today is the first day of asian american & pacific islander heritage month. i am proud to be an asian american & no one can make me feel less of that. in honor of this month, i want to share my heritage with you all. this is something very important to me & my family. <3

growing up, i didn’t know much about my ethnicity & culture. as the years went on, my family & social media have taught me so much. i am very grateful & thankful to be a part of such a strong community.

first off, i am lao/laotian & my family is from laos! laos is a southeast asian country located near thailand & vietnam. it is known for their mountainous terrain, buddhist monasteries, & friendly locals. it is also one of the poorest countries in asia.

you’ve probably never heard of it right? more than likely not bc it’s not taught in school curriculum. it saddens me that not a lot of people know about us bc we are passionate & loving people.

tw // bombing, death

history: in 1964, the u.s. air force dropped more than 2 million tons of artillery, making laos the most heavily bombed country. this lasted for 9 years, ending in 1973. this was a part of the u.s. secret war in laos. this event destroyed many villages & +

killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. to this day, there are bombs that have not even detonated yet & could at anytime.

language: lao was my first language growing up. i mainly spoke it around the house & to my great grandparents bc their english wasn’t good. after i got into school, i started to lose my comprehension. i still speak it now when i’m at home, +

but not as often as i did when i was younger. there are 86 different language spoken in this country with different dialects according to the location in the country.

family background: both my parents & grandparents moved from laos. they all came to the usa in the 1980s. after my dad arrived he went straight to high school & had to learn english at 16-17. imagine how that felt! my mom came here at a young age so she is more adapted.

culture: animism is a large part of the lao culture. we worship our ancestors and believe that spirits inhabit all objects & connects to buddhism (i do not practice nor am i religious but my grandparents are).

clothing: the women wear a blouse, scarf, and long silk skirt called a “sinh”. the men wear “salong” which are big pants or peasant pants. this is typical worn at weddings or important ceremonies. i adore the clothing very much.

known laos foods include: laab/laap which is a mixture of meat or fish combined with herbs and greens & is eaten with lettuce in a wrap. khao niew (sticky rice) is eaten with meats, eggs, etc. khao soi means “cut noodles”. +

it’s rice noodle soup with soybean-tomato meat sauce, topped off with cilantro, spinach, scallion, etc.

thank you so much for taking the time to read about my culture and where i come from. i didn’t go into depth about a lot of stuff and just covered the basics, but it means a lot, truly! <3

if i made a mistake anywhere, pls let me know. i am still opening up and learning new things about my culture. it’s a slow process but i’m gaining new knowledge every day.