The Best of Cambodia & Laos

278
LUANG PRABANG LUANG PRABANG & NORTHERN LAOS
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is the site of annual commemorations. There are also a number of smaller stupas that
contain the ashes of other kings, members of the royal family, and a mixture of dignitaries.
The wat is home to one of the city’s larger communities of monks and novices.
Phu Vao Rd.
Wat Wisunarat (Wat Visoun) This was another building that was only
restored by the French after the Chinese bandit invasions of the 1880s. The original
structure was built in 1513 under King Wisunarat (also called King Visoun) and it represents
the earliest Lao style, sometimes referred to as Luang Prabang Style I, of Lao
temple architecture. It was rebuilt in the late 1890s. It’s actually the oldest functioning
wat in Luang Prabang, which gives it a slightly different feel from some of the other sites.
It’s an unusual in that it has a strange, almost European-looking, sloping front roof covering
the entrance. The celebrated Pha Bang Buddha now in the Royal Palace Museum
was housed here from 1507 to 1715 and again from 1867 to 1894. The sim today continues
to be a valuable museum of religious art with numerous centuries-old Buddha
statues in bronze and gilded and unadorned wood, ordination precinct stones, and other
religious objects. It is famous for its lotus stupa. The dome stylistically reflects a Sinhalese
influence and is the only stupa of this shape in Laos, or indeed the rest of Indochina or
Thailand. Lao people refer to it as the Makmo or watermelon stupa. It becomes obvious
why when you first see it. It was built in 1515 and was originally packed with small Buddha
images made of jade, gems, and gold. Once you have read only a little bit about the
history of Luang Prabang it comes as no surprise that the plundering Haw tore the stupa
open to steal everything they could. The French restored it in 1895, but they didn’t do a
very sound job since they had to do it again in 1932 after rain caused it to partially fall
down again.
Wisunerat Rd. Daily 8am–5pm. Admission 10,000 kip.
Wat Xieng Thong This is considered to be the most magnificent temple in
Luang Prabang—the “Golden City” or “Golden Tree Monastery.” This is saying something
since standards of breathtaking beauty and serenity in temple building in Luang
Prabang are very high. Xieng Thong is situated on an embankment above the Mekong
near the point where it joins the Nam Khan River and it often served as the gateway to
the town. Visitors from Siam, which long controlled the region, would end their journey
at Ban Xieng Mene on the right bank and be ferried across to the city. This was also the
entry point for the king to be on the eve of his coronation after the customary 3 days of
prayer and meditation at Wat Long Khun. It was the site of coronation of Lao kings and
also the center of numerous annual festivities. The sim, or ordination hall was first built
by King Setthathirat in 1560 and it remained under royal patronage until the Communists
broke the link in 1975. The Triptaka library was not added until 1828 and the drum
tower as recently as 1961.
Here there is little history of the damage that scarred so much of the city and caused
the need for so much renovation and restoration under the French. Wat Xieng Thong
was spared the destruction visited on the rest of the town by the rampaging Chinese Haw
in 1887. The wat was desecrated but not destroyed. Their leader, a Vietnamese ethnic
White Thai from what is now northern Vietnam, had studied there as a novice monk.
With Wat Xieng Thong he somehow managed to get in touch with his feminine side,
something notable by its absence when he destroyed everything else in sight, and used
this temple as his headquarters.