Laos and Related Topics

Vietnam

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Country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of 311699 km2 and population of 96 million, making it the world's fifteenth-most populous country.

The Grand Palais built for the 1902–1903 world's fair, when Hanoi was French Indochina's capital

Partition of French Indochina after the 1954 Geneva Conference

Three US Fairchild UC-123B aircraft spraying Agent Orange during the Operation Ranch Hand as part of a herbicidal warfare operation depriving the food and vegetation cover of the Việt Cộng, c. 1962–1971

Nature attractions in Vietnam, clockwise from top: Hạ Long Bay, Yến River and Bản-Giốc Waterfalls

Hoàng Liên Sơn mountain range, the range that includes Fansipan which is the highest summit on the Indochinese Peninsula.

Köppen climate classification map of Vietnam.

Nha Trang, a popular beach destination has a tropical savanna climate.

Native species in Vietnam, clockwise from top-right: crested argus, a peafowl, red-shanked douc, Indochinese leopard, saola.

Sa Pa mountain hills with agricultural activities

The National Assembly of Vietnam building in Hanoi

Examples of the Vietnam People's Armed Forces weaponry assets. Clockwise from top right: T-54B tank, Sukhoi Su-27UBK fighter aircraft, Vietnam Coast Guard Hamilton-class cutter, and Vietnam People's Army chemical corps with Type 56.

A Communist Party propaganda poster in Hanoi

Historical GDP per capita development of Vietnam

Vietnam's tallest skyscraper, the Landmark 81 located in Bình Thạnh, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

A Vietnamese-made TOPIO 3.0 humanoid ping-pong-playing robot displayed during the 2009 International Robot Exhibition (IREX) in Tokyo.

Vietnamese science students working on an experiment in their university lab.

Hội An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a major tourist destination.

HCMC–LT–DG section of the North–South Expressway.

Tan Son Nhat International Airport is the busiest airport in the country.

The port of Hai Phong is one of the largest and busiest container ports in Vietnam.

Sơn La Dam in northern Vietnam, the largest hydroelectric dam in Southeast Asia.

In rural areas of Vietnam, piped water systems are operated by a wide variety of institutions including a national organisation, people committees (local government), community groups, co-operatives and private companies.

Development of life expectancy in Vietnam since 1950

Vietnamese calligraphy in Latin alphabet.

Vietnamese traditional white school uniform for girls in the country, the áo dài with the addition of nón lá, a conical hat.

Vietnamese dragon on Emperor Khải Định's c. 1917 scroll in British Library collection.

Ca trù trio performance in northern Vietnam

Some of the notable Vietnamese cuisine, clockwise from top-right: phở noodle, chè thái fruit dessert, chả giò spring roll and bánh mì sandwich.

Vietnam Television (VTV), the main state television station

Special Tết decoration in the country seen during the holiday

Vietnam borders China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, and shares maritime borders with Thailand through the Gulf of Thailand, and the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia through the South China Sea.

Thailand

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Country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of Mainland Southeast Asia, spanning 513120 km2, with a population of almost 70 million.

SPPM Mongkut Rex Siamensium, King Mongkut's signature

Map showing geographic distribution of Tai-Kadai linguistic family. Arrows represent general pattern of the migration of Tai-speaking tribes along the rivers and over the lower passes.

Taksin the Great enthroned himself as a Thai king, 1767.

United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, Red Shirts, protest in 2010

Thailand map of Köppen climate classification.

The population of Asian elephants in Thailand's wild has dropped to an estimated 2,000–3,000.

Sappaya-Sapasathan, the current Parliament House of Thailand

King Bhumibol Adulyadej in a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, 18 November 2012

The HTMS Chakri Naruebet, an aircraft carrier of the Royal Thai Navy

A proportional representation of Thailand exports, 2019

Sathorn in Bangkok is a skyscraper-studded business district that is home to major hotels and embassies.

Development of real GDP per capita, 1890 to 2018

A proportional representation of Thailand's exports

Thailand has long been one of the largest rice exporters in the world. Forty-nine percent of Thailand's labour force is employed in agriculture.

The BTS Skytrain is an elevated rapid transit system in Bangkok

Hill tribes girls in the Northeast of Thailand

Samanera of Theravada Buddhism, the most practised religion in Thailand.

