Laos

flowing through Luang Prabang Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia and lies mostly between latitudes 14° and 23°N, and longitudes 100° and 108°E. Laos's forested landscape consists mostly of mountains, the highest of which is Phou Bia at , with some plains and plateaus. The Mekong River forms a part of the western boundary with Thailand, where the mountains of the Annamite Range form most of the eastern border with Vietnam and the Luang Prabang Range the northwestern border with the Thai highlands. There are two plateaus, the Xiangkhoang in the north and the Bolaven Plateau at the southern end. Laos had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 5.59/10, ranking it 98th globally out of 172 countries. In 1993, the Laotian government set aside 21% of the nation's land area for habitat conservation preservation. The country is one of four nations in the opium poppy growing region known as the "Golden Triangle". According to the October 2007 UNODC fact book Opium Poppy Cultivation in South East Asia, the poppy cultivation area was , down from in 2006. Climate The climate is mostly tropical savanna and influenced by the monsoon pattern. There is a rainy season from May to October, followed by a dry season from November to April Local tradition holds that there are three seasons: rainy, cool and hot. The latter two months of the climatologically defined dry season are hotter than the earlier four months. Wildlife Laos, with its forests and river systems, is home to an array of wildlife. National parks like Nam Et-Phou Louey are refuges, supporting endangered species such as the northern white-cheeked gibbon and the saola. These forests shelter more than 50 mammal species and nearly 300 bird species, along with a variety of reptiles and amphibians. Administrative divisions Laos is divided into 17 provinces and one prefecture, which includes the capital city Vientiane. == History ==

Prehistory In 2009, an anatomically modern human skull was recovered from the Tam Pa Ling Cave in the Annamite Mountains in northern Laos; the skull is at least 46,000 years old, making it the oldest modern human fossil found to date in Southeast Asia. Stone artefacts including Hoabinhian types have been found at sites dating to the Pleistocene in northern Laos. Archaeological evidence suggests an agriculturist society developed during the 4th millennium BCE, a society in which bronze objects appeared around 1500 BCE, and iron tools were known from 700 BCE. The proto-historic period is characterised by contact with Chinese and Indian civilisations. According to linguistic and other historical evidence, Tai-speaking tribes migrated southwestward to the territories of Laos and Thailand from Guangxi sometime between the 8th and 10th centuries. Lan Xang The kingdom of Lan Xang ('million elephants') was founded in the 13th century by a prince, Fa Ngum, whose father had his family exiled from the Khmer Empire. Fa Ngum, with 10,000 Khmer troops, conquered some principalities in the Mekong river basin, culminating in the capture of Vientiane. Ngum was descended from a line of kings that traced back to Khoun Boulom. He made Theravada Buddhism the state religion. His ministers, unable to tolerate his ruthlessness, forced him into exile to what is later the Thai province of Nan in 1373, where he died. Fa Ngum's eldest son, Oun Heuan, ascended to the throne under the name Samsenethai and reigned for 43 years. Lan Xang became a trade centre during Samsenthai's reign, and after his death in 1421 it collapsed into warring factions for nearly a century. In 1520, Photisarath came to the throne and moved the capital from Luang Prabang to Vientiane to avoid a Burmese invasion. Setthathirath became king in 1548, after his father was killed, and ordered the construction of That Luang. Settathirath disappeared in the mountains on his way back from a military expedition into Cambodia, and Lan Xang fell into more than 70 years of "instability", involving Burmese invasion and civil war. In 1637, when Sourigna Vongsa ascended the throne, Lan Xang further expanded its frontiers. When he died without an heir, the kingdom split into three principalities. Between 1763 and 1769, Burmese armies overran northern Laos and annexed Luang Prabang, while Champasak eventually came under Siamese suzerainty. Anouvong was installed as a vassal king of Vientiane by the Siamese. He encouraged a renaissance of Lao fine arts and literature and improved relations with Luang Prabang. Under Vietnamese pressure, he rebelled against the Siamese in 1826. The rebellion failed, and Vientiane was ransacked. Anouvong was taken to Bangkok as a prisoner, where he died. In a time period where the acquisition of humans was a priority over the ownership of land, the warfare of Southeast Asia revolved around the seizing of people and resources from its enemies. A Siamese military campaign in Laos in 1876 was described by a British observer as having been "transformed into slave-hunting raids on a large scale". French Laos In the 19th century, Luang Prabang was ransacked by the Chinese Black Flag Army. France rescued King Oun Kham and added Luang Phrabang to the protectorate of French Indochina. The Kingdom of Champasak and the territory of