A small number of Chams live in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, also in Champasak, near the Thailand and Cambodian borders.
In the notes, it is written "A small number of Muslims live in Vientiane, mostly Arab and Indian traders whose ancestors have been there since the 17th century.
Vientiane is also home to a small community of Chams, Cambodian Muslims who fled Democratic Kampuchea government by Pol Pot in the 1970s.
[2] Most of them fled to Khmer, but some also went to other places, namely to Hainan, where they now form the Utsul Muslims community, and also to Lan Xang (in present-day Laos).
In historical records, between the 1st and 9th centuries, Champasak in southern Laos was part of the Funan (which influenced early Champa) and then the Chenla before falling to Khmer.
Most of Chams those living in Vientiane today trace their origins to Muslim fishing villages along the banks of the Mekong River in Phnom Penh before fleeing in the 1970s.