Located in Southeast Asia, Laos measures approximately 91,400 square miles (236,800 square kilometers), making it slightly larger than the state of Utah. The country shares its borders with Thailand in the southwest, Cambodia in the south, Burma in the west, China in the north, and Vietnam in the east. Laos has a tropical climate, with a rainy season that lasts from May to November and a dry season that lasts from December to April.
Laos has about 4,400,000 residents and an estimated population growth rate of 2.2 percent each year. Minority groups in this small, mountainous country include the Mon-Khmer, the Yao, and the Hmong. Approximately 85 to 90 percent of employed persons in Laos work in subsistence agriculture. Rice is the country's principal crop; other significant agricultural products include corn, tobacco, and tea. The majority of Laotians practice Theravada Buddhism, a form of Buddhism popular in Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka. In Laos, however, Buddhism is heavily influenced by the cult of phi (spirits) and Hinduism.
The Laotian flag has three horizonal bands, with red stripes at the top and bottom and a blue stripe in the middle. A large white disk is centered in the blue band. Many Laotian Americans identify more with the pre-1975 flag of the Kingdom of Laos than with the present-day flag of the country. This flag was red, with a three-headed white elephant situated on a five-step pedestal, under a white parasol. The elephant was symbolic of the ancient kingdom of Laos, known as "The Kingdom of a Million Elephants." The parasol represented the monarchy and the five steps of the pedestal symbolized the five main precepts of Buddhism.
HISTORY
Laotians trace their ancestry to the T'ai people, an ethnolinguistic group that migrated south from China beginning in the sixth century. Originally part of the Khmer (Cambodian) Empire, Laos achieved independence in 1353 when Fa Ngum, a prince from the city of Luang Prabang, claimed a large territory from the declining empire and declared himself king, calling the newly established state Lan Xang, or "The Kingdom of a Million Elephants." Luang Prabang was the nation's capital for 200 years until, in 1563, a later king, Setthalhiralh, moved the capital to Vientiane, which serves as the capital of Laos today.
The Lao kingdom reached its height in the late 1600s, under King Souligna Vongsa. After his death in 1694, three claimants to the throne broke the kingdom into three distinct principalities, the kingdoms of Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and Champassak. Each kingdom struggled for power, causing the weakened Lao states to become vulnerable to the more powerful nations of Siam (Thailand) and Vietnam. While the Siamese took Vientiane, the Vietnamese took other parts of Laos. By the mid 1800s, almost all of northern Laos was controlled by Vietnam, and almost all the southern and central parts of the country were controlled by Thailand. Only the area around Luang Prabang remained independent.
MODERN ERA
Vietnam suffered from its own internal problems in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and in 1859 French Admiral Rigault de Genouilly attacked and seized Saigon. By 1862, the emperor of Vietnam was forced to recognize French possession of the southern provinces, and Vietnam became a French colony 21 years later.
In 1893 the French entered Thailand's Chao Phya River and forced the king to relinquish Thailand's suzerainty over Laos. Four years later, King Oun-Kham of Luang Prabang was forced to seek the help of France against invaders from China and, consequently, Luang Prabang also fell to France's growing Indochinese empire. Laos then became a protectorate, or colony, of France. By 1899, Vientiane had become the administrative capital of French Laos with French commissioners holding administrative power in all the provinces.
Although there were some local rebellions against French rule—mainly by the tribes of the hills and mountains—widespread Laotian resistance to the French did not begin until after World War II, when Japan, which had assumed control over Indochina during the war years, was defeated. In 1945 the Laotian prime minister, Prince Phetsarath, declared Laos an independent kingdom and formed a group known as the Lao Issara, or "Free Lao." Some Laotians supported a return to French colonization, feeling that their country was not ready for immediate independence. The Lao Issara, however, were strongly opposed to French rule in Laos. The prime minister's half-brother, Prince Souphanuvong, called for armed resistance and sought support from the anti-French movement in neighboring Vietnam, the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh. This Laotian political group became known as the Pathet Lao ("Lao Nation").
The Viet Minh defeated French troops at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Afterward, an international conference held in Geneva separated Vietnam at the 17th parallel to prevent Ho Chi Minh's communist government from assuming control over the entire nation. Many Laotians supported the Viet Minh and, when North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam in 1959, Laos was drawn into the war.
The United States also became involved in the war to deter the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. In Laos, American forces provided tactical and economic support to the royal government but were unsuccessful in their efforts. U.S. troops withdrew from the area in 1973 and South Vietnam fell to its northern enemy in April 1975. Later that same year, Pathet Lao forces overthrew the Laotian government, renaming the country the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Thousands of Laotians fled to Thailand where they were placed in refugee camps.
SIGNIFICANT IMMIGRATION WAVES
While there was some migration from Laos to the United States prior to 1975, the immigrants were so few that there is no official record of them. Available records do suggest, however, that they were highly professional and technically proficient. After 1975, thousands of Laotian people fled their homeland for the United States; the passage of the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975 by Congress aided them in this effort. Early Laotian immigrants included former government administrators, soldiers from the royal army, and shopkeepers. More recent immigrants from Laos included farmers and villagers who were not as educated as their predecessors.
While large numbers of Vietnamese and Cambodians began to settle in the United States almost immediately after socialist governments came to power in the spring of 1975, Laotian refugees did not begin to arrive in America in great numbers until the following year. In contrast to the 126,000 Vietnamese and 4,600 Cambodians who arrived in 1975, only 800 refugees from Laos were admitted into the United States. This is partially due to the fact that the new Laotian government obtained power in a relatively peaceful manner, despite fighting between the Hmong and the Pathet Lao. Moreover, the U.S. government was reluctant to accept refugees who had fled Laos for bordering Thailand, many of whom U.S. officials viewed as economic migrants rather than refugees from political oppression.
In 1976, 10,200 refugees from Laos, who had fled across the border into Thailand, were admitted to the United States. The number of Laotian refugees dipped to only 400 in 1977 and then climbed to 8,000 in 1978. In the years between 1979 and 1981, the number of Laotians entering the United States increased dramatically, due to international attention given to the plight of Indochinese refugees in the late 1970s and to the family unification program, which allowed refugees already in the United States to sponsor their relatives. During these three years, about 105,000 people from Laos resettled in America: 30,200 in 1979, 55,500 in 1980, and 19,300 in 1981. Although migration from Laos to America never again achieved the stature of this period, the resettlement of Laotians in the United States continued throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s.
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
According to the U.S. Census, in 1990 there were about 150,000 Laotian Americans living in the United States. (This figure does not include the Hmong and other minority groups from Laos.) The majority of Laotian Americans (58,058) lived in California, primarily in Fresno (7,750), San Diego (6,261), Sacramento (4,885), and Stockton (4,045). Texas held the second largest number of Laotian Americans (9,332), with the majority living in Amarillo (1,188) and Denton (1,512). Minnesota and Washington State had the third and fourth largest Laotian American populations, with 6,831 and 6,191 residents, respectively. Thirty-four percent (2,325) of Minnesota's Laotian American population lived in Minneapolis and 46 percent
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