Project Sekong 2013: Hmong Are A People Of The Mountain Tops

There are, by conservative count, nearly fifty distinct ethnic groups in Laos. Some, like the Hmong and the Khamu, have populations that live in diverse regions of the country and number in the hundreds of thousands. Other groups, possibly headed for cultural extinction, have barely a few hundred members and live in tiny, compact, geographic areas.

Mostly for reasons of order and simplicity, the Lao government has rhetorically divided the various ethnic groups into three broad categories based upon the general elevation of their communities. The classifications are the Lao Loum or people of the lowlands; the Lao Theung, the people of the mid lands; and the Lao Sung, the people of the mountain tops or uppermost slopes.

The Hmong were the last ethnic group to arrive in Laos and for the past two hundred years have occupied land in the highest regions. While their mountain top homes may present transportation challenges and economic hardship, living high above the lowlands has an appeal to the Hmong because it affords them a geographic buffer between their villages and the central government.