Rural Lao Lum traditionally live in villages of 40-50 households, living in timber and thatch houses raised on stilts. They engage in rice farming and use water buffalo and oxen. Villages are close-knit though families are nuclear. Marriage requires a bride price and initially the groom lives with the bride's family. Wealthier urban Lao Lum live in large houses. Lao Thoeng and Lao Sung are other ethnic groups that practice slash and burn farming and have smaller villages, building houses directly on the ground. Extended families can include up to 20 people and traditionally practiced polygyny. Ethnic Lao culture is closely tied to Buddhism but there is diversity from the

1. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
Reported by:
Judith D. Saldevia
(BSEd 3-C, Group 9)

2. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
Way of Life
Rural Lao Lum traditionally live
in self-sufficient villages,
typically made up of some 40 to
50 households. Houses of
timber, thatch, and split bamboo
are constructed on wooden

3. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
piles, with the floor about 2 m (6
ft) above the ground. The
agricultural year centers on the
cultivation of glutinous (short-
grain) rice, the preferred variety
among the Lao Lum. Villagers
use buffalo for plowing and

4. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
oxen for pulling carts. Lao Lum
form close-knit communities, but
families are nuclear—consisting
of two parents and their
children—not extended.
Marriage requires payment of a
bride-price (a payment made by

5. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
the groom to the bride’s family),
and the groom normally resides
at first with his wife’s parents.
When the couple can afford it,
they build their own house.
Wealthier urban Lao Lum live in
spacious villas. In the past,

6. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
some Lao Lum men took two or
more wives, a practice called
polygyny, but this practice is now
illegal and therefore less
common.

7. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
Lao Thoeng villages are generally
smaller than those of the
lowland Lao but are constructed
of similar materials. The Lao
Thoeng are slash-and-burn
farmers, who clear an area of the
forest to build a village and plant

8. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
crops. In 15 to 20 years, when
the surrounding forest has been
cut and the nutrients in the soil
have been depleted, they may
move the village to a new area.
Lao Thoeng men must choose
wives from a clan other than

9. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
their own. After marriage, a wife
resides with her husband’s
family until the shared house
becomes too crowded and the
couple constructs their own.
Polygyny is rare among the Lao
Thoeng.

10. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
Lao Sung villages are similar in
size to those of the Lao Thoeng,
and like them may be relocated
when soils are exhausted. Unlike
other Lao, the Lao Sung
construct their houses on the
ground with a stamped earth

11. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
floor. They raise numerous pigs
and chickens and use hardy
mountain ponies for
transportation. Their principal
cash crop traditionally has been
opium, though production is
now officially outlawed.

12. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
Extended families made up of
parents, sons and their wives,
and grandchildren may number
up to 20 people. Polygyny, while
formerly widespread, is now
illegal.

13. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
Culture
Ethnic Lao culture is closely
entwined with Buddhism, but
the country’s ethnic diversity
produces a corresponding
cultural diversity. Painting is not
a highly developed art form, but

14. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
music, dance, weaving, and
embroidery are.

15. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
Source:
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. ©
1993-2008 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.

16. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Laos
Khowp Jai!!!

17. Socio-Cultural Setting
as we
Understanding

18. Socio-Cultural
Community
for
establish a

21. Republic of the Philippines
CAPIZ STATE UNIVERSITY
Dumarao Satellite College, Dumarao, Capiz
Theme: “Understanding Better the Political, Economic &
Socio-Cultural
Settings of Southeast Asian Nations for
Peace, Prosperity & People”
May 25, 2015 (8:00-11:30 am)
Campus Library