LANGSON and CAOBANG, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. — Situated in the extreme northeastern corner of Tonkin (Vietnam), it comprises the two civil provinces of L. and C. and half of the province of Hahiang. This mission was erected into an apostolic prefecture on 30 December 1913, by a division of the vicariate of Northern Tonkin (now Bacninh) and entrusted to the French Dominican Fathers of the province of Lyon. It was elevated to an apostolic vicariate on 11 July 1939.
It has a territory of 25,000 sq. km., predominantly mountainous, and a population of about 350,000 inhabitants, of various races, among which the principal are the Thai, Meo, and Man, partly nomadic, having distinct languages, customs, superstitions, and dress. Besides the two cities of L. and C., there are more than two hundred villages scattered in the mountains.
During the Second World War the mission suffered many and serious damages due to the Japanese occupation, and its conditions remain abnormal to this day because of the civil war in Vietnam. It has 4964 Catholics, mostly Annamites from the Tonkin Delta, 396 catechumens, 14 native priests and 18 foreign priests, 38 native sisters and 5 foreign sisters, 4 major seminarians, 19 primary and 3 secondary stations, one hospital, 4 orphanages, one home for the aged, and one leper asylum. The city of L. is the residence of the Ordinary.