A remote village in laos high above the clouds the people here speak their own language. Time seems almost to have stood still. We meet a family that is holding fast to the old traditions while also making small steps out into the wider world. Today is a special day a photographer has come to the village. But i want to go right. To. The father how caring has wanted a family photo like this for a long time. He wants to put it in a golden frame and hang it up at home. With. His youngest son is only rarely here hes been living on his own since he was 11 when he moved to a town in the valley to attend school. For girls of the family will probably spend their lives here on the mountain like their older brothers. The family have pinned their hopes and can launch the youngest son as their best hope for a different and easier life for the younger generation. For the women of the family the day begins with starting a fire cooking and feeding the pigs. Yeah yeah. Yeah yeah you gotta look at every little thing. Not much of clashing sometimes they sell a pig to a neighbor to bring in a bit of money. That goes to help support the youngest son. Apart from that the family are subsistence farmers. One of the neighbors pigs has snuck into their yard. Has plenty of time to relax. Is one. Your choice has chores that keep her busy from dawn to dusk. Among the odd cup people of the mountains of laos fetching wood is womens work. For the women of the family walking without carrying the heavy load on their back is too leisurely so they spin cotton along the way. And in the past aka women were not supposed to wear shoes. Your choice still prefers it this way. It was hard. I went to school until 3 then my father died and i had to work with my mother. And i had to do all the mens work such as chopping down big trees. I built myself a letter out of branches so i could reach them i worked very hard as hard as i possibly could and we still didnt have enough rice to last the family the entire year. Old double up for long after my mother died i married my husband hes rather old but he said that if i married him he would take care of me and my younger sister. Hes 12 years older than me. He now. How. You choice. Is 59 years old. Ok way. To mourn me. I had my 1st daughter when i was 23 my 2nd when i was 24 and my 3rd 25. After that i had a child every year 15 pregnancies in all. Because i had so many children i looked much older than my age almost like you knew i had to work very hard because i didnt want my children to go hungry. While in la. That you might. But. You. Know. What. The law. Was going to hide on her. Own mother. And her. Good. To. Her not to let it warm her. Family. Love her. One of her daughters in law has stayed home to cook a midday meal for the family. Gets me to do it with them i got away because all i. Do is. To do mom theyre going to do my one line. For my head all the clothes. All the muscles that wouldnt want. Done. Oh i go there. Every meal includes vegetables and rice breakfast lunch and dinner sometimes there are eggs and rarely some meat. The lauzon family eat in the kitchen. The parents and the oldest son sit it one table. A little bit on the other side on the daughters in law and the grandchildren sit at the other. 12 people live in this house and all. That. Much of life is governed by custom and tradition from the seating arrangements of meals to the womens dress to the work they do their daily routine and their festivals. How can keeps a close eye on things. Hes a member of the Village Council of elders and a former village chief. And although no one says so directly hes also the shah men. Any this is a fortune teller. Did not if someone is old and very sick then i can know the day of their death by looking at this. May head. Find that i can make these predictions but he would not be good for me to tell someone else that bad luck is coming either way anybody. With a. New. Neighbor comes to fetch him a child is sick with a high fever. The family says the boy was frightened in the forest and his soul left him and now the spirits are trying to lay claim to him they want the shah meant to prevent this. Instead of entering the child the spirits will be lured into a doll made of paper gold tobacco and rice will entice the evil spirits. Of the. Good food. The soul of the baby chick is supposed to enter the child. The chick is also sacrificed to the evil spirits. Before you get. Him. On the floor of the idea of. God or might you have thought oh my god you know you i now do with all the day. I was doing. It then you get. The evil spirits are now inside the paper dog the shaman is removing her from the village. Clock the sword will ensure that they remain banished from the village that afternoon the fever is gone and the child feels better he took a pill a fever reducing medication but as far as the villages are concerned thats an irrelevancy. More than 30 years ago pal can pick this hilltop as the location for the village canyon song by. 3 sacred trees mark the spot. Were not allowed to cut these trees. Even the tiniest cut is forbidden no one can cut any of these trees and if you cut there youre also cutting here. The treats are sacred. If someone cuts them somebody in the village will get sick but tigers will come from the forest to eat or