LAOS

LAOS
•A landlocked country of Northeast-Central
Mainland Southeast Asia.
• Known for its stunning natural landscapes,
including mountainous terrain, lush forests, and
the Mekong River, which flows through the
country.
• The capital and largest city of Laos is Vientiane.

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 GOVERNMENT &
POLITICS
• Lao People's Democratic Republic
• Government type: Communist State
• The Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) is the
founding and sole ruling party of the Lao People's
Democratic Republic. The party's monopoly on state power
is guaranteed by Article 3 of the Constitution of Laos, and
it maintains a unitary state with centralized control over
the economy and military.
• Head of State: President Thongloun Sisoulith
• Prime Minister: Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone
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 LANGUAGE
• Official and National Language: Lao
Language
o Good morning / Good evening- Sabaï dii /
None lap fan dii
oHow are you?- Sabaï dii bo ?
oWelcome- Nyinditonhab
oThank you (very much)- Khop tchaï laï laï

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 RELIGION
• RELIGION: The predominant religion of Laos
is Theravada Buddhism.
• Other smaller religious communities include
Christians, Muslims, and followers of the Bahāʾī
faith.

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 CULTURE
• Laos has a rich and distinctive culture influenced by its
history, religion, and natural surroundings.
• Laos developed its culture and customs as the
inland crossroads of trade and migration
in Southeast Asia over millennia.
• Weaving is the dominant form of artistic cultural
expression in Laos, it is common across all
ethnicities and is the most widely recognized
cultural export abroad.

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 LITERATURE
• Laos takes most of its traditional literature from
sixteenth and seventeenth century Lan Xang.
• The most notable genre is the epic poetry of which
several masterpieces have survived despite Laos’
tropical climate and history of conflict and warfare.
• Laos has a strong tradition of folklore. Ghost stories,
place legends, stories of naga and trickster tales
of Xieng Mieng are quite popular and are the dominant
forms of oral tradition.

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 THERE IS NOT ONLY YOU By Dara Kanlagna
Translated by: Thanongsack
Vongsackda

There lived a widower with her While feeding your kids you were helped
descendants by ten
She is not anxious with any assistance You are not called for house works or
cooking
Day by day she does merits making
But your poor can not be compared with
She thought there are no other mothers
remote women
who can do as her
Who make incomes for their daily
surviving?
Oh dear! You feed your kids with no
weeping
Imagining when their kids were killed by
But you still said that you were poor
bombs
The poorest woman in this world
They were crying as if they would die
You 8asked to whom are poor level as you,LAOS
Those were the most awful time of their
please clarify
THE BEWAIL OF MOTHER
By Dr. Thongkham
Onemanisone My dear daughter!
Translated by Thanongsack Why I cannot prevent my depressing tears
Vongsackda They are running over my cheers
In particular when discovered about the past
It seems sharp knife is placed in my heart

Mother effort is always assigned to daughter

To overcome all hardwork without any distress
For rearing the daughter up with carefulness
When growing up she forgot the mother deed
What made her mind changing?

Even if she doesn't care but mother still beg

To hear sweet words saying here is my mother
When I die I won't be boring
Since that word shown you accept the deed of your mother
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Dr. Thongkham Onemanisone
• A SEA Write Award poet and national
author.
• He was born in 1949.
• He graduated with a Philosophy degree on
language and literature from Hungary.
• His refined works are fashionable and
recognized by the society and readers in
the present period of literature.
• He is a researcher for Lao idiom, literature
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 THE MOSQUITO A Tale from Laos
Mosquitoes are always annoying and The genii said" Knowing of your virtue, I Ngoe Tam found her after a mont
sometimes unbearable, but few people have placed my mountain on your path. If creaseless searching, but Nhat Tam
know where they come form or why they you wish. was living the life of her dream and ref
whine incessantly as they try to suck a little to return to their house with him. He
of our blood. I will enroll you amongst my disciples"
her for the first time as she was and cu
Ngoe Tam a poor farmer married Nhan deep Ngoe Tam thanked him humbly but vowed of his blind love, said to her," You are
a frivolous and lazy girl who dreamt only of he would never leave his wife and begged
but give me back the three drops of bl
luxury and pleasure. She easily who dram and genii to bring her to life again. The genii
looked at him with kindness and pity in his spent restoring you to life. I do not wan
taste and pleasure. She easily hid her tastes keep the least part of me,“
and ambitions from her husband, whose eyes and said' why do you cling to his life
love was neither exacting nor imageries and an illusion? What folly to trust being who is
who thought her contentment with her life. feeble and inconstant! I want to grand your Nhan deep was overjoyed to be rid of
wish but I hope that in time to come you will so easily and, snatching a knife, pricked
Nhan deep died suddenly leaving Ngoe Tam not regret its fulfilment." end of her finger. As soon as the b
desolate and inconsolable. He refused to be began to flow, she grew dreadfully pale
parted from his wife's corpse and selling his At his order Ngoe Tam opened the coffin and
cutting the end of his finger let three drops fell lifeless to the ground.
possessions he set sail with her coffin and
drifted down the river. of blood fall on to body of Nhan deep. She
opened her eyes slowly as if awakening Nhan deep could not resign herself to
One morning he found himself at the foot of from a deep sleep. fate and returned to the world in the for
a little hill covered with grass and sweet a little and insect and purred NGOE
smelling tress. He landed and and "Remember your duties, said the genii to
her. "Think of what you owe your husband." whining and pleading incessantly as
wandered enchanted trees. He reached the endeavored to steal the three drop
top of the hill without knowing he was Ngoe Tam, anxious to reach home, rowed blood which would restore her life.
climbing and suddenly met an old man night and day until one evening he landed
learning on a bamboo staff. His hair was as Her race multiplied and his is show t
at a village to buy provisions, leaving Nhan pets we all know so well came
white as cotton, but his wrinkle face was Deep alone in the boat. While he was gone,
hardly 11
tanned and his eyes under his place LAOS existence.
a large barge moored alongside and the
eyelashes sparkle like those of a young
 TIPS IN SUMMARIZING
• Read the selection with full comprehension.
• Identify the unfamiliar words.
• Omit unnecessary words and retain the meaning
of the selection.
• Condense long ideas into short ideas.
• Replace a word for a-phrase or a phrase to a
clause.

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 “ THANK YOU!

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”