Laos

I

INTRODUCTION

Laos is an officially Lao People’s Democratic Republic, independent state of Southeast Asia. Formerly part of the Indochinese Union, also known as French Indochina, Laos gained independence in 1953. The country was drawn into the Vietnam War (1959-1975), and
in 1975 a Communist revolutionary movement overthrew Laos’s six-century-old monarchy and established a people’s republic. Laos is a mountainous, landlocked country, bounded on the north by China, on the east by Vietnam, on the south by Cambodia, and on the west and northwest by Thailand and Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). It is rich in resources and has an ethnically varied population. The official language is Lao, and the capital and largest city is Vientiane (Viang Chan).

II

POPULATION AND SOCIETY

Laos has a population of 6,677,534 (2008 estimate), yielding a population density of 29 people per sq km (75 per sq mi). The population is increasing rapidly at a rate of 2.34 percent per year. Births, at 35 per 1,000, significantly exceed deaths, at 11 per 1,000, while life expectancy at birth is 56 years. These trends have created a youthful nation: More than 45 percent of Laos’s people are under the age of 15. If the current rate of growth continues, Laos will have a population of nearly 10 million by the year 2025. About one-quarter of Laos’s people live in mountainous regions. The rest live in upland valleys or on the flood plains of the Mekong and its tributaries. Just over three-quarters of the population live in rural areas, although the proportion of people living in urban areas is steadily increasing.

Vientiane is the capital and largest city of Laos. Louangphrabang, the former royal capital, is an increasingly popular tourist destination. Other major cities are the regional capitals of Savannakhét in central Laos and Pakxé in the south.

A

Ethnic Groups

More than a hundred indigenous ethnic groups and subgroups inhabit Laos, many spilling across borders into neighboring countries. Small minorities of Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indians also live in Laos, mostly in urban areas.

The Lao government has classified Laos’s many indigenous groups into three broad categories: the Lao Lum, the Lao Thoeng, and the Lao Sung. The Lao Lum (lowland Lao) account for 66 percent of the population and comprise those groups who live at lower altitudes, speak Tai languages, and practice wet-rice cultivation. Major groups in this category include the ethnic Lao, who make up just over 50 percent of the total population of Laos; the Leu and the Phu-tai; and the Black Tai and the Red Tai, so called because of the colors of their traditional costumes. Modern Lao and Tai ethnic groups descended from Tai peoples who migrated to the Southeast Asian peninsula from the north, arriving in the area of present-day Laos by the 10th century.

The Lao Thoeng (Lao of the mountain slopes) make up 24 percent of the population, live at medium altitudes, speak Mon-Khmer languages, and practice slash-and-burn agriculture. They are believed to be Laos’s earliest inhabitants, having migrated to the area from the south in prehistoric times. The principal members of this group are the Khamu and the Lamet in northern Laos, and the Laven, Sedang, and Nyaheun of the Bolovens region in southern Laos.

The Lao Sung (Lao of the mountaintops), who make up the remaining 10 percent of the population, migrated to Laos beginning in the early 19th century, making them the most recent arrivals among the ethnic groups. They live at high altitudes in northern Laos, where they also use slash-and-burn methods of farming, and speak either Tibeto-Burman or Hmong-Mien languages. The Hmong (also known as the Meo or Miao) are the most numerous and politically influential of the Lao Sung. Others include the Mien (or Yao), Akha, and Phu Noi.

B

Language and Religion

The official language of Laos is Lao, which is written with an alphabet derived from a southern Indian script. The indigenous languages of Laos fall into four major groups: the Daic or Tai-Kadai languages, Mon-Khmer (a subgroup of the Austro-Asiatic languages family), Tibeto-Burman (a subgroup of the Sino-Tibetan languages family), and Hmong-Mien. A number of the languages and dialects spoken in Laos have never been properly studied by linguists. Some of these languages are spoken by only a few thousand people.

As a state that nominally embraces Communism, with its opposition to religion, Laos has no official religion. Nevertheless, a large majority of the population practices Theravada Buddhism. Even members of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party attend Buddhist ceremonies. The wat (Buddhist temple and associated monastery) forms both the religious and social center of most lowland Lao Lum villages. Animism (a belief in spiritual forces) was once practiced throughout Southeast Asia and is still practiced by many upland dwellers. Most Lao Thoeng and Lao Sung are animists, although some have converted to Buddhism. Among the Lao Lum, only a few Tai groups are animists. A few Lao practice Christianity, both Protestant and Catholic, and there is a mosque in Vientiane for the tiny Indian Muslim community.