Vientiane were added to the protectorate. King Sisavangvong of Luang Phrabang became ruler of a unified Laos, and Vientiane once again became the capital. Laos produced tin, rubber, and coffee; the country never accounted for more than 1% of French Indochina's exports. By 1940, around 600 French citizens lived in Laos. Under French rule, the Vietnamese were encouraged to migrate to Laos; this was seen by the French colonists as a rational solution to a labour shortage within the confines of an Indochina-wide colonial space. By 1943, the Vietnamese population stood at nearly 40,000, forming the majority in some cities of Laos and having the right to elect its own leaders. As a result, 53% of the population of Vientiane, 85% of Thakhek, and 62% of Pakse were Vietnamese; the exception was Luang Prabang, where the population was predominantly Lao. As late as 1945, the French drew up a plan to move a number of Vietnamese to three areas (i.e., the Vientiane Plain, Savannakhet region, and the Bolaven Plateau), which was derailed by the Japanese invasion of Indochina. Otherwise, according to Martin Stuart-Fox, the Lao might well have lost control over their own country. During World War II in Laos, Vichy France, Thailand, Imperial Japan and Free France occupied Laos. On 9 March 1945, a nationalist group declared Laos independent, with Luang Prabang as its capital; on 7 April 1945, two battalions of Japanese troops occupied the city. The Japanese attempted to force Sisavang Vong (the king of Luang Prabang) to declare Laotian independence, and on 8 April he instead declared an end to Laos's status as a French protectorate. The king then secretly sent Prince Kindavong to represent Laos to the Allied forces and Prince Sisavang as representative to the Japanese. When Japan surrendered, some Lao nationalists (including Prince Phetsarath) declared Laotian independence, and by 1946, French troops had reoccupied the country and conferred autonomy on Laos. Independence, and communist rule and Prince Sisavang Vatthana in Luang Prabang, 4 May 1953 The First Indochina War took place across French Indochina and eventually led to French defeat and the signing of a peace accord for Laos at the Geneva Conference of 1954. In 1960, amidst a series of rebellions in the Kingdom of Laos, fighting broke out between the Royal Lao Army (RLA) and the communist North Vietnamese and Soviet Union-backed Pathet Lao guerillas. A second Provisional Government of National Unity formed by Prince Souvanna Phouma in 1962 was unsuccessful, and the situation turned into civil war between the Royal Laotian government and the Pathet Lao. The Pathet Lao were backed militarily by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong. Some 80 million bombs failed to explode and remain scattered throughout the country. Unexploded ordnance (UXO), including cluster munitions and mines, kill or maim approximately 50 people every year. Due to the impact of cluster bombs during this war, Laos was an advocate of the Convention on Cluster Munitions to ban the weapons and was host to the First Meeting of States Parties to the convention in November 2010. soldiers in Vientiane, 1973 In 1975, the Pathet Lao overthrew the royalist government, forcing King Savang Vatthana to abdicate on 2 December 1975. He later died in a re-education camp. Between 20,000 and 62,000 Laotians died during the civil war. On 2 December 1975, after taking control of the country, the Pathet Lao government under Kaysone Phomvihane renamed the country as the ''Lao People's Democratic Republic''; the government signed agreements giving Vietnam the right to station armed forces and to appoint advisers to assist in overseeing the country. The ties between Laos and Vietnam were formalised via a treaty signed in 1977, which has since provided direction for Laotian foreign policy, and provides the basis for Vietnamese involvement in Laotian political and economic life. In 1979, Laos was requested by Vietnam to end relations with the People's Republic of China; this led to isolation in trade by China, the United States, and other countries. In 1979, there were 50,000 PAVN troops stationed in Laos and as many as 6,000 civilian Vietnamese officials including 1,000 directly attached to the ministries in Vientiane. The conflict between Hmong rebels and Laos continued in areas of Laos, including in Saysaboune Closed Military Zone, Xaisamboune Closed Military Zone near Vientiane Province and Xiangkhouang Province. In 1977, a communist newspaper promised the party would hunt down the "American collaborators" and their families "to the last root". As many as 200,000 Hmong went into exile in Thailand, with some ending up in the US. Other Hmong fighters hid out in mountains in Xiangkhouang Province for years, with a remnant emerging from the jungle in 2003. ==Politics==

