Laos ( , , or ), officially
the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is the only
landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma
and People's
Republic of China
to the northwest, Vietnam
to the east,
Cambodia
to the south
and Thailand
to the
west. Laos traces its history to the Kingdom of
Lan Xang or
Land of a Million Elephants,
which existed from the
13th to the
18th century.After a period as a
French protectorate, it
gained independence in 1949. A long
civil war ended officially when the
Communist
Pathet Lao movement came to
power in 1975, but the protesting between factions continued for
several years. 44% of the population live below the international
poverty line of the equivalent of US$1.25 a day.
Etymology
In the
Lao language, the country's name
is "Meuang Lao." The French, who made the country part of
French Indochina in 1893, spelled it with a
final silent "s," i.e., "Laos" (the Lao language itself has no
final "s" sound, so Lao people pronounce it as in their native
tongue though some, especially those living abroad, use the
pronunciation ending in "s"). The usual adjectival form is "Lao,"
e.g., "the Lao economy," not the "Laotian" economy—although
"Laotian" is used to describe the people of Laos to avoid confusion
with the
Lao ethnic group.
History
Laos traces its history to the kingdom of
Lan
Xang, founded in the
14th
century(1353) by Fa Ngum, himself descended from a long line of
Lao kings, tracking back to Khoun Boulom. Lan-Xang prospered until
the
18th century, when the kingdom was
divided into three principalities, which eventually came under
Siamese suzerainty.
In the 19th
century, Luang Prabang was incorporated into the 'Protectorate'
of French Indochina, and shortly
thereafter, the Kingdom of
Champasak and the territory of Vientiane
were also added to the protectorate. Under
the French, Vientiane once again became the capital of a unified
Lao state.
Following a brief Japanese
occupation
during World War II, the country
declared its independence in 1945, but the French under Charles de Gaulle re-asserted their
control and only in 1950 was Laos granted semi-autonomy as an
"associated state" within the French
Union. Moreover, the French remained in
de
facto control until 1954, when Laos gained full independence
as a constitutional monarchy. Under a special exemption to the
Geneva Convention, a French
military training mission continued to support the
Royal Laos Army.
In 1955, the U.S.
Department of Defense created a special Programs Evaluation Office to
replace French support of the Royal Lao Army against the communist
Pathet Lao as part of the U.S. containment policy.
Laos was dragged into the
Vietnam War
and the eastern parts of the country were invaded and occupied by
the
North Vietnamese Army
(NVA), which used Laotian territory as a staging ground and supply
route for its war against the
South.
In response, the United States
initiated a bombing campaign against the North
Vietnamese, supported regular and irregular anticommunist forces in
Laos and supported a South Vietnamese invasion
of Laos. The result of these actions were a series of
coups d'état and, ultimately, the
Laotian Civil War between the
Royal Laotian government and the communist Pathet Lao.
In the Civil War the NVA, with its heavy artillery and tanks, was
the real power behind the Pathet Lao insurgency. In 1968, the North
Vietnamese Army launched a multi-division attack against the Royal
Lao Army.
The attack resulted in the army largely
demobilizing and leaving the conflict to irregular forces raised by
the United
States and Thailand. The
attack resulted in many lost lives. Massive aerial bombardment was
carried out by the United States.
The
Guardian reported that Laos was hit by an average of one
B-52 bombload every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and
1973. US bombers dropped more ordnance on Laos in this period than
was dropped during the whole of the
Second World War. Of the 260 million bombs
that rained down, particularly on Xieng Khouang province, 80
million failed to explode, leaving a deadly legacy. It holds the
dubious distinction of being the most bombed country in the world.
In 1975,
the communist Pathet
Lao, along with Vietnam
People's Army and backed by the Soviet Union
, overthrew the royalist Lao government
, forcing King Savang
Vatthana to abdicate on 2 December,
1975. He later died in captivity.
After taking control of the country, Pathet Lao's government
renamed the country as the "Lao People's Democratic Republic" and
signed agreements giving Vietnam the right to station armed forces
and to appoint advisers to assist in overseeing the country.
