The Southeast Asia Program of the 1980 Festival of American Folklife will present the traditional culture of immigrants from three mainland Southeast Asian countries: the Khmer from Cambodia, the Lao and Hmong from Laos, and the Vietnamese.

India and China were two sources of immigration and culture for Southeast Asia, although the term "Indochina" place's disproportionate stress on their influence. Archeological findings reveal signs of sophisticated civilization in Southeast Asia paralleling or possibly predating the development of civilization in the Middle East and China. Later, great civilizations such as Funan and Khmer in present-day Cambodia (the latter built Angkor), Lan Xang in Laos, and Champa in southern Vietnam, arose and died. Indian culture was felt most in Laos and Cambodia, and Chinese culture in Vietnam, which was ruled by China for 1000 years until AD 939. Hinduism left a deep impression on the literature, song, and dance of Cambodia and Laos, which reflect, for example, the stories of the Hindu epic, The Ramayana.