The LPDR is a unitary communist state that self-designates as a people's democratic state, meaning that it officially tries to transition the country from capitalism to socialism, before commencing to transition from socialism to communism. In The Economist's Democracy Index 2016, Laos was classified as an "authoritarian regime", ranking lowest of the 9 ASEAN nations included in the study. Lao People's Revolutionary Party's leading role in the political system The Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) is the founding and ruling party of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The leading role of the LPRP over the political system is enshrined in the constitution by stating that "The rights of the multi-ethnic people to be the masters of the country are exercised and ensured through the functioning of the political system with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party as its leading nucleus." All Laotian state organs operate under the leadership of the LPRP; because of the party's organizational principle of democratic centralism, all party members in state organs are required to implement the decisions of the Central Committee of the LPRP. The party establishes party groups within state organs, which the LPRP Central Committee supervises through its Secretariat and the Organisation Commission. The highest organ of the LPRP is the party congress, which meets at least every fifth year. It elects the members and candidates of the LPRP Central Committee. At its first session after a party congress, the LPRP Central Committee elects its central leading organs: the Politburo, the Secretariat, the Inspection Commission, and the Defence and Public Security Commission (DPSC). It also elects the party leader, the general secretary of the LPRP Central Committee. The general secretary leads the work of the Politburo while concurrently serving as chairman of the DPSC. He co-leads the Secretariat with the Permanent Member of the LPRP Secretariat. These organs are delegated specific powers of the Central Committee when the latter is not in session; the Politburo is the party's highest decision-making organ when the Central Committee, the Conference, and the Congress are not in session. The party heads are elected by a session of the LPRP Central Committee. The LPRP, as the leading force of the political system, has a legal monopoly on state power. According to scholar Martin Stuart-Fox, the LPRP's control is cemented by populating every state organ, bureaucracy, transmission belt mass organization, and the Lao People's Armed Forces (LPAF) with party members. The LPAF is tasked by the state constitution to defend the gains of the revolution. The LPRP's statute states that political leadership over the military and other security forces is in the hands of the LPRP DPSC, which maintains direct, united, and full control of the LPAF. National Assembly's unified state power , the supreme state organ of power. The National Assembly is the Laotian supreme state organ of power and formally holds the unified powers of the state. It is the only state organ that can adopt or amend the country's communist state constitution, which was adopted on 14 August 1991. The National Assembly is officially considered the embodiment of popular sovereignty since it is elected through elections in which candidates are vetted by the National Election Committee. The LPRP, state organs, the Lao Front for National Development as the largest transmission belt mass organization in the country, and other transmission belt mass organizations are allowed to nominate candidates to the National Election Committee, which can either approve or reject them. The National Assembly is not a permanent organ, and in between its sessions, it is led by its permanent organ, the Standing Committee. As the state's highest organ, all other state organs are inferior to the National Assembly and accountable to it per democratic centralism since, according to the constitution, "The National Assembly, the Local People's Assemblies and other state organisations are established and function in accordance with the principle of democratic centralism." As a result, the National Assembly establishes all other state organs that make up the unified state apparatus per the division of labour of state organs. The Laotian constitution has created the following hierarchy of state organs: the National Assembly as the highest, followed by the president of Laos, the government of Laos, the system of people's councils and their governments, the People's Supreme Court, the People's Supreme Procuratorate, the State Inspection Authority, the State Audit Organisation, and the National Election Committee. All these organs are, in theory, accountable to the National Assembly. The National Assembly and its Standing Committee are headed by a chair and vice chairs. The chair concurrently serves ex officio as a member of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the LPRP Central Committee, and the LPRP Politburo. The National Assembly is empowered to adopt and amend laws and legislation. It can decide whether Laos should approve, withdraw, or cancel international treaties. The National Assembly is responsible for adopting a five-year work plan for itself and for all inferior state organs. It can rescind legislation issued by other state organs if it conflicts with adopted laws or the constitution. The National Assembly also adopts a five-year plan for economic development, known as the National Socio-Economic Development Plan, and a state budget plan. It has the right to hold individuals it elects or appoints to state organs accountable for