D

Education

Education for the Lao Lum traditionally took place in the wat, where Buddhist monks taught boys the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion. Other ethnic groups did not have traditions of formal education. Under French rule, from 1893 to 1953, education was limited to urban elite. From 1953 to 1975, the royal Lao government developed a modern education system with a Lao curriculum, but even so it catered to only about one-third of the school-age population. When the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party came to power in 1975, it placed great emphasis on education, especially on eradication of illiteracy. It had few resources, however, and standards fell.

By 2000, the literacy rate stood at 64.8 percent. Almost all Lao Lum children of school age attend primary school for six years, and 44 percent continue on to secondary school for an additional six years. The school attendance rates for Lao Thoeng and Lao Sung children are considerably lower, however, and the goal of universal education is still some way off.

Laos has one university, the National University of Laos (1997), located in Vientiane. Regional technical colleges are located in Louangphrabang, Savannakhét, and Pakxé.

III					ECONOMY

Gross domestic product (GDP in U.S.$)	$3.44 billion (2006)
GDP per capita (U.S.$)	$596.80 (2006)
Monetary unit	1 new kip (NK), or Ngeun Kip Mai, consisting of 100 at
Number of workers	2,355,832 (2006)
Unemployment rate	2.6 percent (1995)

The traditional Lao economy was based on agriculture, handicraft production, and trade. Indeed, for centuries before Europeans arrived, flourishing local and long-distance trade networks had linked Southeast Asia with East and South Asia. It was the prospect of controlling the lucrative Asian trade in spices and other luxury goods that initially lured the French and other Europeans to Southeast Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries. Later they also hoped to exploit the region’s natural resources. However, French efforts to develop Laos economically in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came to little, as they quickly concluded that Laos’s terrain made commercial agriculture and mining difficult. The civil war that followed independence in 1953 further impeded economic development. Even today, a large majority of Lao still engage in subsistence agriculture. Industry is limited to small-scale manufacturing of consumer products, though clothing and textile products have become a significant export. Government revenue is insufficient to cover expenditure and investment in infrastructure development, leaving the deficit to be met by foreign aid. The principal aid donors are Japan, France, Sweden, and Australia. In the late 1980s the government opened the economy to foreign investment. As a result, the average growth rate between and was percent, and by 2006 Laos’s gross domestic product (GDP) had climbed to $3.4 billion. Average GDP per capita rose to $596.80, compared to $725.30 in Vietnam and $511.30 in Cambodia. Like the economies of other countries in the region, the Lao economy suffered badly when the value of several Asian currencies fell sharply in the late 1990s.

A

Agriculture

Agriculture is the principal economic activity in Laos, contributing 42 percent of GDP. Only 4 percent of Laos’s total land area is cultivated, but 80 percent of the cultivated land is planted in rice (both glutinous and white). Other crops include corn, coffee (the only substantial export crop), soybeans, sugarcane, and sweet potatoes. Cotton, tobacco, and cardamom are also grown. The government encourages animal husbandry, and livestock numbers have steadily increased since the late 1970s. Lao farmers raise water buffalo, cattle, pigs, horses, goats, and poultry.

C

Forestry and Fishing

Timber is a major export for Laos, with production estimated at 6.1 million cu m (217 million cu ft) in 2006. Some timber is processed as sawn boards and plywood, but most is exported in the form of logs. Despite government attempts to regulate and manage the industry, illegal logging and smuggling of timber remain widespread. Fish is an important item in the Lao diet, but the catch of 107,800 metric tons (in 2005) is sufficient only for local consumption.

D

Mining, Manufacturing, and Energy

Laos produces few minerals, although mining yields small amounts of tin, gypsum, rock salt, and coal. Exploration has located reserves of coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, silver, and gemstones, as well as small deposits of other minerals. Manufacturing is limited to sawmilling, rice milling, brick making, and production of consumer products such as cigarettes, detergents, matches, plastics, beer, and soft drinks. Foreign investment spurred growth in the garment industry: In the 1990s more than 40 garment factories opened in the Vientiane area. Energy production offers the best prospect for increasing exports. Laos already exports to Thailand most of the 1 billion kilowatt-hours of power that it currently generates, 97 percent of it in the form of hydroelectricity.

