June 2004: This page is being reconstructed with new information.
The information on this page may no longer be accurate.
SILA OF LAOS
Population : 22,000
Location : the hilly, tropical forests just north of Muong Hai in north central Laos
Language : Sila
Religion : Mix of Ethnic religion and Ancestor worship
% Christians in this country : 1%
Scripture : none
Jesus film : none
Christian Radio Broadcast : none
Gospel audio recording : none
The Christmas Story : none
Mission Agency / church planting working among them : 0
The Sila inhabit the hilly, tropical forests just north of Muong Hai in north central Laos. They are a Tibeto-Burman people with Mongoloid features and are an official nationality in Vietnam. Lacking specific information on the Sila, some assumptions have been made, based on their location in Laos as well as neighboring ethnic groups with similar backgrounds. Like other Tibeto-Burman peoples, the Sila migrated from southern China into northern Laos. They are part of the Lolo linguistic groups, who were the dominant power in Southern China in the eighth and ninth centuries. In the early ninth century, they made their way into Southeast Asia.
The Sila are hunters and gatherers of forest products, as well as farmers. However, their practice of shifting cultivation prevents them from establishing permanent villages. Sila villages consist of small groups of houses made of wood or bamboo, built on stilts, and clustered against the sides of the hills. Their residential areas are usually adjacent to their farm lands. With the houses built above the ground, the family livestock?poultry, pigs and goats?run freely underneath the houses. Because their villages are usually organized around tribal lineage, it is likely that their social structure is based on family units.
The Sila practice an ethnic religion, which is often a blend of animism and ancestor worship. Animism includes the belief that forces and aspects of nature (wind, rivers, trees, earth) are attached to spirits or supernatural beings. These spirits help find or grow food, cure illness, and avert danger. Through sacrifice and ritual, the worshipper tries to manipulate the spirits into helping him. Ancestor worship involves praying to the spirits of deceased ancestors for protection, guidance, or blessings. They believe that ancestral spirits are alive and must be fed and cared for.
The Sila have possibly been affected by leftover land mines or cluster bomblets dropped by U.S. war planes. There is presently a Laos bomb removal project, but it has not yet reached their area. There are, however, mobile teaching teams bringing awareness and teaching mine clearance techniques.
PRAYER POINTS
- Take authority over the spiritual principalities that have kept the Sila bound for many generations.
- Ask the Lord of the harvest to send Christian medical workers to labor among the Sila and the people of Laos.
- Ask God to speed the completion of the Jesus film and other Christian materials into the Sila language.
- Pray that God will reveal Himself to these precious people through dreams and visions.
- Ask God to strengthen, encourage, and protect the small number of Sila Christians.
- Pray that God will raise up qualified linguists to translate the Bible into the Sila language.
- Pray that God will open the hearts of Laotian governmental leaders to the Gospel.
- Ask the Lord to bring forth a triumphant Sila church for the glory of His name!
links to related information: http://www.bethanynorth.com/profiles/profile1.html , www.joshuaproject.net
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