More than 16,700 Lamet people inhabit 87 villages in the northwestern part of Laos, particularly in Luang Namtha and Bokeo provinces.  Approximately 100 Lamet spill across the border into Thailand (where they are called Khamet), while about ten families migrated to the U.S. as refugees in the 1970's, and now live in California, Washington State and Washington D.C.

     In the early 1960's the western part of Luang Namtha became a hotbed of CIA activity.  William Young, the son of a missionary, built a small CIA-financed, anti-Communist army in Ban Thuay, Nam Yu and Vieng Phuka.

     The Lamet language is related to Palaung in Myanmar and China.  They can also understand Khmu to some extent.  The Lamet have retained their customs and traditional dress and have not allowed themselves to be assimilated by other ethnic groups in the area.  They are the most isolated Mon-Khmer group in northern Laos.  Their villages are not easily entered and visitors are not always welcomed.

     To avoid in-breeding, the Lamet are forbidden to marry within the same clan.  For several years after the wedding the couple lives with the wife's family, in homes with two of three families under the same roof.  Only after three or four years are the couple allowed to move out and start their own home.

     The Lamet are one of the few groups in all of Laos who build a house just to accommodate the spirits they believe control their lives.  The spirit house is positioned in the center of the village.

     Although there are no known Christians among the Lamet in Laos today, the Gospel was first presented to them in 1898 by missionary Daniel McGilvary.  He wrote, "The tour of 1898 was undertaken with the special object in view to follow up the auspicious beginnings of work among the Kamu and Lamet tribes, the largest and most important within the mountain area explored during the previous season, and, apparently, ready as a body to accept the Gospel."  Tragically, the work never took off because the French government banned missionaries from working in its territory.

     Work is currently in progress to translate the Scriptures into Lamet.

Pray for the Lamet

• Most Lamet have never heard the Gospel. Pray this would soon change and a Lamet church would emerge.

• Ask God to bless and protect the work of those translating the Lamet Bible.

• Pray that evangelists and church planters would specifically target the Lamet with the Good News.