The Alak or Hrlak are an
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages ( ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia, and by minority popu ...
ethnic group of southern
Laos
Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...
, living mainly in
Salavan Province. They speak the
Alak language. a lot is known of their history, though as an
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages ( ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia, and by minority popu ...
-speaking group, their origin is presumably in the Central Highlands of
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
.
Culture
Nowadays, most Alak live in scattered villages of between ten and sixty houses, traditionally built in a circular pattern around a communal house. Houses are normally built on stilts about a metre high. The main diet and trading staple is
rice
Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...
, farmed with the
slash-and-burn
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a form of shifting cultivation that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a Field (agriculture), field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody p ...
method, although small game, fish, and various plants and mushrooms provide additional food.
Religious beliefs involve a range of supernatural beings, including spirits of mountains, forests and other natural features. Most villages have a
shaman
Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...
who helps cure the sick and predict the future for the village. The dead are typically buried in
graveyard
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...
s in the forest.
Notable members
*
Ong Keo
*
Ong Kommandam
See also
* ''
The Art of Not Being Governed
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
''
References
*Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig (eds.) 2017, ''Ethnologue'' (twentieth edition, online
*Schliesinger, Joachim, ''Ethnic Groups of Laos, vol. 2'', White Lotus 2003,
External links
* http://projekt.ht.lu.se/rwaai RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage)
*
hdl:10050/00-0000-0000-0003-903B-B@view, http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-903B-B@view Alak in RWAAI Digital Archive
{{Ethnic groups in Laos
Ethnic groups in Laos