Introduction to Laos

Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked socialist republic communist state in southeast Asia, bordered by Myanmar (Burma) and the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. Laos traces its history to the Kingdom of Lan Xang or Land of a Million Elephants, which existed from the 14th to the 18th century. After a period as a French colony, it gained independence in 1945. A long civil war ended when the communist Pathet Lao came to power in 1975.

Private enterprise has increased since the mid-1980s, but development has been hampered by poor communications in the heavily forested and mountainous landscape. Most of the population of around 6 million practice subsistence agriculture. The country's ethnic make-up is extremely diverse, with only around 60% belonging to the largest ethnic group, the Lao.

The country's name in the Lao language is 'Meuang Lao'. The French, who made the country part of French Indochina in 1893, spelled it with the s which is usually retained in the spelling and pronunciation of the English name (pronounced as one syllable). The usual adjectival form is "Lao" (as in 'the Lao economy'), not 'Laotian', although the latter is commonly used to describe the people of Laos (to avoid confusion with the Lao ethnic group).