Chulalongkorn University, established in 1917, is the oldest university in Thailand.

Thailand is a country where school uniform is mandatory.

Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, the oldest and largest hospital in Thailand.

Thai women wearing sabai, Jim Thompson House

People floating krathong rafts during the Loi Krathong festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Scene from the Ramakien depicted on a mural at Wat Phra Kaew.

Two sculptures guarding the eastern gate to the main chapel of Wat Arun.

Sculptures of Phra Aphai Mani and the Mermaid from the epic poem Phra Aphai Mani, a work of Sunthorn Phu.

Khon show is the most stylised form of Thai performance.

The country is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the extremity of Myanmar.

Cambodia

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Glazed stoneware dating back to the 12th century

Khmer army going to war against the Cham, from a relief on the Bayon

Rooms of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum contain thousands of photos taken by the Khmer Rouge of their victims.

Choeung Ek, a known site of mass grave for genocide victims during the Khmer Rouge era

Antigovernment protests in support of opposition party CNRP took place in Cambodia following the 2013 general election.

Köppen climate classification map of Cambodia

Macaques at Phnom Pros, Kampong Cham Province

Cambodian foreign minister Prak Sokhonn meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, D.C., 13 May 2022.

Prime minister Hun Sen with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow, 19 May 2016.

Left to right: Senate President Say Chhum, National Assembly President Heng Samrin and Prime Minister Hun Sen, on Independence Day, 9 November 2019.

Cambodia's deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha (left) has been arrested in September 2017 while opposition leader Sam Rainsy (right) has lived in exile since November 2015

Real GPD per capita development of Cambodia

A proportional representation of Cambodia exports, 2019

The Cambodian position on the Human Development Index, 1970–2010

Farmers harvesting rice in Battambang Province

Every year, nearly 2.6 million tourists visit Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Cambodian couple wearing traditional wedding outfit (Sompot, Sbai, Chong Kben).

Pchum Ben, also known as "Ancestors Day", is an important religious festival celebrated by Khmer Buddhists.

Cambodian medical students watching a surgery operation

The Institute of Foreign Languages of the Royal University of Phnom Penh

The 19th-century illustration tale of Vorvong & Sorvong

Sinn Sisamouth, a famous Cambodian singer

Hun Sen and ASEAN leaders with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House during the U.S.–ASEAN Summit, 13 May 2022.

Cambodia (also Kampuchea ; កម្ពុជា, Kâmpŭchéa ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of 181035 km2, bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest.

Clockwise from top left: U.S. combat operations in Ia Đrăng

ARVN Rangers defending Saigon during the 1968 Tết Offensive

Two A-4C Skyhawks after the Gulf of Tonkin incident

ARVN recapture Quảng Trị during the 1972 Easter Offensive

Civilians fleeing the 1972 Battle of Quảng Trị

Burial of 300 victims of the 1968 Huế Massacre

Vietnam War

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Ba Cut in Can Tho Military Court 1956, commander of religious movement the Hòa Hảo, which had fought against the Việt Minh, Vietnamese National Army and Cao Dai movement throughout the first war

Map of insurgency and "disturbances", 1957 to 1960

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles greet President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam in Washington, 8 May 1957

The Ho Chi Minh trail, known as the Truong Son Road by the North Vietnamese, cuts through Laos. This would develop into a complex logistical system which would allow the North Vietnamese to maintain the war effort despite the largest aerial bombardment campaign in history

The Ho Chi Minh trail required, on average, four months of rough-terrain travel for combatants from North Vietnam destined for the Southern battlefields.

President Kennedy's news conference of 23 March 1961

Ngô Đình Diệm after being shot and killed in a coup on 2 November 1963

A U.S. B-66 Destroyer and four F-105 Thunderchiefs dropping bombs on North Vietnam during Operation Rolling Thunder

ARVN Forces and a US Advisor inspect a downed helicopter, Battle of Dong Xoai, June 1965

A Marine from 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, moves a suspected Viet Cong during a search and clear operation held by the battalion 15 mi west of Da Nang Air Base, 1965.

