Lua people

The Lua People are a minority cultural group native to Laos, although there is now a sizable community living in Thailand.

The Lua language belongs to the Khmuic branch of the Austroasiatic languages.

Cultural history

Animism, Shamanism and Theravada Buddhism are common spiritual practices for the Lua.

Following the Vietnam War, many Lua families escaped Laos to seek refuge in the Luang Prabang Range area of Nan Province across the border in Thailand. There was a large concentration of Lua refugees at Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in Thailand. In the early 1970s and 1980s, Lua families relocated to the United States. Today, there is a large Lua community in the state of California, expanding from Santa Rosa, Fresno, Modesto, Stockton, Sacramento, and other parts of the state of California, and also including the states of Minnesota, Tennessee, Washington, Iowa, and Illinois. Families who remained in the camps in Thailand resettled in Xaignabouli and neighboring provinces in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, where the Lua people had been originally displaced due to the wars in Southeast Asia.