Highlights
Buddhist Temples
Luang Prabang with its a vast collection of wats (Buddhist temples) offers a brilliant, yet authentic look into the country’s rich religious past, which is still very much alive today. Visit Wat Xieng Thong, the most historically significant and impressive of Luang Prabang's many wats. Spared from wars, fires and over zealous restorations, with its low sweeping roofs and gold stencil work within, the entire monastery complex is an architectural gem as elegant as it is historic. Perhaps a trip to Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham is on the cards. Wat Mai is one of the city’s most extravagant monasteries, boasting a wooden ordination hall with a five-tiered roof crafted in typical Luang Prabang style, along with the roofed verandahs demonstrating extraordinary features of golden murals depicting scenes of Buddha’s birth, Ramayana and village life.
The Royal Palace and the Pha Bang Buddha
Pha Bang Buddha, the mystical national emblem of Laos and from whom the town of Luang Prabang takes its name, stands at 83 centimetres tall, completely covered in gold leaf, his hand raised in the Abhaya Mudra, representing the dispelling of fear. Having undergone a tumultuous history, the Buddha is now housed in a richly ornamented shrine in the Royal Palace Museum, except during the Laos New Year celebrations when it is placed on display in Wat Mai temple.
Plain of Jars
For the adventurous, take a trip to Plain of Jars, a bizarre archaeological collection of giant stone jars that lie scattered around the Xieng Khouang plain, dating back to the Iron Age. They are often referred to as a south east Asian version of Stonehenge. The discovery of human remains, burial goods and ceramics, found in association with the stone jars, have led Laos and Japanese archaeologists to conclude that the jars were funeral megaliths.
Pha That Luang
Take your adventure to Laos one step further with a trip to the magnificent golden Pha That Luang in Vientianne, where you will see the country’s most important religious building; a symbol of Buddhist religion and Laos sovereignty. Legend has it that Ashokan missionaries from India built the stupa to enclose Lord Buddha’s breastbone. The stupa stands at forty-five metres high and is best seen at sunset when it appears to ‘glow’ in the fading light.