their work and to check whether these individuals are implementing the policies adopted by the National Assembly. Since it is not in permanent session, the National Assembly delegates some of its powers to its Standing Committee under the constitution, and it can delegate specific powers through a majority vote at one of its sessions. All inferior state organs and the Lao Front for National Development can propose legislation and amendments to the constitution to the National Assembly. The president is the Laotian head of state, and the officeholder concurrently serves as the LPRP general secretary. The officeholder is bound by a term limit of two consecutive electoral terms. The officeholder is empowered to promulgate the constitution and law, issue presidential edicts and decrees, convene and preside over special sessions of the government, and attend sessions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly if deemed necessary. The president can instigate the appointment, reassignment, and removal of deputy prime ministers and members of the government, the vice president of the People's Supreme Court and the Deputy People's Supreme Procurator, the vice president of the State Audit Organisation, and the vice president of the State Inspection Authority on the approval of the National Assembly. Should the president be incapacitated, the vice president takes over their duties. The Laotian government is the supreme executive and administrative organ of state power and is headed by the prime minister, who serves as head of government. The prime minister is elected by the National Assembly on the president's recommendation. Neither the prime minister nor any member of the government may serve more than two electoral terms. The members of the government are dually responsible to the president and the National Assembly, and can be removed by the National Assembly through a vote of no confidence. The government is responsible for leading state economic policy and administering the Laotian state on behalf of the National Assembly and the LPRP. The National Assembly heads the system of people's councils, the system of state organs of power, that controls the state apparatus at lower levels, and these lower-level people's councils elect the people's governments at their corresponding level. People's councils exist at the provincial, district, and village levels. Their powers mirror those of the National Assembly in their own jurisdiction. The people's governments at the provincial, district, and village levels are elected by the people's councils, and are accountable to them and the government as the supreme executive and administrative organ of state power. Laos has two judicial organs: the People's Supreme Court (PSC), the supreme judicial organ, and the People's Supreme Procuratorate (PSP), the supreme procuratorial organ. Both are considered political organs because they implement the political line adopted by the National Assembly, which operates under the LPRP's leadership. The PSC is solely focused on adjudication. It heads the unified system of judicial organs and leads nationwide judicial work. The PSP monitors the implementation of the constitution and laws in all state organs and society at large. It is also empowered to initiate investigations against suspected wrongdoers and file cases against defendants in court. Auditing and anti-corruption work are the responsibility of the State Audit Organisation (SAO), the supreme auditing organ, and the State Inspection Authority (SIA), the supreme supervisory organ. SAO is tasked with conducting an audit of the use of the state budget, finances, and use of state assets. It is responsible for auditing all state organs, transmission belt mass organisations, and organisations financed by the state budget, state funds, or state assets. The SAO president is responsible to the National Assembly and its permanent organ, and the prime minister. The SIA leads anti-corruption work in all state organisations and organisations financed from the state budget, state funds, and state assets. The National Election Committee (NEC) is a non-permanent organ elected by the National Assembly. It is responsible for organising the elections of the people's councils and the National Assembly. The NEC sets the date of election day, which is promulgated through a presidential decree. It is also responsible for disseminating information about the elections to the public. The NEC also plans the composition of the National Assembly. For the 2026 elections, for example, it set a target that at least 30% of elected members were to be female. Foreign relations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ASEAN heads of state in New Delhi on 25 January 2018 The foreign relations of Laos after the takeover by the Pathet Lao in December 1975 were characterised by a hostile posture toward the West, with the government of the LPDR aligning itself with the Soviet Bloc, maintaining ties with the Soviet Union and depending on the Soviets for most of its foreign assistance. Laos's emergence from international isolation has been marked through expanded relations with other countries including Russia, China, Thailand, Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan