Laosລາວ

Tai-speaking peoples moved south from what is now southern China into the Mekong valley over the first millennium, settling among Mon-Khmer groups who were already there. The Khmer empire controlled the south for centuries; its temple at Vat Phou in Champasak is older than Angkor Wat.

In 1353 Fa Ngum, a prince raised at the Khmer court, united the Tai principalities of the middle Mekong as Lan Xang, 'the kingdom of a million elephants', with its capital at Muang Sua, later renamed Luang Prabang after the Phra Bang Buddha image. Theravada Buddhism became the court religion, and the kingdom reached from the Chinese border to the Khmer lands.

King Setthathirat moved the capital to Vientiane in 1560 to escape Burmese pressure and built Pha That Luang, the golden stupa that is now the national symbol. The 17th-century reign of Sourigna Vongsa is remembered as the high point of Lao culture and power.

After 1707 Lan Xang split into three kingdoms: Luang Prabang, Vientiane and Champasak. Siam turned them into vassals in the late 18th century. When King Anouvong of Vientiane rebelled in 1826–28, Siamese armies destroyed the city and deported much of its population to the Khorat Plateau, which is why more ethnic Lao live in north-east Thailand today than in Laos.

France took the lands east of the Mekong from Siam in 1893 and ran Laos as the quietest corner of Indochina, with few settlers and Vietnamese clerks in the administration. The Mekong became a border, splitting the Lao world between French Laos and Siam.

After the Japanese occupation and a brief Lao Issara government, Laos became independent within the French Union and fully in 1953. The Royal Lao Government in Vientiane faced the communist Pathet Lao, allied with North Vietnam, in a civil war shaped by the war next door.

From 1964 to 1973 the United States waged a covert air war to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail and support royalist and Hmong forces led by General Vang Pao. More than two million tonnes of ordnance fell on Laos, making it the most heavily bombed country per person in history. Up to a third of the cluster submunitions failed to explode, and they still kill and injure people every year.

The Pathet Lao took power in 1975, abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The king died in a re-education camp. Tens of thousands of Hmong and others fled to Thailand and on to the United States and France. Market reforms (the New Economic Mechanism) followed from 1986, and Laos joined ASEAN in 1997.

Laos has about 7.8 million people and the state recognises 50 ethnic groups in four language families. The Lao Loum (lowland Lao) grow wet rice in the valleys; Mon-Khmer groups such as the Khmu live on the mid-slopes; Hmong-Mien and Tibeto-Burman peoples live higher up. The old three-way division by altitude is a simplification, but it still describes much of the countryside.

Two-thirds of Lao people live in rural areas. Village life centres on the wat, the rice fields and family networks; a baci ceremony, in which white cotton strings are tied around wrists to bind the spirits of the body, marks weddings, departures, recoveries and welcomes.

Young Lao increasingly look to Thailand for work, television and music; the languages are close enough that Thai media are understood everywhere. Since 2022 high inflation and a weak kip have pushed many to work abroad.

The pace of life is famously relaxed, summed up in 'bor pen nyang' — never mind. Behind it is a strong sense of hierarchy and face: public confrontation is avoided, and elders and monks receive visible deference.

About two-thirds of Lao people are Theravada Buddhists, and the wat is the heart of every lowland village. Young men ordain as novices, often for education; in Luang Prabang hundreds of monks walk the streets at dawn to receive sticky rice in the tak bat alms round.

Belief in phi, spirits of places, ancestors and nature, runs through everyday life. Spirit houses stand at homes and businesses; villages have a guardian spirit shrine; and many highland groups follow animist traditions with shamans and ancestor altars.

The communist government first restricted the Sangha, then brought it under state control and now promotes Buddhism as part of national identity. That Luang, the golden stupa, is on the national emblem.

Buddhist Lent (Khao Phansa to Ok Phansa, July to October) shapes the calendar: monks stay in their temples, weddings are postponed, and the end is celebrated with lantern boats and boat races.

Weaving is the best-known Lao craft. Women weave sinh (tube skirts) with borders that identify region and ethnic group; supplementary-weft silk from Houaphanh and Xam Neua is prized. Co-ops and studios in Luang Prabang and Vientiane now pay weavers directly.

The khaen, a bamboo mouth organ, is the national instrument and the sound of lam, sung poetry; the khaen music of the Lao people is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list. Mor lam performances mix it with electric bands at festivals.

Luang Prabang's temples have steep sweeping roofs coming low to the ground, gilded stencils and glass mosaics, as at Wat Xieng Thong. French colonial houses stand among them; the combination is why the whole town is a World Heritage site.

The Phra Lak Phra Ram, the Lao Ramayana, is performed by the royal ballet troupe in Luang Prabang, and puppet theatre survives through small companies.

Sticky rice is the base of Lao identity; people sometimes call themselves luk khao niao, children of sticky rice. Meals are shared baskets of rice with jeow dips, laap, grilled fish and bitter greens; padaek, fermented fish, seasons much of it.

The Mekong supplies fish, river weed and transport, and it now also powers the economy through hydropower dams, many selling electricity to Thailand. Dams have changed fisheries and flooded villages, and the 2018 collapse at Xe Pian–Xe Namnoy killed dozens in Attapeu.

The Laos–China Railway, opened in December 2021, cut Vientiane to Luang Prabang from a day by road to two hours and links on to Kunming. It is part of China's Belt and Road and a large share of Laos's heavy foreign debt.

Since 2022 the kip has lost much of its value and inflation has been high, making Laos cheap for visitors but hard for residents. Special economic zones, notably the Golden Triangle casino zone in Bokeo, have been linked to trafficking and scam compounds.