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Laos is an ancient country, inhabited since Paleolithic times by an ever-shifting mix of Southeast Asian people and tribes. The Lao trace their beginnings to the waning days of the Khmer Empire in the mid-14th century, when Prince Fa Ngum, educated at the court of Angkor, founded the Kingdom of a Million Elephants (in Lao, “Lane Xang”). His successors in the 16th century ruled over a powerful realm which, under King Setthathirat, included within its boundaries northern Thailand, encompassing Chiang Mai, and all of northeastern Thailand's Isaan Plateau.

Dissolved at the beginning of the 18th century the kingdom split into three principalities: Luang Prabang in the north, Vientiane in the central region, and Champassak in the far south. Prey to marauding Burmese, Thai, and Vietnamese armies, and to Chinese bandits, Laos fell on hard times. Whether the establishment of a French protectorate in 1893 over the east bank of the Mekong helped is an unanswerable question. It was, perhaps, inevitable that Southeast Asian or European imperialism would have absorbed the small and quarrelsome Lao states of the time.

France ruled the country until 1954, although the King of Luang Prabang, under pressure from the Japanese occupation forces, proclaimed its independence in 1945. From that later date until 1975 Laos shared in the confused and bloody conflict for power which raged throughout Indochina. On December 2, 1975, the monarchy was abolished and a People’s Democratic Republic was proclaimed under the Lao Communist Party.

Today, Laos is a land of great ethnic and linguistic diversity engaged in trying to forge a cohesive nation. The L.P.D.R. (Lao People's Democratic Republic) is one of the world’s poorest countries and faces daunting tasks in every field of economic development. Yet, for all its small population and fragile economy, its long history and deep Buddhist culture give its people a quiet charm that may surprise visitors.

The U.S. closed its embassies in Saigon and Phnom Penh in 1975, but not in Vientiane. Americans assigned to Vientiane may expect an interesting experience at a growing Embassy in a small country that is reaching out economically and socially to the region and the world.

 The Host Country

Area, Geography, and Climate Last Updated: 7/11/2003 11:36 AM

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic, a landlocked nation, lies in the center of the Southeast Asian Peninsula and borders on five countries: Burma to the northwest, China to the north, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand down the length of its western frontier.

The total land area covers 91,425 square miles, about the size of Oregon. Dense jungle and rugged mountains in the north and east cover 6% of the country’s surface. Mountainous topography is characteristic of all of Laos outside the Mekong River Basin. Phu Bia, in Xieng Khouang Province, the highest point in the country, rises 9,249 feet above sea level.

The Mekong River, with its headwaters in Tibet, flows over 2,600 miles to its mouth in the south of Vietnam. One of the world's great rivers, it forms the country’s western boundary for the greater part of its length and is the cradle of Lao culture. Most major Lao towns are on its banks. The largest population center in Laos removed from the Mekong River is Phonsavanh in Xieng Khouang Province. Lately, the Lao Government has encouraged the establishment of new towns and villages in the country's interior.

Laos has a monsoon climate with three overlapping seasons. The rainy season is about 5 months, June-September. In October, rains start to taper off, and the cool season begins in November, lasting through February. In March “mango rains” occur. March, April, and May are hot and humid. In April, the hottest month, temperatures in Vientiane range from 72°F to 93°F, and in January, the coolest month, 52°F to 83°F. Temperature extremes of 103°F (April) and 39°F (January) have been recorded. Those familiar with Singapore, Jakarta, or Bangkok will be glad to know that Vientiane's climate is more varied, drier, and cooler.

Dust during the dry season and mud during the wet season are common, but tolerable, facts of life. Flooding in Vientiane has decreased with the construction of dikes and improved drainage systems. The Embassy can count on the flooding of the Chancery compound for 1 or 2 days each year.

Tropical flowers flourish in the Lao climate, and tropical gardeners will be delighted by the prospects. With the abundant flowers and plants, however, come the common pests: mosquitoes, ants, and termites.

Population Last Updated: 7/11/2003 11:38 AM

Laos has the smallest population of any Southeast Asian state, except Brunei. In 1998, the figure was estimated at 5 million. Thus, Laos, unlike its neighbors Vietnam and Thailand, is sparsely populated, and the population unevenly distributed. The greatest concentration is along the valley of the Mekong, especially in the Vientiane Plain and the Savannakhet Basin.

Vientiane municipality, the capital of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, has a population of 285,000. The Vientiane province has a total population of 569,000. Savannakhet province has the largest population with 729,000, followed by Champassak with 544,000, and Luang Prabang with 396,000. Eighty-five percent of the Lao people live in the countryside.

One of the remarkable things about Laos is its extraordinary ethnic diversity.

About half of the population is composed of ethnic Lao, known as “Lao Loum.” The Lao Loum dominate the country politically, culturally, and economically. The rest of the Lao population is divided into a mix of ethnic groups, some sizable, some tiny. These are roughly grouped into two categories: the “Lao Theung,” dwellers on the mountain slopes, and the “Lao Sung,” dwellers on the mountain peaks. These groups include tribes of Tai (“Tai” means speaker of the Tai family of languages; “Thai” is used to designate a citizen of modern Thailand), Tibeto-Burman, and Malayo-Polynesian language groups. Although no one is quite sure of the exact number of tribes or ethnic groups, the Lao Government uses the figure of 64 to enumerate the groups making up the human patchwork quilt that populates its upland. Among the better known hill tribes are the Hmong, the Yao, and the Akha.

Other significant minority groups are the Chinese and Vietnamese. Small groups of Thai, Cambodians, Indians, and Pakistanis also inhabit Laos. The Chinese and Vietnamese populations are much smaller than they were before 1975, and their roles in Lao society are correspondingly reduced. The lowland Lao and the population of northeastern Thailand are ethnically the same and share the same language—with some dialectal differences. In fact, Laos is unique in that more ethnic Lao live outside of it than within its boundaries.

A large foreign community is resident in Vientiane: Australians, French, Japanese, Swedes, and other Europeans and Asians working for Embassies, U.N. agencies, NGOs, and businesses. At this writing, there are about 400 Americans in Laos. With the Lao Government's new economic initiatives of 1988, foreign investors are expressing interest in setting up businesses and assigning representatives in Laos. This has caused the foreign community to expand over the last 5 years.