Peasants suspected of being Viet Cong under detention of U.S. Army, 1966

Heavily bandaged woman burned by napalm, with a tag attached to her arm which reads "VNC Female" meaning Vietnamese civilian

A US "tunnel rat" soldier prepares to enter a Viet Cong tunnel.

Viet Cong soldier crouches in a bunker with an SKS rifle

ARVN forces assault a stronghold in the Mekong Delta.

Viet Cong before departing to participate in the Tet Offensive around Saigon-Gia Dinh

The ruins of a section of Saigon, in the Cholon neighborhood, following fierce fighting between ARVN forces and Viet Cong Main Force battalions

Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin with U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Glassboro Summit Conference where the two representatives discussed the possibilities of a peace settlement

Propaganda leaflet urging the defection of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese to the side of the Republic of Vietnam

ARVN and US Special Forces, September 1968

An alleged Viet Cong captured during an attack on an American outpost near the Cambodian border is interrogated.

Soviet advisers inspecting the debris of a B-52 downed in the vicinity of Hanoi

American POWs recently released from North Vietnamese prison camps, 1973

Civilians in a NVA/Viet Cong controlled zone. Civilians were required to show appropriate flags, during the War of the flags

Memorial commemorating the 1974 Buon Me Thuot campaign, depicting a Montagnard of the Central Highlands, a NVA soldier and a T-54 tank

Victorious PAVN troops at the Presidential Palace, Saigon

Ho Chi Minh from the Việt Minh independence movement and Việt Cộng with East German sailors in Stralsund harbour, 1957

Leonid Brezhnev (left) was the Soviet Union's leader during the Vietnam War.

Soviet anti-air instructors and North Vietnamese crewmen in the spring of 1965 at an anti-aircraft training center in Vietnam

Vietnam People's Air Force pilots walk by their aircraft, the MiG-17. The development of the North Vietnamese Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) during the war was assisted by Warsaw Pact nations throughout the war. Between 1966 and 1972 a total of 17 flying aces was credited by the VPAF against US fighters.

Fidel Castro meeting with Võ Nguyên Giáp at the Vietnam Military History Museum

East German solidarity stamp depicting a Vietnamese mother and child with the text "Unconquerable Vietnam"

The Thai Queen's Cobra battalion in Phuoc Tho

Napalm burn victims during the war being treated at the 67th Combat Support Hospital

Interment of victims of the Huế Massacre

Master-Sergeant and pharmacist Do Thi Trinh, part of the WAFC, supplying medication to ARVN dependents

Memorial temple to Nguyễn Thị Định and the female volunteers of the Viet Cong whom she commanded. They came to call themselves the "Long-Haired Army".

A wounded African-American soldier being carried away, 1968

Guerrillas assemble shells and rockets delivered along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

UH-1D helicopters airlift members of a U.S. infantry regiment, 1966

North Vietnamese SAM crew in front of SA-2 launcher. The Soviet Union provided North Vietnam with considerable anti-air defence around installations.

Bombs being dropped by the B-52 Stratofortress long-range strategic bomber.

B-52 wreckage in Huu Tiep Lake, Hanoi. Downed during Operation Linebacker II, its remains have turned into a war monument.

Vietnamese refugees fleeing Vietnam, 1984

A bombed Buddha statue in Laos. U.S. bombing campaigns made Vietnam the single most bombed country in history.

Captured U.S.-supplied armored vehicles and artillery pieces

A young Marine private waits on the beach during the Marine landing, Da Nang, 3 August 1965

A marine gets his wounds treated during operations in Huế City, in 1968

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and General Westmoreland talk with General Tee on conditions of the war in Vietnam.

U.S. helicopter spraying chemical defoliants in the Mekong Delta, South Vietnam, 1969

Handicapped children in Vietnam, most of them victims of Agent Orange, 2004

Cemetery for ten unmarried girls who volunteered for logistical activities, who died in a B-52 raid at Đồng Lộc Junction, a strategic junction along the Ho Chi Minh trail

Stone plaque with photo of the "Thương tiếc" (Mourning Soldier) statue, originally, installed at the Republic of Vietnam National Military Cemetery. The original statue was demolished in April 1975.

The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.

