Located in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Luang Prabang, Lao PDR, the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) is a local social enterprise founded in 2006 to promote the appreciation and transmission of Laos’ ethnic cultural heritage and livelihoods based on traditional skills.
The Centre’s primary activities are two-fold: a museum, and fair-trade handicrafts stores directly linked with artisan communities across Laos. TAEC’s work includes school outreach activities, craft workshops, lectures, and research. The Centre has expanded to include a growing collection of ethnic minority artefacts, a small library, family activity centre, and outdoor patio space for special events.
TAEC has emerged as a regional leader in cultural heritage management and community development. It is the only independent resource and learning centre for both foreign visitors and local citizens dedicated to the country’s many and diverse ethnic groups.
Today, the Centre is engaged in a broad range of community engagement activities, reflecting our commitment to supporting living ethnic minority communities to preserve and promote their cultural heritage while looking towards the future. Explore our website to learn more about our work:
Developing engaging and professional permanent and temporary exhibitions;
Fostering learning and awareness through education and community outreach;
Documenting masterpieces of material culture in our collection;
Supporting sustainable income-generation opportunities through our advocacy and livelihoods programmes; and
Conducting and facilitating research in and with ethnic communities.
Education and Community Outreach
Promoting awareness and understanding of Laos’ ethnic diversity and cultural heritage within local communities is a priority for TAEC. The Centre is free for Lao citizens, and runs a range of Lao-language tours and activities for students and other local visitors throughout the year. We have welcomed students of Big Brother Mouse, the Children’s Cultural Centre, the Teacher Training College, Souphanouvong University, and local schools. TAEC also runs a primary school outreach programme, in which our staff visit local classrooms to show objects from our collection and discuss issues around cultural diversity and identity.
Committed to building capacity across all parts of the community, TAEC also provides professional development opportunities for workers in the culture and tourism sectors. The Luang Prabang Provincial Tourism Department invites TAEC to run a workshop for trainee tour guides, focusing on sensitive and mutually beneficial interaction with ethnic minority communities. TAEC also provides specialised museum and heritage management training, and has to date worked with the staffs of the Phongsaly, Sekong, Xieng Khouang provincial museums, and Champassak Provincial Tourism Department to support them in creating exhibitions, managing their collections, and working with local communities.
Our Collection
TAEC is home to an internationally significant collection of over 539 objects representing over 27 distinct ethnic groups. The collection is comprised of traditional clothing and domestic textiles, jewellery, household items, handicraft tools, baskets, religious and ritual objects, and other items. The collection is documented, stored, and maintained according to international museum standards.
We soon hope to feature artefacts from our collection here on our website. In the meantime, please visit the Virtual Collection of Masterpieces, where a selection of TAEC’s most significant pieces is profiled.
Research
TAEC conducts primary research in ethnic communities, developing close relationships to localise and enrich the information collected. TAEC’s own team visits the field at least twice a year to document festivals and special events, record oral histories of community elders, research artefacts in our collection, and explore future exhibition themes. This research informs our exhibitions, is shared with students and academics, and is recorded in film, photographs, and written accounts in the TAEC library.
TAEC field trips have taken our research teams to the far ends of the country, from Phongsaly to Houaphan to Attapeu. TAEC has also commissioned and collaborated with researchers including Dr. Jacques Lemoine, Dr. Yukino Ochiai, and the staff of the Centre for Ethnic Studies and Development at Chiang Mai University. For the “Voices of the Wind”, ethnomusicologist and researcher, Dr. Marie-Pierre Lissoir, collected over one thousand photographs, videos and recordings. In 2018 TAEC was also commissioned to conduct a cultural inventory in Dakcheung District of Sekong Province, an important step to safeguard cultural heritage in a quickly changing environment.