How We Present the Data

We have tried to improve the spelling of ethnic and place names in order to make them coherent with the conventions of the English and French languages, so that they properly represent the acutal Lao pronunciation. For example, the capital city has traditionally been spelled "Vientiane" which does not reflect the Lao pronunciation. It is actually pronounced as "Viengtiane" (sometimes transcribed as "Viengchan"). This is the spelling we have adopted for our data bank because it highlights inaccuracies from traditional transcriptions. We have kept the traditional spellings in the addresses we have listed. Generally, we have adopted "ou" for transcribing /u/ of I.P.A. and "u" for the vowel /y/ of I.P.A., a vowel which exists in Lao, but which is not found in French or English. The Lao language has a distinction between "ay" and "ey". In order to maintain this distinction in French and English, we use "e" for "ay" and "ae" for "ey". We use "eu" to "oe" and we use "ny" instead of "ng" for the consonant /ñ/, but "ng" for /ŋ/. The Lao language has two series of initial consonants corresponding to different tones. It was not possible to keep these two series, but following the accepted convention that is shown on the maps of the National Geographic Institute. We have kept a distinction between "s" and "x" for the consonant /s/ of I.P.A. Syllables beginning with "s" are pronounced with a rising tone. Syllables beginning with "x" have a low or falling tone. Finally, we do not account for the syllable's length because it is not relevant in English or French and it is difficult to show producing inacurate pronunciation among the speakers of these two Western languages. Generally, the Lao language has long vowel syllables. When it seems that a syllable is ending with a short vowel, it is always followed by a glottal stop. That is represented by an apostrophe. For example: Nge'

How We Collect Data

Our ethnographic data bank team consists of four Laotian researchers and three Lao archivists from the Institute of Cultural Research and an international anthropologist expert. The researchers and the expert conduct field work and collect data throughout the eighteen provinces of Laos. Meanwhile, the archivists in Vientiane enter the data into the bank. We cooperate with local cultural officers to document cultures at the village level within each province. We also train them in ethnographic investigation and how to use digital video and photographic equipment.

We collect information by province. Before visiting a province, we first contact the local cultural officers in order to scope out which villages (ban) are the best preserved for our investigation of traditional culture among each ethnic group of the province. A cultural officer and when available a specialist accompany the data bank team to thevillage (ban) to make introductions and to facilitate communication between the data bank team and the people of the ban. The data bank team systematically records ethnographic data in the form of written and recorded inquiries supplemented by digital photography, sound and video. This data is systematically saved on a CD-ROM or a DVD in the field, taken back to Vientiane, and studied and progressively entered into the Ethnographical Data Bank of Laos.

We are still in the midst of gathering data from the vast number of ethnic groups in Laos. To date, we have visited and gathered data from eight out of the eighteen provinces in Laos and are publishing our data on this website as we collect it.

The names and spellings of some provinces and ethnic groups vary. For spellings, we follow a transliteration of the Lao orthography when it is coherent with the local pronunciation of the various languages and dialects and a latin alphabet transcription of the special sounds which are not reproduced in the Lao writing system. All the names we retain are checked with the local ethnic community. When there is a difference between the actual autonym and the traditional or official name of the group, we provide first the name claimed by the group as its autonym followed, between brackets, by the official or traditional name. Both names are listed among ethnic names and will link to the same page anyway. For example: Brao (Lavae); Halak (Alak)....

How to Use this Site

Browsing by Region

The data we have collected is presented by region to remain consistent with how we have gathered the data. You can select the region you would like to investigate on the Laos map or list of provinces in the left hand navigation. From there, you are able to view data from ban within your selected province. All the data you will see when browsing by region was collected by us.

Browsing by Ethnic Group

Even when browsing by region, you may also find general information on ethnic groups at anytime by selecting the ethnic group in the footer navigation. Data in this area may be from other sources we have found or may be abstracts we have written upon these cultures.

Search

Because of the large amount of information on this website, we recommend that you use our search engine to find information most efficiently. You can type keywords in the search field in the upper right hand corner of this website. The search index is updated everytime an update has been made to the site.