Vientiane & Luang Prabang, Laos
The capital of Laos is not the wonderful city many of the guidebooks make it out to be. It is a fairly small city with a few good temples, a very nice boardwalk along the Mekong River, and a royal palace, the Horkham, that is large but somewhat uninspiring in comparison to the temples. Some of the major temples in the area are along a couple of streets not far from the river, they include the Wat Xieng Yeun, the Horphakeo Temple Museum, which houses a 1779 Emerald Buddha, Wat Siskaet, which is the oldest temple in the city, Wat Ingteo, Wat Impeng which have beautifully carved doors and windows and the city’s ancient brick central stupa, the That Dum Stupa. All are within easy walking distance from each other. The Horphakeo Temple Museum is chocked full with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas from various time periods, some like in Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam with flat fingers and others with the more natural rounded finger look. It was not possible to discern exactly when or why the difference in portrayal of the fingers occurred, but it seems to have started in Myanmar in the 11th C. The renown That Luang, lies outside of the walking district.
Perhaps the most important temple in Vientiane isn’t a temple at all but a golden stupa; Pha That Luang Stupa is said to have originally been built in the third century to house a breastbone of the Buddha which had been carried to Laos by an Indian missionary. “The current structure was built by King Setthathirat in 1566 on the site of a 13th century Khmer ruin….That Luang was greatly damaged by the Burmese, Chinese and Siamese during invasions in the 18th and 19th centuries then was basically left alone until French colonial times. Restoration work was completed in 1900 by the French and for a second time in 1930, again with the help of the French.” (http://www.visit-mekong.com/laos/vientiane/that-luang.htm)
He was also the ruler who moved the capital to Vientiane from Luang Prabang in the mid-sixteenth century. “The stupa is 69 meters long, 45 meters high and is surrounded by 30 small stupas.” (http://spotonlaos.com/place/that-luang-stupa-vientiane/). The stupa is quite impressive and is reminiscent of the Burmese golden stupas. Next door to the stupa is a large new prayer hall, which is lined with paintings of the Buddha’s life near the ceiling of the temple and has intricate gold lacquered red doors with relief images from local and Jataka tale legends. Outside the gate to the That Luang complex not far from the back of the parking lot is a
white stupa that has communist red star on top and at base rather than the Buddhist symbols. It was a fitting reminder that Buddhism lives amidst a Laotian Communist state.
About forty-five rickshaw minutes outside Vientiane lies the Xieng Khuan Buddhapark, which was built in 1958 by Luang Pu, a fairly eccentric priest who fled Laos after the 1975 Revolution and crossed the Mekong to set up another park in Thailand across the river from the Laotian one. Over 200 Hindu and Buddhist figures, great pumpkin, demon eating frog etc. Large Buddhas on both sides of the Mekong on the road to the Buddhapark. The statues are made from reinforced concrete to give an older appearance. They were made by unskilled workers under Luang Pu’s supervision. (born 1932 he died in 1996 of some kind of blood disease; his body is preserved on the third floor of the pavilion). (Brochure, 6) Almost all of the figures are over-life sized, but there are a few that stick out even more than the others, among these is the Great Pumpkin. The Pumpkin has three stories representing hell, earth and heaven. It is easy to climb inside the demon’s mouth and ascend an inner staircase to come out at the top for a view of the entire 120 meter- ong park. On top of the pumpkin, called the Prathevalay Pan Thebphakan, is a Manikod tree sculpture.
Another of the really unique structures in the park is a statue with multiple heads and hand/legs named Prathevalay Pang Gayanakhone, meaning the city named “Gayanakhone;” it represents a city as a human body with the six senses, eyes, ears, tongue, nose, body and heart. The six arms attached to a head with 4 faces with three levels of heads on top of one another represent angels, ghosts and humans. It is an instructional sculpture reminding that those who think and act well will be like angels, but those who think inappropriately will be like ghosts. It also teaches us that humans are born to get sick, get old and eventually die. Nothing lasts forever, so we should follow the Teachings of the Buddha. Two multi-armed figures represent Grandfather Sangasa and Grandmother Sangasy, representing a reminder to respect tradition and one’s ancestors. Another large structure, the Chanthakadsountaven or Kob in Deuan (Frog Eats Moon) is dedicated to the lunar eclipse. When the Sun, Earth and moon are aligned which happens during a full moon, the people used to call the eclipse the ‘frog eating the moon.’
From Vientiane we flew to Luang Prabang with its fabulous setting in the middle of the northern Laotian hills. LP is the real cultural center of Laos with wats (temples) on almost every street and corner. All of them are currently in use and are maintained by local monks and worshippers. The artwork in them is simply amazing with lots of gold and red lacquered swirling figures of bodhisattvas, kinnaras, apsaras, and Buddhas amid vines that create an impression of non-stop movement. The motion in the images is reflected in the natural landscape of the town as well as it lies at the junction of two rivers, the Mekong and Nam Khan, with a bamboo bridge connecting part of the town separated by the Nam Khan. Ferries take people across the Mekong as there are no bridges across the wide expanse of the river.
