Laos Travel Guide

Laos has one of the lowest population densities in Asia, but the total population has more than doubled in the last 30 years, and continues to grow My. A third of Laos’s 5,622,000 inhabitants live in cities in the Mekong River valley, chiefly Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Savannakhet and Pakse. Another third live along other major rivers. This rapid population growth comes despite the fact that almost one in 10  Lao fled the country after the 1975 communist takeover. Vientiane and lost the most inhabitants, with approximately a quarter of the population of Luang Prabang going abroad. During the last 10 to 15 years this emigration trend has been reversed so that the influx of immigrants - mostly repatriated Lao, but also Chinese, Vietnamese and other nationalities - now exceeds the number of émigrés.

Most expatriate Westerners living in Laos are temporary employees of multilateral and bilateral aid organizations. A smaller number are employed by foreign companies involved in mining, petroleum and hydropower.

For the women of Laos roles and status vary significantly depending on their ethnicity, but it’s fair to say that whatever group they come from they are seen as secondary to men. As you travel around Laos the evidence is overwhelming. While men’s work is undoubtedly hard, women always seem to be working harder, for longer, with far less time for relaxing and socializing.

Lao Loum women gain limited benefits from bilateral inheritance pattern whereby both women and men can inherit land and business ownership. This derives from a matriarchal tradition, where a husband joins the wife’s fan on marriage. Often the youngest daughter and her husband will live with and care for her parents until they die, when they inherit at least some of their land and business.

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Buddhism
About 60% of the people of Laos - mostly in lowland, with sprinklings of tribal Thais - are Theravada Buddhists. Theravada Buddhism was apparently introduced to Luang Prabang (then known as Muang Sawa) in the late 13th or early 14th centuries, though there may have been contact Mahayana Buddhism during the 8th to 10th centuries and with Tant Buddhism even earlier.

Theravada doctrine stresses the three principal aspects of existence: dukkha (suffering, unsatisfactoriness, disease), anicca (impennanence, transience of all things) and anatta (nonsubstantiality or nonessentiality or reality - no permanent ‘soul’). Comprehension of anicca reveals that no experience, state of mind, no physical object lasts. Trying to hold on to experience, no states of mind, and object that are constantly changing creates dukkha. Anatta is the understanding that there is no part of the changing world we can point to and say ‘This is me’ or “This is God” or “ this the soul”.

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The focus of most traditional art in Lao culture has been religious, specifically Buddhist. Yet, unlike the visual arts of Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, lever encompassed a broad range of styles and periods, mainly become has a much more modest history in terms of power and because existed as a political entity for a short period. Furthermore, since Laos was intermittently dominated by its neighbors, much of the art that  was either destroyed or, as in the case of the Emerald Buddha carted off by conquering armies.

Lao’s relatively small and poor population, combined with a turbulent recent history, also goes some way toward explaining the absence of strong tradition of contemporary art. This is slowly changing, and in Vientiane and Luang Prabang modern art in a variety of media is finding its way into galleries and stores.

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Like most poor countries, you won’t read much about Laos when the Olympic circus sets up its tent. Laos has never won an Olympic medal or much else in the international sporting arena, but that doesn’t mean it’s a complete sporting black hole.

Lao has a few traditional sports sand these are as often an excuse for betting as thay are means of exercise. Kátâw and múay láo (Lao boxing) certainly do involve exercise - and these are taken increasingly seriously as international competition rases their profiles. Cockfighting, however, does not. Cockfighting follow the usual rules except that in Laos the cocks are not fitted with blades so often survive the bout. If you want to watch or not, keep your eyes and ears open, practically on Sunday and public holidays.

In ethnic Thai areas you might find the more off-beat sport of beetle fighting. These bouts involve notoriously fractious rhinoceros beetles squaring off while a crowd, usually more vociferous after liberal helping of lào – láo bets on the result. The beetles hiss and attack, lifting each other with their horns, until one decides it no longer wants to be part of this ‘entertainment’ and runs. If you bet on the runner, you lose. Beetle bouts are limited to the wet season.

Kids in Laos are likely to be seen chasing around a football (or at least something that resembles a football). Opportunities for pursuing football professionally are few, limited bay an almost complete lack of quality coaching, pitches, and youth leagues where players can get experience of proper competition. Laos does, however, compete in various regional tournaments, and on occasion you can see inter–provincial matches at the National-Stadium in Vientiane or modest stadias in provincial capitals.