More than 40,000 Laven people live in the three southern provinces of Champasak, Xekong and Saravan. The main location for the Laven is the Bolaven Plateau, which was named after them. Bo-Laven means 'place of the Laven'.
The Laven are a very well known people group in Laos. They are not the same as the Lawi, a small Malayo-Polynesian speaking group also in southern Laos, or the Brau, who live further east and who also call themselves Lave or Lawae. The Laven language is different from Brau, and the two groups were counted separately in the 1995 national census. A number of Laven refugees now live in the United States, primarily in the Stockton, California area.
In 1989 the Lao Government started classifying all minorities into three groupings, according to altitude. Even though the Laven live at a low altitude, they have been classified as a Lao Theung (300-900m) group simply because they are Mon-Khmer speakers.
Many Laven are employed by coffee plantations that were established by the French in the early 1900's. Others work on rubber, potato and banana plantations. The Laven have a reputation as skilled woodworkers. Unlike many of their neighbors, the Laven do not weave or work with metal.111
Laven women traditionally tattooed their faces, but this custom is no longer practiced among the younger generations. Today only elderly women can still be seen with facial tattoos.
There are only about 40 known Laven Christians today. The following response, given to American missionaries by a tribe in the region prior to World War II, represents the reason why many animistic tribes have not embraced the Gospel.... "They listen and say, 'That's a wonderful story. Of course the Blood of the Chief of the Skies would be better than the blood of our animals'.... 'But,' they ponder, 'no one ever told us this story before. The French never told us. And who are you? You are a strange couple.... Perhaps you are telling us a lie. If we should follow your way and forsake the customs of our ancestors the spirits might become angry with us. Then our crops would fail, and calamity would come; we'd all get sick and die."
Pray for the Laven
Pray against the spiritual strongolds of animism and Buddhism that have blinded the Laven people in sin.
Ask God to glorify His Name among the Laven people He created.
Pray for the few known Laven Christ-ians. Ask Christ to strengthen them and help them to share their faith.