and Switzerland. Trade relations with the United States were normalised in November 2004 through Congress approved legislation. Laos was admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July 1997 and acceded to the World Trade Organization in 2016. In 2005, it attended the inaugural East Asia Summit. Human rights Ostensibly, the Constitution of Laos that was promulgated in 1991 and amended in 2003 contains safeguards for human rights. For example, Article 8 states that Laos is a multinational state and is committed to equality between ethnic groups. The constitution contains provisions for gender equality, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of press and assembly. On 25 September 2009, Laos ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, nine years after signing the treaty. The stated policy objectives of the Laotian government and international donors remain focused upon achieving sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. An organisation raised concerns in relation to freedom of expression, prison conditions, restrictions on freedom of religions, protection of refugees and asylum-seekers, and the death penalty. Laos has been cited as an origin country for human trafficking. A number of citizens have been victims of sex trafficking in Laos. The Laotian government sometimes controls media channels to prevent critique of its actions. Citizens who have criticised the government have been subjected to enforced disappearances, arrests and torture. == Economy ==

Pakse has experienced growth based on cross-border trade with Thailand and Vietnam. In 2009, the Obama administration in the US declared Laos was no longer a communist state and lifted bans on Laotian companies receiving financing from the US Export-Import Bank. In 2016, China was the biggest foreign investor in the Laotian economy, having invested US$5.395 billion since 1989, according to the Laos Ministry of Planning and Investment's 1989–2014 report. Thailand (invested US$4.489 billion) and Vietnam (invested US$3.108 billion) are the second and third largest investors respectively. Subsistence agriculture accounts for half of the GDP and provides 80% of employment. 4% of the country is arable land and 0.3% used as permanent crop land, the lowest percentage in the Greater Mekong Subregion. The irrigated areas account for 28% of the total area under cultivation which, in turn, represents 12% of all of the agricultural land in 2012. Rice dominates agriculture, with about 80% of the arable land area used for growing rice. Approximately 77% of Laotian farm households are self-sufficient in rice. Laos imports petroleum and gas. Metallurgy is an industry, and the government hopes to attract foreign investment to develop the deposits of coal, gold, bauxite, tin, copper, and other metals. The mining industry of Laos has received attention with foreign direct investments. More than 540 mineral deposits of gold, copper, zinc, lead and other minerals have been identified, explored and mined. The country's water resources and mountainous terrain enable it to produce and export quantities of hydroelectric energy. Of the potential capacity of approximately 18,000 megawatts, around 8,000 megawatts have been committed for export to Thailand and Vietnam. As of 2021, Laos continues to rely on fossil fuels, coal in particular, in domestic electricity production. In 2018, the country ranked 139th on the Human Development Index (HDI), indicating medium development. According to the Global Hunger Index (2018), Laos ranks as the 36th hungriest nation in the world out of the list of the 52 nations with the worst hunger situation(s). In 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights conducted an official visit to Laos and found that the country's top-down approach to economic growth and poverty alleviation "is all too often counterproductive, leading to impoverishment and jeopardizing the rights of the poor and marginalized." A product, Beerlao, was exported in 2017 to more than 20 countries worldwide. It is produced by the Lao Brewery Company. Tourism , looking back towards the Mekong River The tourism sector has grown from 80,000 international visitors in 1990, to 1.876 million in 2010, when tourism had been expected to rise to US$1.5857 billion by 2020. In 2010, 1 in every 11 jobs was in the tourism sector. Export earnings from international visitors and tourism goods are expected to generate 16% of total exports or US$270.3 million in 2010, growing in nominal terms to US$484.2 million (12.5% of the total) in 2020. The European Council on Trade and Tourism awarded the country the "World Best Tourist Destination" designation for 2013 for architecture and history. In 2024, tourist numbers topped 5 million, contributing over US$1 billion to the economy. The Laotian National Tourism Administration, related government agencies and the private sector are working together to realise the vision put forth in the country's National Ecotourism Strategy and Action Plan. This includes decreasing the environmental and cultural impact of tourism; increasing awareness in the importance of ethnic groups and biological diversity; providing a source of income to conserve, sustain and manage the Laotian protected area network and cultural heritage sites; and emphasising the need for tourism zoning and management plans for sites that will be developed as ecotourism destinations. Transportation Laos's first railway line, a 3-km long metre-gauge railway that connects southern Vientiane to Thailand, opened in 2009. In December 2021, the 422-km long Boten–Vientiane railway that runs from the capital Vientiane to Boten at the northern border with China, built as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, was opened. There is external and internal telecommunication. 93% of households have a telephone, either fixed line or mobile. Laos has made progress increasing access to sanitation. In 1990 8% of the rural population had access to improved sanitation. == Demographics ==

