Touby Lyfoung

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Touby Lyfoung (1919 – unknown) was a Hmong political leader. He was born in 1919 in Nong Het, Laos. Throughout his life, Touby Lyfoung was guided by a great sense of community service, which led him to be a military leader in times of war, and a political leader in times of peace and in his older age. In 1945, he organized the anti-Japanese resistance in the Xiangkhoang plateau. In the 1950's, Lyfoung's role was critical in shaping the newly independent Kingdom of Laos as a nation acknowledging the diversity of its 63 ethnic minorities while being united as one country. Touby Lyfoung was the first Hmong and ethnic minority person to be honored by the King of Laos, when he was appointed Minister to the King, with the title of Phagna Touby Lyfoung. In the 60's and 70's, Lyfoung continued his lifelong fight for the Hmong people's dignity and freedom in Laos, he took sides with the Royal Lao Government to fight the Communists in Laos and led a Hmong anti-Communist movement against the Pathet Lao. After the takeover of Laos by the Communist Pathet Lao in 1975, Touby Lyfoung decided not to the flee the country that he had helped built and where his Hmong people first found legitimacy after centuries of wandering through Asia. He deeply loved and believed in that country, and stayed despite the dangers of genocide. He was arrested and sent to a reeducation camp along the Vietnamese border where he died at an unknown date estimated to be in the late 70s to early 80s.