Luang Prabang is an ancient city, with settlements from probably about the 1st c AD. There are no written histories of this early time, but according to one legend King Chanthaphanith saw the hill in the center of what is now the town, (now called Phousi Hill) which he thought looked like a large grain of rice. Beside the hill was a red flowering poinsettia tree so he called the settlement “The Flamboyant City“. A different version states that two hermits indicated that a settlement built at the foot of ‘rice grain hill’ would flourish.
The town changed names a number of times before the arrival of the Phra Bang statue in 1359. The gold leaf statue is supposed to have been made in Sri Lanka sometime between the 1st and 9th centuries (although given the straight fingers, it really can’t be before the 9th at the very earliest, and probably the 11thand most likely was not made in Sri Lanka, where the straight fingers were not common, but in Myanmar or Thailand where they were from about the mid-11th C. on.) What is known is that it was given to Prince Fa Ngum, the first person to unify Laos, by his adopted step-father, the King of Angkor. The statue has become the “symbol or the right to rule Laos,” then called the ‘Kingdom of a Million Elephants and a White Parasol,’ and only a “true government may keep this sacred image.” In all likelihood there were lots of wild elephants in the kingdom, as there still are today, and the white parasol refers to the royalty of Sakyamuni Buddha, establishing a connection between the new royal house and Buddhism. The Phra Bang, also written as Phrabang, statue sealed the bond between the two. Similar to the other kings in what is now SE Asia, these rulers ruled by divine right. (http://www.luangprabang-laos.com/-History-of-Luang-Prabang-)
Many of the temples from this early period were destroyed through numerous invasions in the intervening centuries but quite a few still remain. Wat Aham, an ancient stupa, and Wat Visounnarath are among the oldest from about ca. 1512-1515. Unfortunately the latter was burnt down by the Chinese in 1887 and had to be rebuilt in 1898. The Lotus Stupa in front of it was built in 1514. As the temples are places of continual prayer and meditation, new artwork has been continually added. In the 19th C a wood, glass, gold leaf, black and gold lacquered representation of the highest stupa in heaven was created. Originally it had 48 Buddhas around it, but 10 are currently missing. There are a number of wooden Buddhas in “Calling for the Rain” position, a distinctly Laotian mudra with both hands at the sides pointing downward. In contrast, there are also a number of wooden Buddhas with the “Ceasing Fighting” mudra which has both hands raised palms to chest level pointing outwards.
Another major complex is the Wat Xieng Thong at the end of a road bordered by the rivers. According to the Lonely Planet, it was built by King Setthathirat in 1560, and remained under royal patronage until 1975. The prayer hall represents classic Luang Prabang temple architecture, with multi-tiered roofs sweeping low to the ground before their flame dragon end gables reach upwards again. “The rear wall of the hall features an impressive tree of life mosaic and inside the richly decorated wooden columns support a ceiling that’s filled with dhammacakka (dharma wheels). Near the coumpound’s eastern gate stands the royal chapel, with an impressive 12 m high funeral chariot and various funeral urns for each member of the royal family. The exterior of the chapel features gilt panels depicting erotic episodes from the Ramayana. “(LP 300) The buildings in the complex are large and quite ornate with red, or black, and gold lacquer on most of their interior walls, and exterior doors and windows. A few also have multi colored cut-glass stupas, and one with clay facades ornamented with images also made from the multicolored cut-glass. There is also a separate house for the royal cremation boat. Huge gongs hang near the entrance of the buildings as well as the complex. As elsewhere in Luang Prabang, especially along the rivers, there are huge trees connecting earth and sky many of them were in full bloom with white and pink flowers when we were there. The hillsides are covered with vegetation and the banyan trees soar above the poinsettias, hycinthias and bougainvilleas, which are tree rather than shrub height here. The flowering trees cover Phousi Hill in the center of town.
