Laos: Ethnolinguistic diversity and disadvantage

Author(s):

King, E.M.; Van De Walle, D.

Format:

Book section

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Language:

English

Abstract:

INTRODUCTION Laos (officially, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic) is one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries and probably also the region’s most ethnically diverse. Its population of 5 million has four broad ethnolinguistic families: the Lao-Tai (67 percent of the population), the Mon-Khmer (21 percent), Hmong-Lu Mien (8 percent), and the Chine-Tibetan (3 percent). These categories further subsume 49 distinct ethnicities and some 200 ethnic subgroups (World Bank 2006b).There are pronounced disparities in living standards across these ethnolinguistic groups, with some groups faring much worse than others. The groups are geographically dispersed and sometimes categorized not by their linguistic family but rather by whether they live in the country’s lowlands, midlands, or highlands. Many live in ethnically homogeneous villages. The historically politically, economically, and socially dominant Lao-Tai are the primary residents of urban areas, and also live in the high-density, agriculturally productive lowland areas around Vientiane and the Mekong corridor. The Mon-Khmer people, whose presence in present-day Lao PDR predates all the other groups, typically live in midland rural areas of the north and south. The Hmong-Lu Mien people are found in the uplands and high mountains in the north, and the Chine-Tibetan are located in the northern highland areas. © Cambridge University Press 2012.

ISBN:

9781139105729 (ISBN); 9781107020573 (ISBN)

Identifier:

HmongStudies1544