say.
Transgender Umbrella Model in Laos.
Beautiful Transwoman Sexy Transgender. She really knew how to pose. Big beautiful eyes, straight
teeth, lovely lips. She knew how to make up and she made a effort which makes a big difference
in photography.
Pan Transwoman Transgender Vang Vieng, Laos
Laos Lips. She can model the sexy
smile better than anyone I ever
photographed.
Transwoman Pan in Laos. She brought her own colored contact lenses.
Grown proud and beautiful now Transgender Beauty. When I knew her she was exactly what I admired
as a photography model and I encouraged her to stay that way. She wanted to make the full transition and
from these photographs she sent me a few years later it looks like she has. A poised beautiful
woman.
as a photography model and I encouraged her to stay that way. She wanted to make the full transition and
from these photographs she sent me a few years later it looks like she has. A poised beautiful
woman.
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