Laos was
ordered in the late 1970s by Vietnam to end relations with the
People's
Republic of China which cut the country off from trade with any
country but Vietnam. Control by Vietnam and socialisation
were slowly replaced by a relaxation of economic restrictions in
the 1980s and admission into
ASEAN in
1997.
In 2005,
the United
States established Normal Trade Relations with Laos,
ending a protracted period of punitive import taxes.
Geography
Map of Laos
Laos is a
landlocked country in Southeast Asia and the thickly forested
landscape consists mostly of rugged mountains, the highest of which
is Phou
Bia
at 9,242 feet (2,817 m), with some plains and
plateaus. The Mekong River forms a large part of the western
boundary with Thailand, whereas the mountains of the Annamite Chain
form most of the eastern border with Vietnam.The climate is
tropical and monsoon. There is a distinct rainy season from May to
November, followed by a dry season from December to April. Local
tradition holds that there are three seasons (rainy, cold and hot)
as the latter two months of the climatologically defined dry season
are noticeably hotter than the earlier four months.
The capital and
largest city of Laos is Vientiane and other major cities include
Luang
Prabang
, Savannakhet
and Pakxe
.
In 1993, the Laos government set aside 21% of the nation's land
area for Habitat conservation preservation .
The country is one of
four in the opium poppy growing region known as the "Golden
Triangle
." According to the October 2007 UNODC fact
book "Opium Poppy Cultivation in South East Asia," the poppy
cultivation area was , down from in 2008.
Government and politics
Laos is a communist single-party
socialist republic. The only legal
political party is the
Lao People's Revolutionary
Party (LPRP). The head of state is President
Choummaly Sayasone, who also is
secretary-general (leader) of the LPRP. The head of government is
Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh. Government policies
are determined by the party through the all-powerful nine-member
Politburo and the 49-member Central
Committee. Important government decisions are vetted by the Council
of Ministers.
Laos' first, French-written and monarchical
constitution was promulgated on May 11, 1947
and declared it to be an independent state within the
French Union. The revised constitution of
11 May 1957 omitted
reference to the French Union, though close educational, health and
technical ties with the former colonial power persisted. The 1957
document was abrogated on
3 December
1975, when a communist People's Republic was
proclaimed. A new constitution was adopted in 1991 and enshrined a
"leading role" for the LPRP. The following year, elections were
held for a new 85-seat
National Assembly with members
elected by secret ballot to five-year terms. This National
Assembly, which essentially acts as a
rubber stamp for the LPRP, approves
all new laws, although the executive branch retains authority to
issue binding decrees. The most recent elections took place in
April 2006. The assembly was expanded to 99 members in 1997 and in
2006 elections had 115.
Administrative divisions
Provinces of Laos
Laos is divided into
16 provinces
(
qwang) and Vientiane Capital (
Na Kone Luang
Vientiane):
The country is further divided into
district (
muang).
Economy
Rivers are an important means of
transport in Laos.
Buses connect the major cities
The Lao economy is heavily dependent on investment and trade with
its neighbors, Thailand, Vietnam, and, especially in the north,
China.
Pakxe has also
experienced growth based on cross-border trade with Thailand and
Vietnam.
Much of the country, however, lacks adequate infrastructure.
Laos has
no railways, except a short link to connect Vientiane with Thailand
over the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge
. The major roads connecting the major urban
centres, in particular
Route 13,
have been significantly upgraded in recent years, but villages far
from major roads can be reached only through unpaved roads that may
not be accessible year-round. There is limited external and
internal
telecommunication, but
mobile phones have become widespread in
urban centres. In many rural areas electricity is at least partly
unavailable.
Songthaews (pick-up trucks
with benches) are used in the country for long-distance and local
public transport.
