Laos
POPULATION 5,777,180
THERAVADA BUDDHIST 60 percent
CHRISTIAN (ROMAN CATHOLIC, LAO EVANGELICAL CHURCH, SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST) 2 to 3 percent
OTHER (HINDU, BAHAI, CHINESE RELIGIONS, MUSLIM, MAHAYANA BUDDHIST, AS WELL AS INDIGENOUS RELIGIONS INVOLVING SPIRIT BELIEFS AND/OR ANCESTOR WORSHIP AMONG THE TAI DAM, KHMU, HMONG, MIEN, LAO HUAY, ETC.) 37 to 38 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
Laos (formally the Lao People's Democratic Republic, LPDR), an inland nation in mainland Southeast Asia, is bordered by China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), and Thailand. It is a mountainous, tropical country, formerly covered with forest but now extensively harvested. The major cultivable areas lie along the Mekong River bordering Thailand and along smaller rivers and streams.
The Lao constellation of Theravada Buddhist, spirit, and ancestral beliefs and practices has emerged in the context of migration, imperial expansions, wartime displacement, cultural encounters, and the policies of a Communist regime since 1975. As elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Laos inherited an ethnic diversity that has challenged national programs of cultural and political integration. Today ethnic tensions continue amid attempts to define a national identity unified in part through Theravada Buddhism while acknowledging the many non-Buddhist minority groups.
The LPDR comprises at least 47 ethnic groups from four major linguistic families.
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