Book of Laos and the Lao. This work examines the cultural, ethnographic and socio-communicative features of the Lao people, now the main people, inhabiting the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and previously one of the ethnic divisions of the Lao-Thai ethnic group, settled on the territory of Indochina in the I - beginning of the II millennium AD. Widely using historical and ethnographic material, as well as personal observations, the author made an attempt to show the relationship of Laos with neighboring peoples and representatives of Western cultures, describe the main social and spiritual values ​ ​ of Lao, the principles of social structure and family ties, the features of their religious consciousness and moral and ethical attitudes.