Ban Tha Lat, Mon inscription (9th CE), was found in 1968, in an area where other pieces of
archaeological evidence testified to an ancient Mon presence. It is now at Ho Phra Kaeo Museum, Vientiane, Laos

Vientiane

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Haw Phra Kaew or Temple of the Emerald Buddha

Older taxis in Vientiane are being replaced by newer Chinese-made cars, like this Soueast Lioncel.

Vientiane (, ; ວຽງຈັນ, Viangchan, ) is the capital and largest city of Laos.

Lan Xang

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The Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang Hom Khao (ລ້ານຊ້າງຮົ່ມຂາວ lān sāng hôm khāo, ; "Million Elephants and White Parasols") existed as a unified kingdom from 1353 to 1707.

Statue of Fa Ngum, founder of the Lan Xang kingdom

Mainland Southeast Asia in the early 15th century
Teal: Lan Xang
Purple: Lan Na
Orange: Sukhothai Kingdom
Blue Violet: Ayutthaya Kingdom
Red: Khmer Empire
Yellow: Champa
Blue: Đại Việt

Lan Xang and Mainland Southeast Asia in 1540 CE

Wat Visoun, as seen by Louis Delaporte c.1867

Statue of King Sai Setthathirath at Pha That Luang, Vientiane

Seated Buddha figure from Lan Xang, 17th century

Pha That Luang and its place in Vientiane

Monk repainting a Nāga at Pha That Luang

The kingdom is the precursor for the country of Laos and the basis for its national historic and cultural identity.

Areas of Laos controlled by the Pathet Lao and bombed by the United States Air Force in support of the Kingdom of Laos.

Laotian Civil War

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French General Salan and Prince Sisavang in the Lao capital, Luang Prabang, 4 May 1953

The Ho Chi Minh trail was used by Vietnamese and Laotian people from the very beginning. Captured Viet Cong, circa 1959

The Laotian Armed Forces training Center at Khang Khai, Laos, March 1960

Anti-communist Hmong guerrilla troops in 1961.

Barrel Roll and Steel Tiger operational area, 1965.

Damage caused by a communist ground attack on Luang Prabang airfield, 1967

North Vietnamese troops march through Laos, 1967

Barrel Roll, Steel Tiger and Tiger Hound operational areas.

A U.S. Air Force Bell UH-1P from the 20th Special Operations Squadron "Green Hornets" at a base in Laos, 1970.

A Royal Lao Air Force (RLAF) North American T-28D-5 Trojan armed trainer loaded with bombs at Long Tieng airfield in Laos, September 1972

Pathet Lao soldiers in Vientiane, Laos, 1973

Hmong woman and child at Long Tieng, Laos military base in 1973.

Laotians hired to assist U.S. troops assigned with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command sift then move tons of dirt on a mountain near Xépôn, Laos (July 2004)

Unexploded cluster sub-munition, probably a BLU-26 type. Plain of Jars, Laos. 2012

Anti-aircraft troops of the Laotian Peoples Liberation Army.

The Laotian Civil War (1959–1975) was a civil war in Laos which was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975.

Southeast Asia

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Geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of Mainland China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and north of Australia.

Megalithic statue found in Tegurwangi, Sumatra, Indonesia 1500 CE

The Austroasiatic and Austronesian expansions into Maritime Southeast Asia.

Bronze drum from Sông Đà, northern Vietnam. Mid-1st millennium BC

Spread of Hinduism from South Asia to Southeast Asia

Borobudur temple in Central Java, Indonesia

Wapauwe Old Mosque is the oldest surviving mosque in Indonesia, and the second oldest in Southeast Asia, built in 1414

Fort Cornwallis in George Town marks the spot where the British East India Company first landed in Penang in 1786, thus heralding the British colonisation of Malaya

Duit, a coin minted by the VOC, 1646–1667. 2 kas, 2 duit

Southeast Asia map of Köppen climate classification

Komodo dragon in Komodo National Park, Indonesia

Wallace's hypothetical line divides Indonesian Archipelago into 2 types of fauna, Australasian and Southeast Asian fauna. The deepwater of the Lombok Strait between the islands of Bali and Lombok formed a water barrier even when lower sea levels linked the now-separated islands and landmasses on either side

The Port of Singapore is the busiest transshipment and container port in the world, and is an important transportation and shipping hub in Southeast Asia

Along with its temples Cambodia has been promoting its coastal resorts. Island off Otres Beach Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Population distribution of the countries of Southeast Asia (with Indonesia split into its major islands).

