Community
Brao people
Indigenous group with communities in northeastern Cambodia and southern Laos
The Brao people are an Indigenous group with communities in northeastern Cambodia and southern Laos.[1]
Communities
Ian G. Baird's 2013 account identifies the Brao-Kavet, usually called Kavet, as one of nine Brao subgroups. His Cambodia list includes Umba, Brao Tanap, Lun, Kavet and Kreung. His Laos list includes Kanying, Hamong, Jree, Kavet and Lun.[1]
Baird places Brao-Kavet villages mainly along the Lalai stream in Kok Lak commune, Veun Say district, Ratanakiri, just outside Virachey National Park.[1]
Livelihoods and beliefs
Baird describes the Brao-Kavet's earlier livelihoods as swidden agriculture, as well as fishing, hunting and gathering forest products. He describes resettlement in Cambodia and Laos from the 1960s to lowlands and places beside roads and rivers, with encouragement to grow wet rice.[1]
In his account, historical Brao beliefs center on spirits appeased through rituals to avoid misfortune. He describes fermented rice beer and animal sacrifices in those rituals, usually chickens, pigs and water buffalo, with cows less common.[1]
Population
Baird's 2013 account gives about 60,000 Brao worldwide, including communities in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.[1]
Land
CamboJA News reported on April 30, 2026, that communities in Ratanakiri said the park's 2023 expansion had reduced access to farmland and left barriers to communal land titles.[2] The village chief said about 120 families in Ta Bok, many Brao, had lost access to farmland.[2] Thon Soukhon, deputy director of Virachey National Park, told the outlet that authorities had recorded the communities' farmland before the expansion and had no plans to expand the park further. He said legal action had followed recent clearing of new land, and noted that communal land titles had been registered in Taveng before.[2]
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