The River of Many Names, Chapter 4, Mae Nam Khong (2025 - ongoing)

Throughout recorded history, rivers have been sites where land, livelihood, story, and belief intersect, shaping how human societies relate to water and landscape. The Mekong River, known by many names as it flows across different regions, carries multiple layers of cultural and ecological significance. Along its course, serpent-associated figures appear in local belief systems as guardians or ancestral presences, reflecting enduring relationships between water, landscape, and the ways it is imagined and remembered.

The River of Many Names, Chapter 4, Mae Nam Khong is part of a long-term research project on the Mekong River, unfolding across multiple sites and chapters that examine how landscapes are formed through acts of naming, belief, and repetition.

Focusing on Naga guardian sites along the Mekong River in Luang Prabang and Vientiane, the work traces locations where cultural memory, ecological presence, and spiritual narratives converge within the landscape. Each site functions as a point through which relationships between place, perception, and cultural inscription become visible.