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Laos >> Bolaven Plateau Travel Guides
Bolaven Plateau (Phu Phieng Bolaven)
This plateau lies in the northeast of Champasak Province, and extends to Saravan and Sekong Provinces in the north and east. It is known for its spectacular waterfalls, coffee plantations, and its cool weather.
The Laven are the largest ethnic group on the plateau, and ‘Bolaven’ means ‘home of the Laven”. There are other Mon-Khmer ethnic groups living on the plateau, including the Alak, Katu, Tahoy, and the Suay. Katu and Alak villages are unique in the way they arrange their palm-and-thatch houses in a circle. In the old days, elephants were used for clearing land and hauling timber, and it is said that the Suay were the best elephant handlers. Although today there are few working elephants.
There are several Katu and Alak villages that can be visited on the road from Pakse to Paksong in the western part of the plateau, and on the road from Muang Tha Taeng to Beng, in Saravan Province. There are also a few villages near Tat Lo Waterfall that are within walking distance.
It was the French who started the coffee, rubber, and banana plantations in the early 20th century. However, many French planters left in the 1950s after Laos declared independence. During the Vietnam War, both the Americans and the North Vietnamese regarded control of the Bolaven Plateau as strategically important, and in the late 1960s the plateau was one of the most heavily bombed areas in Laos. The slow pace of clearing UXO is continuing, and there is still a large amount of UXO as yet to be cleared.
Local farmers and large companies cultivate coffee, or Kąafeh Lao, as it is called; and fruit, cardamom and rattan are also grown there. Two of the more spectacular waterfalls on the plateau, are the Tat Fan Waterfall and the Tat Lo Waterfall.
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