Laos: Indigenous houses of a lue village in Luang Prabang

Abstract

This chapter discusses the villages and houses of the Lue ethnic group, which is one of the ethnic minority groups in the peripheral area of Luang Prabang, Laos. Lue originally lived in Sip Song Pan Na, a former kingdom of Dai in Yunnan province of current China. Today, Lue are spread throughout Yunnan, Shan State of Northern Myanmar, and Northern Thailand. They are organized into nuclear families and are dedicated practitioners of Theravada Buddhism. This chapter describes the remarkable characteristics of their village and houses, from architectural and ethnographic perspectives. The spatial structure of the village will be described. This chapter also examines the physical structure, construction process, and spatial organization of Lue houses.