Lao

The Lao are a Tai people of the Kra-Dai family who speak Lao and follow Theravada Buddhism. Han chronicles mention their forebears as the Ai Lao, and Tai tribes drifted southwest between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, the flow quickening after the Mongol conquest of Yunnan of 1253 to 1256; they settled around old chiefships such as Muang Sua, later Luang Prabang.

In 1353 Fa Ngum united these mueang into Lan Xang, whose capital moved from Luang Prabang to Vientiane in 1560 and whose palladium was the Phra Bang Buddha. In 1707 Lan Xang broke into the kingdoms of Luang Prabang, Vientiane and Champasak.

In 1779 Siamese armies sacked Vientiane and carried off the Emerald Buddha, making it a Siamese vassal. Anouvong's rebellion of 1826 to 1827 ended with Vientiane burned and its people deported to the Khorat plateau, planting the Lao-speaking majority of Isan.