Language
They speak a language related to Hmong and Yao , and they use an ancient Chinese writing system. They use Chinese characters to record their family records, rituals and treatment of illness as well as to write letters.

They often use handmade paper produced from bamboo. Bamboo pulp is poured as evenly as possible over cloth stretched on a frame, then dried in the sun and finally peeled off.

Houses and villages
The Lanten live in wooden houses, which are built in the mountains. Thier homes are unusual in that they have three doors: one for men, one for women, and a third door for guests during traditional ceremonies and celebrations.

The elders select the site of a new village after examining the fertility of the soil in the surroundings.

Lanten villages are always situated in a valley along a river. They build large houses, because up to seven families may live under one roof. When all household members come together in the evening, the interior of a Lanten house becomes a crowded place. The Lanten house consists of a huge but very dark and smoky room. Each family has its own hearth or fireplace, which is located along one side of the room. This side is also reserved for the women and their small children. Lanten men sit in the middle of the room. At the opposite side are the sleeping cubicles of the various families, separated from each other by thin bamboo mats.

Family and Marriage
Lanten society is strongly patriarchal in its organisation, with the husband as head of the family.

The Lanten allow young men and women to choose their own partners for marriage. The Lanten are polygamous and a wealthy Lanten man may have up to five wives and plenty of children.

Wedding or engagement ceremonies are always held after New Year. The traditional bride—price of two kilos of silver must be paid by the man to the bride's mother at the time of engagement. Normally the groom takes the bride to live with his family. If the groom is poor, he must stay and work for the bride's family for several years.

The price for a Lanten bride is not cheap: the husband has to pay seventy silver coins, four pigs, three chickens and at least fifty bottles of rice wine. After marriage, the Lanten bride moves into her husband's house, unless she is the only daughter in her household, when her husband will settle in her parents' house. Until recently, the Lanten married within their own ethnic group. Now, they also intermarry with other ethnic groups in their vicinity.

Custom, religion and ceremony
The Lanten have their own customs and religious practices. One of the most important is the New Year celebrations, held on 29 December. The New Year festivities last six or seven days, with lots of ritual drinking and no work.

The Lanten are animist. They recognise an array of spirits around the family and household, such as the family spirit and father spirit, and in their natural surroundings, such as the spirit of the sky, forest, land, water and tree. The most important spirits are the spirit of the village and the spirit of the house. Every Lanten house has an alter to honor the house spirit. The Lanten also worship their ancestors and believe in ancestral spirits.

Lanten villages have several shamans, called qua mun . To execute a traditional Lanten ceremony, at least three shamans have to lead the ritual. For the annual ritual in early February in honor of the village spirit, the Lanten sacrifice two pigs and each family a chicken. Every third year the whole village sacrifices an ox.

The Lanten fix the day for the funeral of their dead in accordance with a specific astronomical method, depending in which month and what day someone was born and which day someone died. In case the exact date of birth is unknown, the funeral takes place on the day of death. Wealthy Lanten families burn their deceased and keep the ashes to be buried at a later time. Poorer families bury the body of a deceased relative.

Clothing
Lanten women wear black, calf—length trousers and long—sleeved shirts, trimmed with red silk. During celebrations and traditional ceremonies, women and children wear silver necklaces and earrings. Men also dress in black trousers and shirts. The Lanten make their own clothes from fabric that they dye themselves, using traditional plants.

The Lanten women's costume's consist either of a long—sleeved plain blue indigo jackets and plain blue indigo wide trousers or long—sleeved blue indigo long jackets, reaching down to the knees and white gaiters, which they cover the legs from the knees down to their ankles. They decorate the front of their body with violet embroidered cotton strings that hang down from the neck to the waist. They decorate themselves with solid silver necklaces and French silver coins from colonial times. Silver is the symbol of wealth and status.

Lanten women shave their eyebrows and part their hair above the forehead. They wear their hair either open or cover it with a plain dark handkerchief.

Lanten men wear long pants and a dark blue vest, sometimes with violet strings sewn along the hems and a narrow cap, attached with several French silver coins.

Agriculture and economy
The Lanten people's stable crop is ordinary rice. They produce dry rice with the slash—and—burn method as well as wet rice in fields.

Besides rice they cultivate maize, pumpkins, vegetables, cotton, tobacco and many other kinds of secondary crops. Most vegetables and spices are crown in an enclosed kitchen garden near the family compound.

Lanten are skilled in breeding domestic animals. They keep a large number of pigs, chickens, ducks, goats, turkeys, small horses and buffaloes in some low—land areas.

Their diet consists mainly of rice and vegetables. Meat is consumed quite rarely. Lanten are great hunters and fishermen. They also collect wild vegetables, fruits and herbs in the forest.