kill our animals c. Theres no electricity Running Water roads or neighbors. The arca have maintained their traditions over centuries c c. But how can also experienced a different way of life when he served in the military. And. I say so i thought in the vietnam war for this country and for the people of laos for 16 years. My pop of the night before to liberate the country in the people being on my home i was a soldier fighting our enemies mali when i was in the Locker Company shut down 6 airplanes. Over there behind the hamilton thats where i was when the planes arrived i thought. That my who we were not. Is. Harder than anyone in the province. Want to. Go if i hadnt returned to the village. Id be a Government Official by now was i me. None. Pucking 2nd son has just become a father again its his 5th child he lives next door. So sad. Because it did your wife give birth already. Knows how much how long is the baby crying a lot right across is she in the baby a well. Thats a different way they. Also. Get to know you. Ringback must learn after the harvest the rice needs to dry under the sun every day at night put back into the sacks. When the women work the men take care of the youngest children. Good. Women move to their husbands village when they marry. They begin wearing the traditional dress and start adding to its decoration. Lets. Bring in a. New choice had to sew each of our 3 daughters in law a full custom. Job or i. Mean. Lining up that people are right there if. They do what. I did. My mother in law is old so she doesnt want to wear bright colors like us she doesnt want to outshine her daughters in law. Then yet and i also added that if we cant take off the headdress even when we go to sleep. To lead them at that and we cant comb our hair or wash it when we want to only on certain days moving out back out. The most forbidden day is the birthday of our parents and our parents in law. That would mean they wished for their deaths. 100 women have a lot of work i cant even listed all. I had to go to the rice fields cut firewood carry water do the washing feed all the animals. Theres no set bed time who just go to bed when weve finished all our work with a guy. That also includes their highly skilled production of textiles. They make dyes for their clothing out of wild indigo plants and slike to line. Up. During the day one of the women is always at the wooden machine to separate the cotton from it seams then comes the spinning weaving and dying every family in the village produces their own clothes and. Often we cant find the white limes so we have to buy from someone else and we make our clothing out of cotton fabric. The fabrics have to be hung to dry for more than 12 months before we can make clothing out of them but yet you like. Them. That. You share and her husband have 5 children. The youngest is 2 the oldest 10. Am i cant remember the 1st time i went to have billets. To. Move until i married when i was 22 years old. She was 21. Then i 1st met her at the new year. But we shouldnt talk about such things. When our parents are around its not good to talk about things like this. Its embarrassing. Even sitting next to each other in front of the parents is considered unseemly. Theyve been living in this house as a married couple for 11 years. Now king and you choi 2 of their sons their wives and 6 grandchildren live in this house. We are the parents. We can sleep in the same room but others have to be in separate rooms. Well they will call it. Cooking though my 1st daughter in law sleeps over there separate from my son this is the room up off 1st sons wife she sleeps beside the kitchen. Put in the 2nd son doesnt live here anymore. The 3rd son his wife sleeps here and he sleeps over there. You have. To pick on him no daughter in law may sleep on this side is not allowed by know. How king has sent his sons out to look for a location for a new rice field. After 3 years the soil is depleted. Then the old rice field is abandoned and forest is cleared for a new one. The men also have a task to do when they head out on a longer mission. They hunt for wild animals and birds. Their brother in law was accidentally shot while he was out hunting. They found a spot for the new rice field how can told them they need to start clearing the ground straight away. Not give you what day is it today and i know today is the day of the pig which is a good day and thats why we need to start clearing now we want to start on a good day well known that they will come back in about 2 or 3 days time to start clearing properly. It was. Itll take 20 days to finish clearing this field its hardly well when you live here. Until i dont think. Theyll clear all the way to the crest of the hill as soon as the rice is growing well they will conduct a sacrifice to the spirits. Of all but their heart when the rice plants have grown to about 50 centimeters we slaughter for chicken skin all for the ceremony one will have to be a white chicken like chickens to feed the spirits in this area the 2nd chicken is for the hot in the field the 3rd chicken is for all the animals around the field and the 4th for all the plants in the trees. They all need horses and cows to bring the harvest in later in the year. This year our rice field will be closer to the village when last year was over there this year its here but this years harvest brought us more than 100. 