Phousi Hill’s Phu Si Stupa at the summit is a wonderful place viewing the sunset and people flock up the stairs either from the National Museum side or the Wat Aham side to sit and watch the globe sink behind the hills and rivers and to see the sun’s rays radiate off the golden-gilt Wat Phol Phao Peacefulness Chedi (stupa) in the distance. The night market awaits them on their way down which is just in front of the National Museum, which is at the foot of the hill in the former Royal Residence. The Temple housing the Prabang statue is at the entrance to the royal palace and museum complex. The museum in the palace itself showcases artifacts from the royalty, including some fascinating Laotian bronze drums with suns in the center of their lids, surrounded by rings of fish, flowers and birds. Frogs are etched onto the edge of the drums and together these symbols are said to represent life, fertility and prosperity. The throne room was renovated in 1953 and is filled with cut glass mosaics of village life, elephants and religious ceremonies on a red felt background. The Japanese stained glass images depict stories from Laotian folktales, and Buddhist ceremonies from the region. Perhaps the newest addition to the palace was the gold throne, which was commissioned in 1967, shortly before the change in governmental structure. One of the most interesting parts of the museum for me was a set of sixteen pictures relating the story of Prince Wesantara. The legend is still recited in LP temples during the annual Boonmahasart, or Great Rebirth, ceremony for Prince Wetsantara, who is considered to be the penultimate incarnation of Lord Buddha. All LP temples have at least one set of the Wetsantara story and during the Boonmahasart festival the monks display the sixteen images, one per chapter, and decorate the temple as the Himabhala jungle where the Prince and his family are said to have practiced asceticism. The general gist of the story is that worldly matters are based in impermanence, so one shouldn’t attach oneself to them, but instead give away everything so that one can become truly aware. This is a good Buddhist story, but it does lead one to wonder what would have happened to the citizenry of his kingdom in the face of invading armies…. The Buddhist perspective might say that everyone has their own karma, so whatever happens is based on their own, regardless of external forces, but nonetheless, a ruler who gives away his kingdom to tyrants and invaders, may not be the best person for the job. The story, though, is considered sacred and Prince Wetsantara is a model of ethical behavior.
Luang Prabang is a small town crammed with fascinating sites. It is easily walkable and has delightful restaurants overlooking the rivers, as well as on the main street where one can people negotiating with street vendors and local craftsmen. In the morning one can watch the orange robed monks on their morning begging pilgrimage. It is a peaceful, beautiful and fascinating city, which is also the gateway to lots of adventure excursions in the region. There are hikes to hilltribes, elephant riding and bathing, ziplining, swimming and bamboo rafting under waterfalls, all within a couple of hours from town. We packed in all of them and had a fabulous time. Nearby the waterfalls was the Asiatic and Sumatra/Sun Bear Rehabilitation Center with separate sections for each kind of bear. The Center has an educational component to it which included excellent poster explanations for tourists and locals in Laotian and English. As this is the land of images, they also had cute models of the various kinds of bears on the backside of one of the buildings facing the trail to the waterfalls for everyone who was going up to the falls to see. The waterfalls were amazingly beautiful with green-blue turquoise waters tumbling through the lush jungle setting. The climb to top on right hand side was a bit of a struggle, but once on top the area is flat and has bamboo planks across the waters to walk on. In the back of the pool above the main waterfall was a guy on a bamboo raft which we took to cruise along the jungle river stream right up to where the water crashes over the sides of a steep cliff. The walk down on the left side was much easier than the way up. This region is simply an amazingly spectacular setting. Living in this bounty are various ethnic groups and on the hilltribe walk it was fun to learn how the Lao, Kham and Hmong villages, which exist side-by-side, differ in architecture and in baby naming ceremonies, yet they all had a village satellite dish to watch Thai moves. A few of the bamboo and palm thatch houses even had solar panels.
On another day we went to Ban Pak Ou Village, and the Tam Ting Caves. On the way there we passed Whiskey Village, which was famous for its snakewine & shawl weavers. The snakewine has a cobra head and often a large scorpion in the bottle along with the yellowish colored liquor. I couldn’t quite bring myself to taste it. The shawls, on the other hand, were beautifully embroidered, a single one taking about three days to make on a hand loom. The village’s wat had a façade with painted scenes of the life of the Buddha. As we made our way to the beach for the boat trip across the river to the Tam Ting Caves, we came upon a woman frying baked sweet potato chips, which we did try and they were very good.
There are two Tam Ting Caves, a lower and an upper. The lower has about 2,500 Buddhist images and upper cave about 1,500. They are Buddhas in the Earth Touching mudra. The caves have been used since pre-Buddhist times, when they were used to worship Phi, or the spirits of nature. By the 16th C Buddhism had been adopted by the Laotian royal family and the caves received royal patronage from that time until the end of the last dynastic rule in 1975. Until then the king and court made an annual pilgrimage to the caves as part of their New Year’s religious celebrations. The images in the caves today only date back as far as the early 18th C. The images are mostly carved from wood or molded from tree resin, then coated with red or black lacquer, and then covered with gold leaf. A few are carved from animal horn or made from bronze or a low-fired ceramic. Common poses are “Calling for Rain, “Calling the Earth to Witness, &“Meditation.” The otherwise prolific “Stop arguing” & the Reclining Buddha poses are not as common here While we were there we saw people worshiping at various shrines with multiple images, offering incense, fruits, and lotus shaped marigold offerings.
Luang Prabang was a delight. It is rich in so many ways, both in natural beauty, in stunning architecture and in local legends. It is a place to return to.