data, 2022) The population of Laos in 2024 is estimated to be 7,769,819, with an approximately even distribution of females and males (49.8% female). This makes Laos the 103rd most populous country in the world. Ethnicity The people of Laos are categorised by their distribution by elevation (lowlands, midlands and uplands), as this somewhat correlates with ethnic groupings. More than half of the country's population is ethnic Lao—the principal lowland inhabitants. The Lao belong to the Tai linguistic group who began migrating south from China in the first millennium AD. 10% belong to other "lowland" groups, which together with the Lao people make up the Lao Loum (lowland people). and Thai minorities remain, particularly in the towns, and some left after independence in the 1940s, some of whom relocated either to Vietnam, Hong Kong, or to France. Lao Theung constitute about 30% of the population. Hill people and minority cultures of Laos such as the Hmong, Yao (Mien) (Hmong-Mien), Dao, Shan, and Tibeto-Burman speaking peoples have lived in isolated regions of Laos for years. Mountain/hill tribes of mixed ethno/cultural-linguistic heritage are found in northern Laos, which include the Lua and Khmu people who are indigenous to Laos. Collectively, they are known as Lao Soung or highland Laotians. Lao Soung account for about 10% of the population. Languages like Khmu (Austroasiatic) and Hmong (Hmong-Mien) are spoken by minorities, particularly in the midland and highland areas. A number of Laotian sign languages are used in areas with higher rates of congenital deafness. English, the language of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has become increasingly studied. Religion 66% of Laotians were Theravada Buddhist, 1.5% Christian, 0.1% Muslim, 0.1% Jewish, and 32.3% were other or traditional (mostly practitioners of Tai folk religion) in 2010. Health in Vientiane Female life expectancy at birth was at 70.7 years and male was at 67.4 years in 2025. Healthy life expectancy was 54 years in 2007. Government expenditure on health is about 4% of GDP, In 2004, the net primary enrolment rate was 84%. == Culture ==

Cuisine Sticky rice is a staple food. There are traditions and rituals associated with rice production in environments and among ethnic groups. For example, Khammu farmers in Luang Prabang plant the rice variety khao kam near the farm house in memory of dead parents, or at the edge of the rice field to indicate that parents are alive. Larb is a dish in which chopped meat is blended with toasted rice and then seasoned with herbs, fish sauce, and lime. Cinema The first feature-length film made after the monarchy was abolished is Gun Voice from the Plain of Jars directed by Somchith Pholsena in 1983 and its release was prevented by a censorship board. A commercial feature-length film was Sabaidee Luang Prabang, made in 2008. The 2017 documentary feature film Blood Road was predominantly shot and produced in Laos with assistance from the Laotian government. It was recognised with a News and Documentary Emmy Award in 2018. Australian filmmaker Kim Mordount's first feature film was made in Laos and features a Laotian cast speaking their native language. Entitled The Rocket, the film appeared at the 2013 Melbourne International Film Festival and won three awards at the Berlin International Film Festival. Examples of Lao feature films that have received international recognition include Lao New Wave Cinema's At the Horizon, directed by Anysay Keola, which was screened at the OzAsia Film Festival, and Lao Art Media's Chanthaly, directed by Mattie Do, which was screened at the 2013 Fantastic Fest. In September 2017, Laos submitted Dearest Sister, Mattie Do's second feature film, to the 90th Academy Awards (or the Oscars) for consideration for Best Foreign Language Film, marking the country's first submission for the Oscars. As of 2018, Laos has three theatres dedicated to showing films. Festivals celebration There are public holidays, festivities and ceremonies in Laos. • Hmong New Year (Nopejao) • Bun Pha Wet • Magha Puja • Chinese New Year • Boun Khoun Khao • Boun Pimai • Boun Bang Fai (Rocket festival) • Visakha Puja • Pi Mai/Songkran (Lao New Year) • Khao Phansaa • Haw Khao Padap Din • Awk Phansaa • Bun Nam • Laotian National Day (2 December) Media Sport The martial art of muay Lao, the national sport, is a form of kickboxing similar to Thailand's muay Thai, Burmese Lethwei and Cambodian Pradal Serey. == See also ==