00 bags of rice but it takes around one to 2 hours to get them up there. By you know. Before they head home the brothers put markers down. That way the other villagers will know that their family is now farming this section of land. The familys youngest son 18 year old ken lawn has come for a visit. He brought with him some t. Shirts jackets and trousers which people from the town of gave him who want. C to celebrate the visit the women are making a large meal. Today they were in the kitchen. Just believing that. They will say what took the mobile phones away and they had a flat tire on the way to look once a rich pop song village i bought a new one from an old man im trying to put ill have no carriage so i had to change myself yes. But he has a bit too and if you know. His best childhood friend has come over here. He wants the same haircut. Kenya is one of only 3 boys who left the village of 300. 00 residents to continue their studies after finishing primary school. Its a solo place and we would like him to go to university but we dont have money for that hell finish high school this year or many here i dont want him to come home i want him to work for the government hey you want to head to head i used to work for the government but i gave that up to come back to the village me to be so i want my youngest son to continue what i began. Patting him cornel west and poke me. Thinking to do that rather. Than. Money i used to be in love with a girl from the uk i dont know any more. But you know i live in functionally it where there are many different ethnic groups it is you know a little unique you i know im not just limited to be aka. The new d. N. A. Whatever name or. I dont. I dont want American Girl im alien functionally and the women of beautiful lead. In them and anything thats in town that he can choose whether to follow our culture or not thats fine for him but not for us for us older ones we cant stop anything according to our tradition. To be you in the future if my parents are still alive only invite him to live in time with me ill take care of them once i have a job and earn some money and they know they have us here in their behavior no need for cobol contingent i dont know what ill think they will move to turn over again but im not sure of my brothers will go to buy my little boy and im going to before the new Caldwell County and if i know. The question of who might want to move away as a hot topic in the village. Every 3 months a medical student visits the village to carry out vaccinations and to distribute vitamin a and medications against worms. The village is remote far from any hospital or doctor. You know when someone is seriously ill and the path is impassable due to heavy rain theres no way to get medical help. Thats why the village chief wants to have the village relocated further down the mountainside. They would have access to a paved road as well as electricity and Running Water. 30 families live in the village not all of them want to move some because they dont have the money. Others because they fear that they will lose touch with their culture and traditions. And the name calling on the governor said that is village chief accountant who leave the village we have to move together you are going to move on my own i would have done that already. On a quick no nannie. If they want to move. We have enough to stay here if they go theyll go but well stay so calm while the chief isnt here anymore and we just keep living here and. They hold fast to their traditions the ceremonies the sacrifices of animals to ward off bad luck and their relationship to the spirits and to their ancestors was. No. Room. For. The biggest taboo in our culture is one that they are not permitted to mention within the confines of the village. It is. Its a topic that the older people always told us we shouldnt talk about at the level of only the elders can talk about it. Well you who when there are a pregnant women in the house they must never hear anything about this topic its so terrible i mean people hate it as much as will make the food. Cocoa wanted to cali its always been this way. If you give birth to twins the family cant stay in the village. And they cant move to another village either. You know we know you wasnt in the old village had twins once and we took them away and carried out all the ceremony so he. My son in law the parents who give birth to twins have to build a small hut in the forest next to a small stream net that would have even when we bring them food we cant look at her talk to them so we just say here is food for you. Were not allowed to say anything about their family when we bring them food. We talk as though we were talking to ourselves and to the trainees. Not going well it looks. Almost they try to talk to us were not allowed to respond. Oh you know well touch on and thats what we believe what they did about you know we mustnt talk about this topic in the village its forbidden. We cant raise twins even if someone wanted to force us to. Hell thats our culture. Although i long that there be. 4 years ago Government Officials came to not post sun village. They came to ask if we could change. And i thought but even if the government