South Laos is home to a number of hill tribes descending from Southeast Asia's original inhabitants. These tribes are by far not as numerous as the Hmong (Meo), Karen or Akha, and most of them are on a lower level of civilization. But they were in Southeast Asia far earlier than the Vietnamese or the Thais (both migrants from central Asia), and earlier than other hill tribes.

The indigenous tribes, and their ancestors, belong to the Proto-Malay group of people, closer related to Malays than to Thais, Vietnamese and Chinese. Until around 800, before the rise of Angkor, Javanese (Indonesian) and Malay kingdoms ruled Southeast Asia.

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