Who are the Hmong / Lao People?

Laos is a landlocked country in Indochina. It is surrounded by China, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and North Vietnam. Its earliest known people came from southern China and Thailand about 200 A.D. From about 1875 to 1975 French Catholic missionaries and French Government leaders provided the only significant exposure to Christianity. Some remnants of Catholicism remain. Following the Vietnam war, Russian and Chinese style communism gained a foothold. Christianity became a restricted religion. The spiritual life – and social life of today -- is influenced almostly exclusively by Buddhism. There are three main “groups” of Laotians: Those who befriended the West. Those who befriended communism. Those who did not pick sides. Almost all Laotians in America today came from families who befriended the West, and were able to free themselves from refugee camps after the Vietnam war.

The Hmong people came from central China to Laos following war with China many centuries ago. The Hmong people were allowed to settle in the mountains in Laos where there was little farm land available for growing rice. The Hmong were known as fierce warriors and horsemen. The Hmong people (for the most part) were pro-western before, during, and after Vietnam. Catholic and Lutheran Christians in the mid-west befriended the Hmong people after the war, sponsoring them to come to America from the refugee camps.

For more info/photos about the Hmong ministry,
please visit www.hmongministry.net