requests this of us we cant change this anymore that we cant raise twins we have to respect our traditional culture a known that. A president otoh all people are never allowed to step across the river where they buried the twins did almost all day a gotcha cooma low life move. But just not going to get an idea. Of the parents of twins are permitted to return to the village after they have killed their newborn twins. Their home is burned down with everything it contains coming for an entire year no one is permitted to speak to the couple. Of people believe that only animals can give birth to more than one baby at a time. When a woman gives birth to twins an evil spirit must be at work. Around noon or. Its. Your choice cousin has died. A member of the family must attend the funeral which is being held in a village on a nearby hill located partway to town. The boy. King mum the youngest son is leaving. He wont visit again for a month. The funeral ceremony began a week ago. The figure on the horse represents the deceased. On the 2nd horse some of his belongings will accompany him on his final journey. The deceased rides into the forest where he will be buried at night. With. The shaman must kill the water buffalo with a single stab of the spear as part of the ritual sacrifice. To make sure the family continues to prosper the head of the buffalo must be noisily brought to the roof. The. The more prosperous the deceased the longer the funeral ceremony lasts and the more animals that are sacrificed. The. Cut. Off. Was. The the. Whole. When i die i will have 2 horses to ride. And about 6 or 7 cattle will be slow to the shore but the about midnight here me ive done so much and i work for the government. But so with my funeral isnt the biggest i wont rest well if. I want my funeral to be the biggest 180 if i call would you know. The tom. Young mum still has a 3 hour drive ahead of him. He has to go into the valley and cross the lake in order to reach town. Hall. Peak and. Its a journey into another world a world hes been living in for 7 years now in which he hopes to make his future. King mum has some rice in his bags. To. Her. Every morning the residents of funk sally are woken by a news broadcast through the loudspeaker courtesy of the socialist government here. Ken mum remembers how coming to live here on his own at age 11 was a bit frightening but also exciting. Back then he found a grandmother an elderly woman without any family in town. She cooked for him sometimes and let him watch t. V. He only comes to the market hall to shop on special occasions he cant afford most of what sold here. He has the rice he brought from home and cooks meals for himself in his room in 6 months will finish his high school degree. Saying ill do my best to get a high score on the leaving that day so that i can go to university to be hand and see that he says a full on. Only the top 3 in his class will get a scholarship. 37 students are competing for can long doesnt want to disappoint his father a fine. Young. Man my dream is to study something about i t a he and yet they may become a Police Officer you have been but my father doesnt really should pull those ideas under our ship but you know as a people in the end my financial situation will determine whether i can go to university all note we dont have the money for it. He cant imagine returning to the village. After 7 years in town hes left behind the customs and traditions of the village high above the clouds. Long gets up early every morning to exercise. But i dont think ill go to university then i say overcome a dry. Oh if it began. What would that mean for his family who have such high hopes for him. Bad. Or good work as a show for you in money to. You know i want to have money a bar van and operate a shuttle service. Is determined to earn a living. He and his friends from school are making plans for their future. Were turning to the village is no longer an option. Even if he leaves the traditions of the uk up people behind hell have fulfilled his fathers hopes. His life in town will certainly be easier than in the village above the clouds. Lul. Whove. Gone. On cool gather for byron a high flyer for Germanys National t. V. Series 2000 new freedom and it will be previously played thats right up there in time and where josh sargent is in the starting blocks ready to go. In 30 minutes d. W. Picturesque french some beautiful beaches. Romantic council and Nuclear Power plant. That most people in france approve little using Nuclear Power and its part of the countrys national identity. More no more. Minutes on the. First. Take a trip on us to go Christmas Market hopping with d. W. Moon and. Airfare and hotel duty for you and a guest. Just tell us which german street is your favorite. Whats the most beautiful place in germany. What would you like to explore most of winter check in at g. W. Dot com slash travel good luck and enjoy the sun. 13 years after the fall of the berlin wall november night w. Took to. This is the news and these are out top stories the white house has called for an immediate halt to turkeys strikes against codes in syria and threaten sanctions against turkish officials it comes a week off to washington announce the withdrawal of u. S. Troops from Northern Syria the codes reached out to syrias