When Prince Fa Ngum founded the first nation of Laos 650 years ago, he called the new country proudly Lan Xang - Kingdom of a Million Elephants. The war-loving prince conquered areas much larger than the modern Laos. But his successors let the kingdom fall apart. Only during the French colonial reign, Laos was reunited at the beginning of the 20. century in today's boundaries. The way to sovereignty was turbulent: Japanese occupation, declaration of sovereignty, return of the French. In 1954 the French colonial reign in the region was finished by the Geneva Indochina-Conference. Laos was now independent but ripped apart by civil war. The country got increasingly involved in the escalating Vietnam War. Only since the end of the war the souvereignity of Laos has not been violated anymore.

The consequences of the war hindered the economic development over many years. Today, Laos can provide enough food for its population. The most important staple food is rice. And rice is more than that: The rice production left its mark in customs and culture. Each stage of production is accompanied by religious rites. The word for "eating" is "kin khao" - to eat rice.

Laos has rich natural resources of which mainly the forest areas, still covering more than 50 per cent of the country's area, are used for economic purposes. An important foreign currency earner is electricity produced in a power station at the Ngum dam and exported to Thailand. Just a third of the produced electricity is used in Laos.

And to come back to the number of elephants: there are 500 living in the wild and 1000 living in captivity and as working animals.