Laos history and basic features

1. LAOS: HISTORY (ANCIENT AND MODERN)

4. Laos Southeast Asia Landlocked Country Bordering Countries Myanmar and China (Northwest) Vietnam (East) Cambodia (South) Thailand (West) The capital city of Laos is Vientiane. Laos traces it’s history to the Kingdom of Lan Xhang or “ Land of a Million Elephants.”

5. LAND AND RESOURCES Mekong River The Plain of Jars Natural Regions Laos has three distinctive features. 1.) Steep- Phou Bia (Country’s highest peak) 2.) Floodplains of the Mekong River 3.) Plateau- the Plain of Jars in the north, the Khammouan Plateau in the center, and the Bolovens Plateau in the south. Rivers and Lakes Mekong River- Serves as an important artery of transportation and communication. Laos has only a few small lakes and natural wetlands, but hydroelectric dams form huge artificial lakes. A notable example is the Nam Ngum dam near Vientiane. Plant and Animal Life Kinds of Forest in Laos: 1.) Dense tropical rainforest of broadleaf evergreens 2.) Mixed forests of evergreens and deciduous trees. The forests form a habitat for a great variety of animal life, including elephants and tigers, which are both threatened with extinction in the wild; several species of deer; pangolins (scaled anteaters); large rodents; snakes; and lizards. Landscape in Vang Vieng

6. Climate Laos has a tropical monsoon climate, with a summer rainy season from May to October followed by a cool dry period from November to February, and a hotter dry period in March and April. Wide variations in temperature are due more to differences in elevation than to seasonal change. ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS Natural Resources Forest- Laos’ most valuable resources They not only provide valuable timbers, such as teak, ironwood, and mahogany, but also serve as a source of forest products such as benzoin and sticklac. Laos has substantial deposits of several minerals, including coal, limestone, and gypsum. There is also small-scale tin mining in central Laos.

7. OTHER FACTS Official name Lao People’s Democratic Republic Capital Vientiane Area 236,800 sq km91,430 sq Population 6,521,998 (2007 estimate) Population growth Population growth rate 2.37 percent (2007 estimate) Projected population in 2025 9,450,131 (2007 estimate) Projected population in 2050 13,176,153 (2007 estimate) Population density 28 persons per sq km (2007 estimate) Urban/rural distribution Share urban 22 percent (2005 estimate) Share rural 78 percent (2005 estimate) Largest cities, with population Vientiane 640,000 (2000 estimate) Savannakhét 97,000 (1995 estimate) Pakxé 47,000 (1995 estimate) Ethnic groups Lao Lum (lowland Lao), including Lao and Tai 66 percent Lao Thoeng (Lao of the mountain slopes), including Khamu, Lamet, Laven, Sedang, and Nyaheun 24 percent Lao Sung (Lao of the mountaintops), including Hmong and Yao (Mien) 10 percent Languages Lao (official), numerous indigenous languages and dialects, French, English Religious affiliations Buddhist 49 percent Indigenous beliefs 42 percent Nonreligious 4 percent Christian 2 percent Other 3 percent

8. Lao People’s Democratic Republic: ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY Introduction The first inhabitants of Laos were early Stone Age people, who left the remains of their polished axes. By the middle of the 1st millennium bc, people on the Plain of Jars who Probably spoke an Austro-Asiatic language created a flourishing Bronze Age culture. This culture was characterized by huge stone funerary urns (the 'jars' after which the plateau is named) and by bronze tools and weapons. Eventually its people learned to use iron smelted from ores mined nearby. Historians believe that Laos’s earliest inhabitants were the ancestors of the Lao Thoeng, who today live on Laos’s mountain 6 sec. to exit

9. THE LAO KINGDOM OF LAN XANG He founded the Kingdom of Lan Xhan in the mid-14 th 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. 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. He established the Theravada Buddhism, which was known to the Lao, gained royal support from Fa Ngum’s Khmer queen. 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. FA NGU M In the 15 th century Lan Xang suffered from internal weakness, and in 1478 a Vietnamese army Invaded Lan Xang. 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. KING VIXUN 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. XETTHATHIRAT 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 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. SURINYAVONGSA When the last king of Vientiane, Chau Anu, tried to reassert his independence in 1827, Thai armies destroyed Vientiane. KING PHRAYA TAKSIN CHA ANU 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 whom 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). PRINCE SOUPHANOUVONG 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.