E

Transportation and Communications

Laos has no railroads and an inadequate road system totaling only 31,210 km (19,393 mi). Maintenance is poor, and most roads are not paved. However, Laos is strategically situated in the middle of the Southeast Asian peninsula, and international funding is helping to upgrade roads linking Thailand with Vietnam and southern China through Laos. River transport remains important, and Laos has 4,620 km (2,870 mi) of navigable inland waterways. In 1995 Laos and Thailand opened the first bridge between their countries across the Mekong River. Air transport links all provincial capitals, and Lao Aviation offers a limited international service. Radio and television broadcasting are government monopolies, supplying programs to 145 radio receivers and 9 television sets per 1,000 people. The country’s three daily newspapers are state owned, with a combined circulation of only 18,000. Only 13 in every 1,000 people have telephones.

IV				HISTORY
A		The Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang

A Lao prince named Fa Ngum founded the kingdom of Lan Xang in the mid-14th century. The name Lan Xang, which means “a million elephants,” was chosen to inspire fear among lesser rulers at a time when elephants were the principal engines of war. Fa Ngum had been exiled by his grandfather, the ruler of the principality of Louangphrabang under the Mongols, and raised in the Cambodian capital of Ângkôr. In 1351 he was given a Khmer princess in marriage and a Khmer army with which to reconquer his rightful heritage. On his line of march, Fa Ngum drew together all the small Lao principalities (meuang) to form a powerful kingdom that could hold its own against the surrounding powers of Burma (now Myanmar), Vietnam, the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya, and Cambodia.

Fa Ngum set about organizing and strengthening his kingdom. Theravada Buddhism, which was already known to the Lao, gained royal support from Fa Ngum’s Khmer queen, though animist cults worshiping local spirits (phi) were still strong. Buddhism legitimized kingship by characterizing the monarch as one having great merit, while kings reciprocated by endowing Buddhist monasteries. But Fa Ngum became too autocratic and demanding, and was deposed in favor of his son.

In the 15th century Lan Xang suffered from internal weakness, and in 1478 a Vietnamese army invaded Lan Xang, seizing and sacking the capital before being driven out. The kingdom was restored by King Vixun, a powerful and capable ruler. Vixun brought a golden Buddha image known as the Phra Bang to his capital city. The king’s Buddha became a symbol of the Lao state, and his capital came to be called Louangphrabang, or Great Phra Bang, in honor of the Buddha. Vixun was a great patron of the arts and of Buddhism. Poetry, literature, music, and dance flourished during his reign.

Briefly in the mid-16th century, the kingdom of Lan Na, centered on Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, was absorbed into Lan Xang. But the Lan Xang king at the time, Xetthathirat, was renowned more for his valiant defiance of the Burmese than for ruling Lan Na. Twice during Xetthathirat’s reign, Burmese armies ravaged Lan Xang, and twice they were driven from Lao soil. Xetthathirat moved the Lao capital south to Vientiane, a site more defensible than Louangphrabang and more central, for by this time Lao settlers had migrated into southern Laos (Champasak) and across the Khorat Plateau into what is now northeastern Thailand. Xetthathirat beautified his capital by building the great That Luang stupa and a temple to house his own favorite Buddha image, the Emerald Buddha. At the height of his power, however, Xetthathirat went too far in his military ambitions. He invaded Cambodia and disappeared when his army was routed. In the ensuing anarchy, Laos fell to the Burmese.

The Lao kingdom recovered in the 17th century under the great king Surinyavongsa. Early in his long reign, Europeans first visited Laos. A Dutch merchant and a Jesuit missionary both reached Vientiane and left admiring descriptions of the kingdom. Both Europeans were amazed at the wealth of the capital and the number of its monks, for Vientiane was a center of Buddhist studies. When Surinyavongsa died in 1695 without an heir, Lan Xang split into three separate kingdoms: Louangphrabang, Vientiane, and Champasak, all of which fell under the suzerainty of the kingdom of Ayutthaya (also known as Siam, later Thailand) during the next century.

In 1767 Burmese armies invaded Ayutthaya and seized and sacked the capital. The Siamese people rallied under King Phraya Taksin, who drove out the Burmese. Taksin was determined to increase the wealth and power of Siam, and to enforce his will over the Lao kingdoms. In 1778 he seized Vientiane and carried off the Emerald Buddha. Both Louangphrabang and Champasak agreed to pay Taksin tribute. When the last king of Vientiane, Chau Anu, tried to reassert his independence in 1827, Thai armies destroyed Vientiane.

B

French Colonization

France seized control of most of present-day Laos from Siam in 1893 and gained the rest in 1907. The French administered the kingdom of Louangphrabang indirectly through its king, while French officials directly administered the rest of the country. They did little to develop Laos, which became the sleepy backwater of Indochina.

During World War II (1939-1945) Japan stationed troops in Indochina under an agreement with the French, who maintained their administration throughout most of the war. In the last six months of the war the Japanese seized control of Indochina and interned French officials and troops. The Japanese granted Laos nominal independence in 1945.

