Khmu people
The Khmu (/kəˈmuː/; Khmu: /kmm̥uʔ/ or /kmmúʔ/; Lao: ກຶມມຸ [kɯ̀m.mūʔ] or Lao: ຂະມຸ [kʰā.mūʔ]; Thai: ขมุ [kʰā.mùʔ]; Vietnamese: Khơ Mú; Chinese: 克木族; Burmese: ခမူ) are an ethnic group of Southeast Asia. The majority (88%) live in northern Laos where they constitute the largest minority ethnic group, comprising eleven percent of the total population. Alternative historical English spellings include Kmhmu, Kemu, and Kơbru, among others.
Khmu women wearing traditional costumes | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 800,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Burma, China, United States | |
| Laos | 708,412 (2015) |
| Vietnam | 90,612 (2019) |
| Thailand | 10,000 |
| China | 7,000 |
| Languages | |
| Khmu Lao Language (in Laos) • Vietnamese language (in Vietnam) | |
| Religion | |
| Satsana Phi, Theravada Buddhism, Christianity | |
The Khmu can also be found in southwest China (in Xishuangbanna in Yunnan province), and in recent centuries have migrated to areas of Burma, Thailand and Vietnam (where they are an officially recognized ethnic group). In the People's Republic of China, however, they are not given official recognition as a separate "national" group, but are rather classified as a subgroup of Bulang.
The endonym "Khmu" is suspected to stem from their word kymhmuʔ meaning "people". Khmu also often refer to their ethnicity as pruʔ.