In its 1995 census, the government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic rec- ognized 47 official ethno-linguistic groups (National Statistical Centre 1997). Other counts have identified as many as 130 different groups, based on self-definition (Chazée 1999). These can be divided into four major groups on the basis of language: Lao-Tai (66.2%), Austroasiatic (Mon-Khmer) (22.7%), Hmong-Yao (or Miao-Yao) (7.4%), and Tibeto-Burman (2.9%). To these may be added a fifth group comprising small numbers of Chinese from Yunnan, known as the Ho, who have been resident in northern Phongsaly Province for some two centuries. Some scholars include the Ho in the Tibeto-Burman family and distinguish them from immigrant Chinese from other parts of China, who together with resident Cambodians, Burmese (mainly Shan), Thai, and Vietnamese constitute the fifth population group. None in this fifth group are rice-growers, however.