Subsistence agriculture
still accounts for half of the
GDP and provides 80% of total
employment. Only 4.01% of the country is arable land, and 0.34%
used as permanent crop land, the lowest percentage in the
Greater Mekong Subregion. Rice
dominates agriculture, with about 80% of the arable land area used
for growing rice. Approximately 77% of Lao farm households are
self-sufficient in rice. Through the development, release and
widespread adoption of improved rice varieties, and through
economic reforms, production has increased by an annual rate of 5%
between 1990 and 2005
FIFTEEN YEARS OF SUPPORT FOR RICE RESEARCH IN LAO
PDR
^
ASIA BRIEF: FILLING THE RICE BASKET IN LAO PDR
PARTNERSHIP RESULTS
^
Genuinely Lao, Prepared by IRRI’s International
Programs Management Office, and Lao PDR achieved a net balance of
rice imports and exports for the first time in 1999.Lao PDR may
have the greatest number of rice varieties in the Greater Mekong
Subregion. Since 1995 the Lao government has been working with the
International Rice
Research Institute to collect seed samples of each of the
thousands of rice varieties found in Laos.
The
economy receives development aid
from the IMF
, ADB and other international sources, and foreign direct investment for
development of the society, industry, hydropower and mining, most
notably copper and gold. Tourism is the
fastest-growing industry in the country. However, economic
development in has been hampered by
brain
drain, with a skilled emigration rate of 37.4% in 2000.
Laos is rich in mineral resources but imports petroleum and gas.
Metallurgy is an important industry, and
the government hopes to attract foreign investment to develop the
substantial deposits of
coal, gold,
bauxite,
tin, copper and other
valuable metals in the country. In addition, the country's
plentiful water resources and mountainous terrain enable it to
produce and export large quantities of hydroelectric energy. Of the
potential capacity of approximately 18,000 megawatts, around 8,000
megawatts have been committed for exporting to Thailand and
Vietnam.
Tourism sector has grown rapidly, from 14,400 tourists visiting
Laos in 1990, to 1.1 million in 2005. Annual tourism sector
revenues are expected to grow to $250–300 million by 2020.
Demographics
A primary school in a village in
northern rural Laos
69% of the country's people are ethnic
Lao, the principal lowland inhabitants and the
politically and culturally dominant group.
The Lao belong to the
Tai linguistic group who began
migrating southward from China
in the first
millennium AD. 8% belong to other "lowland" groups, which
together with the Lao people make up the
Lao
Loum.
Hill people and minority cultures of Laos such as the
Hmong (Miao),
Yao ,
Dao,
Shan, and
several
Tibeto-Burman speaking peoples
have lived in isolated regions of Laos for many years.
Mountain/hill tribes of mixed ethno/cultural-linguistic heritage
are found in northern Laos which include the
Lua (Lua) and Khmu people who are indigenous to
Laos. Today, the Lua people are considered endangered.
Collectively, they are known as
Lao Soung
or highland Laotians. In the central and southern mountains,
Mon-
Khmer
tribes, known as
Lao Theung or mid-slope
Laotians, predominate.
Some Vietnamese, Chinese and Thailand Thai minorities remain,
particularly in the towns, but many left in two waves; after
independence in the late 1940s and again after 1975.
The term "Laotian" does not necessarily refer to the ethnic Lao
language, ethnic Lao people, language or customs, but is a
political term that also includes the non-ethnic Lao groups within
Laos and identifies them as "Laotian" because of their political
citizenship.
The predominant
religion in Laos is
Theravada Buddhism which, along with the
common
Animism practiced among the mountain
tribes, coexists peacefully with spirit worship. There also are a
small number of
Christians, mostly
restricted to the Vientiane area, and
Muslims,
mostly restricted to the Myanmar border region. Christian
missionary work is regulated by the government.