After Japan and its allies lost the war, a nationalist movement known as the Lao Issara (Free Laos) formed an independent government in Laos. However, France reoccupied Laos the following year, and the nationalists fled to Thailand. The French unified their Lao territories into a single country with the king of Louangphrabang, Sisavang Vong, as head of state. Under French supervision, the new government adopted a constitution and joined the French Union. In 1949 France granted Laos partial independence and extended an offer of amnesty to the nationalists in exile, most of who returned to the country. A few dissidents under the leadership of Prince Souphanouvong, however, allied themselves with the forces of the pro-Communist Vietnamese liberation movement known as the Viet Minh, who were still fighting the French. The Lao dissidents called their movement Pathet Lao (Lao State). When Viet Minh forces invaded Laos in 1953, they handed over large areas of the country to the Pathet Lao. France accorded Laos full independence in 1953 as a constitutional monarchy, the Kingdom of Laos. Delegates to the 1954 Geneva Conference, who were negotiating France’s withdrawal from Indochina at the end of the First Indochina War (1946-1954), endorsed the country’s independent status.

C

The Kingdom of Laos

By 1954 the Communist and non-Communist blocs of the Cold War era had begun to take shape. The United States, as the leader of the non-Communist countries, was particularly concerned with limiting the advances of Communism in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, France wished to maintain the power of the Lao elite who had cooperated with the French colonial government. Under the terms of the Geneva Accords, the Pathet Lao and the territories they controlled were to be integrated into the rest of the country under the rule of the royal Lao government. The accords declared a cease-fire between the forces of the French Union and those of the Pathet Lao, and called for the Pathet Lao to withdraw their forces to the two Northern provinces under their control. An International Control Commission was set up to monitor the truce. Meanwhile, negotiations were begun to include the Pathet Lao in the political life of the country. In November 1957 the neutralist prime minister, Prince Souvanna Phouma, at last reached an agreement with his half-brother, Prince Souphanouvong, to form a coalition government that would include two Pathet Lao ministers. The two Pathet Lao provinces were returned to royal government administration. By this time French influence in Laos was waning, and the United States, opposed to any accommodation of the pro-Communist Pathet Lao, backed a right-wing, anti-Communist group that ousted Souvanna Phouma’s government and rigged new elections. The ouster led the Pathet Lao to resume guerrilla warfare in 1959.

In the renewed fighting, the Pathet Lao enjoyed the support of Communist bloc countries, while the United States supplied military aid to the right-wing forces. As the political situation deteriorated, a Lao army paratroop commander in the neutralist camp, Captain Kônglae, overthrew the U.S.-backed government and brought Souvanna Phouma back to power. The United States encouraged a rightist Lao military strongman, General Phoumi Nosavan, to drive Kônglae’s forces out of Vientiane and establish a rival government. Kônglae thereupon allied with the Pathet Lao, and together the neutralists and Communists soon gained control of more than half the country. Faced with this catastrophe, U.S. president John F. Kennedy agreed to accept the neutralization of Laos. A cease-fire was arranged, and a new 14-nation conference convened at Geneva in 1961. After prolonged negotiations the leaders of the three main Lao political factions (Pathet Lao, neutralist, and pro-Western) agreed to form a second coalition government led by Souvanna Phouma. The coalition government took power in 1962.

During the next two years Souvanna Phouma’s government came under increasing pressure from both the left and the right. Consequently, the neutralists themselves split, left-wing ministers left the government, and by 1965 the country had returned to civil war. As the war in Vietnam escalated, Laos became increasingly important to both North Vietnam and the United States. Both sides violated the neutrality of Laos: the North Vietnamese by infiltrating troops and supplies down the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail through eastern and southern Laos; and the United States by secretly bombing the trail and by recruiting, financing, and training a mercenary force of Hmong tribesmen to fight the Pathet Lao in northern Laos. As the war dragged on, the bombing of Laos became heavier and the Hmong 'secret army' sustained terrible casualties and had to be reinforced by Thai mercenaries. Both North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces also suffered terrible losses.

As the United States sought a way to end the Vietnam War, the Pathet Lao strengthened their position in Laos and negotiations began for a cease-fire. Early in 1973 the Lao political factions agreed to a cease-fire and, in April 1974, formed a third coalition government, this time with equal representation from the right and left. Soon, however, the Pathet Lao gained political dominance. After Cambodia and South Vietnam fell to Communist forces in April 1975, the Pathet Lao used the opportunity to seize power in Laos.