Loven

The Loven (Boloven, Laven) are a group of about 25,000 (1981) in the Boloven Plateau area of southern Laos. The Loven are one of the more acculturated of the local groups, through frequent contact with the Lao, Chinese merchants, and European colonists in the past. Buddhism largely has replaced traditional animistic beliefs. The traditional economy centered on swidden rice cultivation and secondary crops including maize, peppers, and yams. Irish potatoes and coffee, both introduced by the French, became important as cash crops and placed the Loven in an economic network involving Europeans and Chinese.

Bibliography

Fraisse, A. (1951). "Les villages du Plateau des Bolovens." Bulletin de la Société des Etudes Indochinoises 26:52-72.

Hickey, Gerald C. (1964). "Loven." In Ethnic Groups of Mainland Southeast Asia, edited by Frank M. LeBar, Gerald C. Hickey, and John K. Musgrave, 143. New Haven: HRAF Press.