Ati woman in Aklan – the Negritos were the earliest inhabitants of Southeast Asia.

Spirit houses are common in areas of Southeast Asia where Animism is a held belief.

The Mother Temple of Besakih, one of Bali's most significant Balinese Hindu temples.

Thai Theravada Buddhists in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The prayer hall of the Goddess of Mercy Temple, the oldest Taoist temple in Penang, Malaysia.

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque in Brunei, an Islamic country with Sharia rule.

Roman Catholic Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, the metropolitan see of the Archbishop of Manila, Philippines.

A Protestant church in Indonesia. Indonesia has the largest Protestant population in Southeast Asia.

Jewish Surabaya Synagogue in Indonesia, demolished in 2013.

The Royal Ballet of Cambodia (Paris, France 2010)

Angklung as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity

Thai manuscript from before the 19th-century writing system

Sign in Balinese and Latin script at a Hindu temple in Bali

The UN Statistics Division for Asia are based on convenience rather than implying any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories:
Central Asia
Eastern Asia
Northern Asia
South-eastern Asia
Southern Asia
Western Asia

Map showing the divergent plate boundaries (oceanic spreading ridges) and recent sub-aerial volcanoes (mostly at convergent boundaries), with a high density of volcanoes situated in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Bái Đính Temple in Ninh Bình Province – the largest complex of Buddhist temples in Vietnam

Vietnam and Laos are some of the only countries in the world left that continue to follow the socialist or communist model.

Myanmar

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Country in Southeast Asia.

Pyu city-states, c. 8th century; Pagan is shown for comparison only and is not contemporary.

Pagodas and kyaungs in present-day Bagan, the capital of the Pagan Kingdom

A British 1825 lithograph of Shwedagon Pagoda shows British occupation during the First Anglo-Burmese War.

The landing of British forces in Mandalay after the last of the Anglo-Burmese Wars, which resulted in the abdication of the last Burmese monarch, King Thibaw Min

British troops firing a mortar on the Mawchi road, July 1944

British governor Hubert Elvin Rance and Sao Shwe Thaik at the flag-raising ceremony on 4 January 1948 (Independence Day of Burma)

Protesters gathering in central Rangoon, 1988.

Protesters in Yangon during the 2007 Saffron Revolution with a banner that reads non-violence: national movement in Burmese. In the background is Shwedagon Pagoda.

Cyclone Nargis in southern Myanmar, May 2008.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Aung San Suu Kyi and her staff at her home in Yangon, 2012

Map of Myanmar and its divisions, including Shan State, Kachin State, Rakhine State and Karen State.

Protesters against the military coup in Myanmar

Myanmar map of Köppen climate classification.

Assembly of the Union (Pyidaungsu Hluttaw)

Myanmar President Thein Sein meets US President Barack Obama in Yangon, 2012

The former Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant (1961–1971)

A Myanmar Air Force Mikoyan MiG-29 multirole fighter

Map of conflict zones in Myanmar. States and regions affected by fighting during and after 1995 are highlighted in yellow.

Mae La camp, Tak, Thailand, one of the largest of nine UNHCR camps in Thailand

A proportional representation of Myanmar exports, 2019

The trains are relatively slow in Myanmar. The railway trip from Bagan to Mandalay takes about 7.5 hours (179 km).

Rice is Myanmar's largest agricultural product.

A block of apartments in downtown Yangon, facing Bogyoke Market. Much of Yangon's urban population resides in densely populated flats.

Praying Buddhist monks in Shwedagon Pagoda

Students on their way to school, Kalaymyo, Sagaing Region, Myanmar

A Buddhist Shinbyu ceremony in Mandalay.

An Arakan (Rakhine) girl pours water at revellers during the Burmese New Year Thingyan Water Festival in Yangon.

Kayan women in a village near Inle Lake, 2010

Myanmar is bordered by Bangladesh and India to its northwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest.