BruceLaoMan wrote:

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My great grandpa told me that Sip Song Pan Nah belonged to the Kingdom of Laos but taken by Han Chinese. Our King Khun Borom Rachathirath fought the Han Chinese back in the day. I do want to visit Yunnan one day to see my ancestors.

Laotai is the father of our race. Unfortunately, some of our Laotians look like cambodians because we were under the Khmer Empire in the 12th century (?) then we were under the Siamese Empire in the 15th century.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luk4EVUcdqE

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could u guys tell me how come this area taken by Chinese? and when?

Sipsong Panna was part of the Lao kingdom since Fa Ngum's reign (1353). Around the 16th century, it became part of Burma. Then Sipsong Panna was reunited with Lanxang in the 17th century. Siam then took over throughout the 18th and 19th century. At last the Chinese communists seized Sipsongpanna in 1950s.

Anonymous wrote:

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i wonder, if Han Chinese is the same as Hor like most Northern Lao people known.

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Do you mean Hawk like a certain ethnic group in Laos?

 

khonthakek wrote:

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why is Dai cloth colorful? especially Pink, red, yellow. orange?

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Those are not authentic Dai or Tai Lue costume. The clothes you see here are cheap factory made, not handmade like you'll see in Laos or Northern Thailand. 

 

code615 wrote:

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Lao people were under Khmer empire 12th century? Where did you get that information? Those who look Khmer may well com from Khamu tribe, beside there were many tribes in part of southern Laos that some how related to the Mon-Khmer group. I'm sure that many of Khamu integrated with the rest of Lao population and consider themselve Lao. These people are so called aboriginals of Laos. There are some Vietnamese that look Cambodian. It just so normal that one ethnic may have some similarity with others since the people are living next door to each other. Lao people were never under or influence by the Khmer empire. I've read quite a number of history books, but yours is not even making sense. Bruce not so Laoman. 

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I never professed to be a historian and I merely said that my great grandpa told me about the Khmer Empire, but because I wasn't sure, I enclosed a (?) inside the parentheses denoting the uncertainty in English. I recommend you to take reading comprehensive ESL courses since English is too foreign to you and as far as the Khmer Empire is concerned, please read below. If you have further interest then click on the link provided to you by none other than BLM. Take it easy all right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Empire

The Khmer Empire was the second largest empire of South East Asia (the largest empire is Srivijaya), based in what is now Cambodia. The empire, which seceded from the kingdom of Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalised parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Malaysia. During the formation of the empire, Khmer had close cultural, political and trade relations with Java, and later with Srivijaya empire that lay beyond Khmer's southern border. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, which was the capital during the empire's zenith. Angkor bears testimony to the Khmer empire's immense power and wealth, as well as the variety of belief systems that it patronised over time. The empire's official religions included Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism, until Theravada Buddhism prevailed after its introduction from Sri Lanka in the 13th century. Modern satellites have revealed Angkor to be the largest pre-industrial urban center in the world, larger than modern day New York.

 

I agree with you most of the lao in the southern, say from Khammuan to Champasack, if not talking in the general scense, it is not so true saying you are a 100% lao unless you know your ancestors were Phu-tai or lao-esan. To not talk much, think about the story of Sikhot-tabong, Fadeng-Nang Ai, Malong-Bachieng, and some of the of the ancient stories in this region, i am pretty sure that not a lot of people from the north or from Bolikhamsay up, would not have heard about these much. in fact these story are the story of khmer. However, i don't know how people in this region became lao as we see today, but i personally think that over a period of time, generation after generation people in this region noticed themselves as lao and since the new generations were born as lao speaker, the ancient stories then later being told in lao as well. it is hard to explain this process but i hope you can see the scene i am talking about and i would call this as a converting of culture and language rather than diffusing or influencing though i know this does not sound right.

my grandmother was Phouthai, there are lots of Phouthai live in the southern thakhek,

khonthakek wrote:

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This is an orignal ai lao minority who had settled in southern china in 4000 years ago?i am not sure this minority whether was our accestor .

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She looks Tibetan. This is way off topic.

 

Anonymous wrote:

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yes , that's native american.   don't you know that khonthakeak  ???   lol

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you mean Indian? i think our accestor looked like native american haha, but this pic was really traditional ailao dress, i might be wrong or someone might be wrong as well that posted this on some website, i googled it..LOL