Culture of Laos
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The culture of Laos has been highly influenced by Theravada Buddhism. This influence is reflected throughout Laos in its language as well as in art, literature and the performing arts.
Laotian music is dominated by its national instrument, the khaen (a type of bamboo pipe). Bands typically include a singer/rapper (mor lam) and a khaen player (mor khaen) alongside fiddlers and other musicians. Lam saravane is the most popular genre of Laotian music, but ethnic Lao in Thailand have developed an internationally-best selling form called mor lam sing.
One significant archive of ancient Laotian culture is the Plain of Jars in Xieng Khouang province.
The languages of Laos and Thailand to the untrained ear may seem similar; however, they are in reality very different. Although most Laotian people will understand spoken and written Thai and even speak Thai, most Thai people outside of Issan (North East Thailand) do not understand Lao. The writing of the two languages is also rather different and in general very few Thai read Lao.
The main similarity in the two languages is that in general many of the nouns are the same - however, most verbs, adjectives etc are different; also Lao does not use male and female ending particles as used in Thai (i.e. Kaa (Female) and Kap (Male))
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