More than 5,000 Tai Khang live in Laos. They are concentrated in the Xam-Tai District of Houaphan Province, near the Vietnam border. A few spill across into the Nonghet District of Xiangkhoang Province, while a Diaspora group live further south in the Viangthong District of Borikhamxai Province.

     Xam-Tai District, home to most Tai Khang in Laos, contained a total of 47,636 people in 6,859 households at the time of the 1995 census. This figure of 6.9 people per household reflects the reputation Houaphan has for being an area with one of the highest birthrates in the nation. In some communities, women have had ten or more children. Children are seen as a great blessing, especially in rice-farming areas where as many hands as possible are needed to work in the fields.

     The Tai Khang may possibly also live in Vietnam, where they may be part of the official Thai minority. The Tai Khang are not the same as the Khang ethnic group of Vietnam. The Khang speak a Mon-Khmer language.

     The Tai Khang are traditionally animists, but in recent decades they have come under the influence of Buddhism more as ethnic Lao expand to some of the more far-flung parts of the nation. Today, Buddhist influence is seen when the Tai Khang bury their dead. A Christian missionary noted her experiences of a Buddhist funeral in Laos: "The thoughtful and devout always secure the presence of a monk at the deathbed. He recites passages from the sacred books, which few understand, because of their being expressed in Pali instead of the vernacular, and he sprinkles the dying with holy water.... If the family of the dead is very poor and cannot afford a cremation, the body is tightly wrapped in a cloth and either laid in a box or tied in a mat. It is then lashed to a pole and is borne to the forest on the shoulders of two men. There a shallow grave is dug, the body buried, and the spot soon forgotten."178

     Without hope in this world or the next, the Tai Khang of Laos have little awareness of the Gospel. A few may have listened to Gospel radio broadcasts in the Tai Dam or Lao languages, but most remain completely ignorant of the claims of Christ or their need for a Savior.

Additional Information

1. Gospel Recording in Tai Khang here: Tai Khang resources page If you are aware of other recordings, literature, or anything else for the Tai Khang people, please let us make it available online.
2. Getting there - If you make a trip to the Tai Khang people, share your experience and advice here: Tai Khang travel page
3. Information - Do you know something more about the beliefs of the Tai Khang? Do you have a story to tell? Do you have a picture? Please share it here.
4. Does anyone know of a Tai Khang believer inside or outside of Laos?
5. Intercession - Have you gotten any impressions, scriptures or words while praying for this group? Have you visited their area? Please share these and we will include them on the prayer page here: Tai Khang prayer page
6. Adoption - This is a small group, but that doesn't diminish the importance of these people in Gods' heart. If you feel led to focus on this group, maybe God will use in a miraculous way to reach them with the Gospel! Need assistance? Contact us at: millionelephants@gmail.com, subject: adoption