Saiyabuli province (; ; alternate spellings: Xayabuli, Xaignabouri, Xayaboury, Sayabouli, Sayabouri) is a province in northwest Laos. Saiyabuli town is the capital of the province. Saiyabuli is the only Lao province that is completely west of the Mekong River. (Champasak province also has several districts west of the Mekong River including Mounlapamok, Soukama, and Phontong Districts.)
Etymology
The name is derived from the Sanskrit words jaya ('victory') and puri ('city').
History
In 1904, Siam was forced to cede the area of the province to the French Indochina colony. In 1941, it was annexed by Thailand under the name Lan Chang province, but was returned its pre-war colonial status in 1946. The area is allegedly a heartland for the Laotian military's involvement in the illegal timber trade.
Since the Mekong isolated Sainuyabuli from other Laotian provinces with Hmong villages, the warfare during the Laotian Civil War that affected other Hmong villages largely did not affect Sainyabuli. Most Hmong villages in Sainyabuli did not see any fighting. Houaysouy was a Hmong village in Sainyabuli that had no fighting during the Laotian Civil War, and Vang Pao did not recruit any of its men. After the war, Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, said that the village was "tossed into the political melee along with the rest of the country." The occupying Vietnamese soldiers regarded the residents of the village as traitors and persecuted them. In 1979 around 400 members of the Lee, Vang, Xiong, and Yang clans attempted to escape from the village. The family of Lia Lee, the subject of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, originated from Houaysouy.
Geography
Sainyabuli province is in the shape of a number 7 or an upside-down-L. It covers an area of . The province borders Bokeo province and Oudomxai province to the north, Luang Prabang province and Vientiane province to the east, and (from the south clockwise) the Thai provinces Loei, Phitsanulok, Uttaradit, Nan and Phayao.
The province is mountainous with the Luang Prabang Range running roughly in a north–south direction and forming a natural border with the Thai highlands. The flattest and most tropical Laotian area is the floodplain which stretches between the provinces of Sainyabuli and Champasak. There are many mountain peaks with more than 1.000 meters elevation. Other features include the Pak Kimin ridge near the Nam Heung stream.
Sainyabuli province is home to approximately 75% of the nation's 560 domesticated elephants. They work in the logging industry, which causes a loss in both wild and domestic elephant habitat. The area is little patrolled, which makes the enforcement of conservation measures difficult.
Sainyabuli province is home to the annual Elephant Festival, organised in Hongsa by the Lao National Tourism Authority in partnership with Elefantasia and provincial and district authorities.
Protected areas
The Nam Phouy National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA), a protected area, is home to many wild elephants. The NBCA is in the forested mountains of the Luang Prabang Range close to the border with Thailand and is part of the Luang Prabang montane rain forests ecoregion. The reservoir of lower Nam Phoun Dam is partly within the Nam Phouy NBCA. Elephant monitoring in the Nam Phouy NBCA needs to be improved. In view of the concentration of the largest number of Asian elephants in the province and Laos, the Lao Elephant Conservation Center has been established in Hongsa District. The Nam Phouy NBCA, entirely in the province, is named after Nam Phouy village (or Nam Phoun). It is spread over an area of . Hill ranges reach a maximum elevation of , and are part of the Luang Prabang montane rain forests on the Thai border. Geological formations include Mesozoic sandstones and shales. The habitat is characterized by mixed deciduous forest with an abundance of bamboo resulting from regular forest burning. Afzelia forms at the upper canopy with teak at lower elevations. Apart from wild elephants (about 350), gibbons, gaurs, tigers, dholes, serows, silvered langurs, Asiatic black bears, and Sumatran rhinos are the wild life species reported in the protected area. The protected area was identified by the Government of Laos in the National Elephant Conservation Meeting held in 2008 and WWF has been in the forefront in this effort since 2005. The area is not patrolled much, which makes the enforcement of conservation measures difficult. Elephant monitoring needs to be improved.