Customs Of Laos

Brief summary about customs of Laos.

Each country has its own customs and traditions that can tell at first glance. Laos is one of the countries in the world that has a rich and unique customs that can not be found in anywhere in this planet.

Family life

Most Lao families are living in the countryside and growing rice for their food. Even though, husband and wife have a different task in every day life but in many cases they still work together in very jobs.

Husband & wife

Harvesting Rice

During the farming season usually starts from June until November, the husband is responsible for plowing, control the water, prepare the seedbed and making the fields ready for planting. The wife is responsible for transplanting the rice seedlings and weeding the fields. The harvesting is taking place in November to December and then when the water level in the Mekong river drop at the end of dry season they begin gardening on the river banks.

A part from farming, the husband has to go fishing or hunting to find food to feed the family. The wife beside cooking, fetching the water from wells or from the Mekong river she also has to enter the wood gathering various forest products and wood for fuel. This is also part of customs of Laos.

Baci or Soukhouan

Baci or Soukhouan is a Lao ritual, the ceremony begins with a group of people sitting around Phakhouan full of flowers and white stings. After "Maw Pawn" finishes the invocation he then tied the stings around a person's wrist to preserve good luck, good health and a peaceful life. The Baci or Soukhouan is a unique customs of Laos and is a ceremony to celebrate a special events such as:

Getting married
Lao new year
Giving birth
Going away to work or to study
Returning home from work or from study
Recover from sickness
Welcoming or bidding farewell to foreign guests

Baci

Today, Baci or Soukhouan is practicing in all kind of social's level including at the President's Palace and at all government level.

Unique Lao Arts

Laos arts including visual, drama, music and literature are the products of religions and local traditions that have been practiced for century as part of customs of Laos. Some of the unique Lao arts including:

Handcraft works

Laos Silverwork

Gold-work, Silver-work, basket making, weaving, and wood carving are very unique work of arts for Lao's people.

Khene Musical Instruments

The Khene is a wood and bamboo mouth organ that is used by rural people for musical instrument.

Kong Vong

The sets of gongs (kong vong), a xylophone (lanat), an oboe (pi), the kettle drums and the sets of cymbals (xing) are all unique Lao musical instrument.

Music

Morlum Lao folk music like lam, lam teuy, lam long, lam san, lam nyao are very popular singing accompanied by the khene.

Kaptum Luang Prabang, Tia Salavan, Lam Tangvai, pop music and Hip hop are also popular in Laos today.

The best Lao classical orchestra used to play for the King in the Royal Palace using a sets of gongs (kong vong) and a xylophone (lanat) is also exceptional.

Laos Classical Orchestra

The Dance Drama
Lao Classical Dance Lao dance drama are based on story of Phra Lak Pha Ram and Ramayana which used to performed in Royal Palace and important events. In the rural area dance drama like Mo Lam Loung are performed during special events or Buddhist festivals. Some of performed drama story including Khoun Lou Nang Oua, Sinxay, Kalakhet and many more...

Literature
Lao manuscript Laos has long history of literature written on palm leaves (Bay Lan) in bali. Most of Lao literature are related to Buddhist religion.

Lao epic the Sinxay and the Ramayana were written in 16th century. In 19th century there were epic like San leup phasun (Extinguishing the Brilliance of the Sun) and Pheun meuang Kung (History of the city or History of Bangkok). These are the most valuable works in Lao literature.

Sadly about customs of Laos in the past due to lack of printing, materials and war in Laos, these literature's books had not been widely available to the public and most of them had been destroyed or lost.

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