Sila Viravong Explained

Honorific Prefix:Maha
Sila Viravong
Native Name:ສິລາ ວິຣະວົງສ໌
Signature:Sila Signature.svg
Family:3, including Douangdeuane

Maha Sila Viravong (Lao: ສິລາ ວີຣະວົງສ໌, in Lao pronounced as /sí(ʔ).láː wíː.lā.wóŋ/,) was a Lao scholar of traditional Lao literature, history, and culture.

In the 1930s, backed by the Buddhist Institute in Vientiane and the Buddhist Academic Council, he added an additional set of characters to the Lao script, in order to support Pali and Sanskrit, thereby filling the missing gaps in the existing script.[1] While the Buddhist Institute published books that utilised these extended Indic characters, they did not see widespread usage, and fell out of usage by 1975. In 2019, the extended Indic characters were added to Unicode 12.[2] He designed the current Flag of Laos in 1945.[3]

Personal life

Three of his children, Douangdeuane Bounyavong, Dara Viravong[4] and Pakian Viravong are prominent Laotian writers.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Rajan . Vinodh . Mitchell . Ben . Jansche . Martin . Brawer . Sascha . Proposal to Encode Lao Characters for Pali .
  2. Web site: Lao Characters for Pali added to Unicode 12 Computer Science Blog . 2023-03-01 . blogs.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk.
  3. Book: Stuart-Fox . Martin . Historical Dictionary of Laos . Creak . Simon . Rathie . Martin . 2023-02-06 . Rowman & Littlefield . 978-1-5381-2028-6 . en.
  4. Web site: Igunma . Jana . 11 January 2021 . Inspiring women writers of Laos: (1) Dara Viravong Kanlagna and Douangdeuane Bounyavong . 10 April 2024 . British Library.