[2] Laos is a multi-ethnic country with a large proportion of non-Buddhist groups that adhere to religions that are often subsumed under the denominator "animism", but that can also substantially overlap with Buddhism, or a least contain Buddhist elements resulting from cross-cultural contact.

[5] From a general perspective, research on the early history of Lao Buddhism had advanced slowly, but recent studies are also signalling progress.

[6] During the 11th & 12th Century, rulers took control of Muang Sua, the historical region of the kingdom of Luang Prabang in northern Laos.

[8] According to local historiography, Fa Ngum brought his Khmer Theravada teacher with him to act as adviser and head priest of the new kingdom.

[8] However, Michel Lorrillard asserts the "complete artificial nature of this narrative" and is rather critical of the historical value of the Fa Ngum story.

[10] Local spirit cults and rituals associated with indigenous ideas of "soul substance" (khwan) are in most cases seamlessly integrated into Buddhism, and practitioners rarely see them as contradictive.

Faced with rugged, isolating geography and the absence of a strong central government, Theravada Buddhism became one of the primary unifying features of Lao culture.

[8][11] This is also attested by the fact laws for governing the monastic order have been an important part of Buddhist statecraft in pre-modern, but also colonial Laos.

[2] In order to subvert the dominance of Thai monastic education in the region, and use Lao and Khmer Buddhism for enhancing colonial control, the French set up institutes for the training of Buddhist monks under the auspices of EFEO.

The French introduced new curricula based on the study of selected and appropriate texts, awarded monks with certificates and printed Buddhist books.

The influence of these colonial reforms in the field of monastic education were somewhat neutralized by the increasing political struggles during the 1950s, and finally the socialist revolution in 1975.

Instead of repressing or banning religion outright, the Communists in Laos used the Buddhist Sangha as a vehicle to achieve political aims during the Cold War.

Buddhism and monastic institutions became from the beginning of the 1950s fields where partially clandestine surveillance operations were carried out, both by Royal Lao Government forces and by more left-leaning politicians.

The Pathet Lao also pointed out Buddhism had a strong dimension of social justice as the Gautama Buddha was interested in the material welfare of people and he wanted to relieve the lot of the poor.

Government officials could veto elections of abbots and elders and candidates for higher positions in the Sangha required Cabinet consent.

[45] Two underground movements, with Pathet Lao support was founded to fight against American and government influence in the affairs of the Sangha.

[51][40] For example, a seized Pathet Lao document dated 14 January 1968 reports how the Pathet Lao had sent out thirty-three monks "to preach revolutionary ethics….to protect Buddhism, to revive the real morality, to explain the revolutionary tasks to the people, and to resist the psychological warfare of the American imperialists and their reactionary lackeys".

They actively promoted an eighteen-point political programme with the slogan "Laos: Peaceful, Independent, Neutral, Democratic, United and Prosperous".

The Pathet Lao tried to purge Buddhism of such superstition as belief in the existence of demons, or of life after death in one of the Buddhist heavens or hells.

[75] In March 1979, the eighty-seven-year-old Sangharaja of Laos, Venerable Thammayano, fled to Thailand by floating across the Mekong on a raft of inflated car inner tubes.

Young novices were persuaded by the government to leave the Sangha with offers of secular training and education and special vocational schools were set up for them.

Previously, they focused on teaching Buddhism but they also assist in adult literacy programs after the formation of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

The rituals surrounding the worship of relics and statues have become displays of the patronage power of the Lao government that thereby is intending to connect itself to a glorious Buddhist past in order to increase its legitimacy in the present.

[84] With Buddhist institutions being still firmly integrated into the Party State, Buddhism and the language, moral values and lifestyles associated with it, are now again promoted as "national culture".

"[85] A process of the Buddhification of the political sphere, but also everyday culture and is observable, at least in regions with a high proportion of ethnic Lao.

Monks are now actively involved in HIV-and drug-prevention programs and expand into other areas that mix social work, environmental protection and education.

[89][90] The large collection of photos he left after his death, and those of other laypeople and monks taken over the last hundred years, are now being transformed into an archive that will be of great value for documenting the past of the religious culture of the city.

See the study by Sahai (1973) and Ladwig (2016) for more specific accounts of these narratives and their associated rituals, and especially Peltier (1987) for an excellent overview of the rich literary tradition of Laos.

Louis Finot's extensive overview of Lao Buddhist manuscripts is somewhat dated, but remains one of the most in-depth studies ever undertaken on this subject.

[92] An interesting ethnographic documentary by Patrice Ladwig and Gregory Kourilsky, Caring for the Beyond: Two Lao Buddhist Festivals for the Deceased can be down loaded here: Bristol University Death Ritual Project.