The official and dominant language is
Lao, a tonal language of the
Tai linguistic group. The written language is
based on Khmer writing script. Midslope and highland Lao speak an
assortment of tribal languages. French, still common in government
and commerce, is still studied by many, while English, the language
of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), has increased in recent years.
Health
Male
life expectancy at
birth was at 63.2 and female life expectancy was at 65.9 in
2007 Healthy life expectancy at was at 54 in 2006. In 2006, two
fifths of the population were not using an improved water resource.
Government expenditure on health is at about 4 % of the GDP. Its amount was at US$ 18 (PPP) in 2006.
Religion
Buddha statues at Vat Aham in Luang Prabang
Of the people of Laos 67% are
Buddhist,
1.5% are
Christian, and 31.5% are other or
unspecified according to the 2005 census. Buddhism could be as high
as 85% and still remains as one of the most important social forces
in Laos
Culture
An example of Lao cuisine
Theravada Buddhism
is a dominant influence in Lao culture. It is reflected throughout
the country from language to the temple and in art, literature,
performing arts, etc. Many elements of Lao culture predate
Buddhism, however. For example, Laotian
music
is dominated by its national
instrument, the
khaen, a type of
bamboo pipe that has prehistoric origins. The khaen
traditionally accompanied the singer in
lam, the dominant style of
folk music. Among the various
lam
styles, the
lam saravane is
probably the most popular.
The
country has two World Heritage
Sites: Luang
Prabang and Vat
Phou
. The government is seeking the same status
for the Plain of
Jars
.
Sticky Rice is the staple food and has cultural and religious
significance. Sticky rice is mainly preferred over jasmine rice
because Lao is the only country with the origin of sticky rice
being eaten. There are many traditions and rituals associated with
rice production in different environments, and among many ethnic
groups. For example, Khammu farmers in Luang Prabang plant the rice
variety Khao Kam in small quantities near the hut in memory of dead
parents, or at the edge of the rice field to indicate that parents
are still alive.
Education
The adult
literacy rate exceeds two thirds.
The male literacy rate exceeds the female literacy rate. In 2004
the net primary enrolement rate was at 84 %. The
National University of Laos is
the national university in Laos.
Media
All newspapers are published by the government, including two
foreign language papers: the English-language daily
Vientiane Times and the French-language
weekly
Le Rénovateur.
Additionally, the Khao San Pathet Lao, the country's official news
agency, publishes English and French versions of its eponymous
paper. Internet cafes are now common in the major urban centres and
are popular especially with the younger generation. However, the
government strictly
censor content and
controls access .
International rankings
See also
Leaders of ethnic minorities in Laos
Notes and references
- Human Development Indices, Table 3:
Human and income poverty, p. 35. Retrieved on 1 June 2009
-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/03/laos-cluster-bombs-uxo-deaths
- U.S.-Laos Business Opportunities Making Normal
Trade Relations a Reality (Dec. 15-2005) - U.S. Embassy Vientiane,
Laos
- Field Listing - Land use, CIA World
Factbook
- About Greater Mekong Subregion at Asian
Development Bank
- Rice, the fabric of life in Laos
- Genuinely Lao, Rice Today, April-June 2006
- The Green Revolution comes to Laos
- A Race Against Time
- [
http://ces.univ-paris1.fr/membre/Mariani/em/DM_BookWB%5B1%5D.pdf
International Migration, Remittances & the Brain Drain]
- [ http://www.adb.org/Documents/TARs/LAO/40514-LAO-TAR.pdf Lao
People’s Democratic Republic: Preparing the Cumulative Impact
Assessment for the Nam Ngum 3 Hydropower Project]
- [ http://www.latalaos.org/doc/Strategy2006.pdf Lao PDR Tourism
Strategy 2006-2020]
-
http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_LAO.html
- CIA the World Factbook
- Zickgraf, Ralph. Laos (series: Major World Nations).
Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers (1999), pg. 9-10.
- An Evaluation of Synthesis of Rice
External links
- General information
- Laos from UCB Libraries GovPubs
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