The Lua people ([luaʔ][please use correct ISO code]) are a minority ethnic group native to Laos, although there is now a sizable community living in Thailand.

Some Lua, influenced by their Lao and Thai neighbors, have adopted Theravada Buddhism, while a few have converted to Christianity, but without renouncing their original ethnic beliefs.

In order to win the spirits' blessings for a good harvest, a newlywed couple, help in cases of natural disasters or diseases, etc., the Lua try to appease them with offerings of pigs, poultry, rice or liquor.

[5] There is some academic debate whether the Lua have already settled in their present home area since the 1st millennium AD (like the Khmu) or migrated there from northern Vietnam in a later period.

Families who remained in the camps in Thailand resettled in Sainyabuli and neighboring provinces in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, where the Lua people had been originally displaced due to the wars in Southeast Asia.