Neolithic nostalgia tripping
Nixon tried to bomb it back to the Stone Age; now Phonsavan is enjoying a boom of another kind
Published: 10/12/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Horizons
The breeze is cool and redolent of mountain pine. The landscape verdant and vast, a series of rolling hills stretching all the way to the horizons. If it weren’t for the paddy fields, a sea of sun-ripened sheaves of grain swaying gently in the wind, one could be forgiven for thinking one was on an upland meadow somewhere in New Zealand. Then one notices women wearing brightly coloured pa sin (tubular sarongs) and small herds of water buffalo grazing here and there and one remembers that one is actually in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
The ruins of Wat Phia in the town of Khoun.
Welcome to a particularly remote corner of this landlocked country, to the northeastern province of Xiang Khouang, where such bucolic scenes of plenty are commonplace. Located as it is at an elevation of around 1,000 metres above sea level, the weather here is never oppressively hot, the smiling locals never in too much of a hurry to stop and chat.
But tourists come here neither for the picture-postcard views nor for the idyllic temperatures. And most stay only for as long as it takes to get a good look at the ancient stone jars scattered in great numbers across this plateau. For we are - you’ve guessed correctly - on the Plain of Jars, famous for huge stone vessels, ranging in height from 1.5 to three metres, whose original purpose remains a mystery to this day.
Phonsavan, capital of Xiang Khouang, is bathed in a mellow light shortly before sunset.
According to one local legend these enormous receptacles were hollowed from blocks of stone in order to ferment an alcoholic concoction for consumption at the mass celebration of a great military victory thousands of years ago. Once upon a time (the story goes), there lived an evil king called Chao Angka who oppressed his subjects so terribly that they appealed to Khun Jeuang, a good-natured monarch who reigned to the north, to come and liberate them. In the great battle that ensued, Khun Jeuang’s army defeated the forces of Chao Angka and then marked their success with an orgy of drinking. And it must have been some session indeed, since one of these vessels could probably hold enough liquor to get an entire village intoxicated!
Archaeologists have come up with a more sober theory - but no supporting evidence, alas - to the effect that the jars are actually coffins, perhaps as much as 2,000 years old. Which would make them one of the oldest archeological finds in Southeast Asia, artefacts that have survived the attention of looters, the ravages of time and the elements and countless American bombs.
Some seven kilometres from Phonsavan, the provincial capital, lies the principal jar site. Known as Ban Ang or sometimes simply as Site No. 1, it contains more than 300 of these gargantuan vessels. The other two main sites are only a few kilometres away.
During the so-called Secret War, waged from 1953 to 1975 by the US and its allies, some 580,000 bombing raids were flown over Laos, dropping in excess of two tons of high explosive for every man, woman and child resident in the country at that time. Cluster bombs, rockets, artillery shells and anti-aircraft rounds rained down on more than 87,000 square kilometres of this tiny country. Falling on bogs, waterlogged rice fields and forests, nearly a third of these failed to detonate, but this UXO (unexploded ordnance) continues to kill and maim hundreds of unwary people each year.
So roaming at will around the Plain of Jars is not recommended. Take a stroll around the streets of Phonsavan, though, and you’ll see plenty of recycled bomb casings put to a variety of ingenious uses. More glaring evidence of the war can be seen in the town of Khoun, some 30km away, where the damage to the principal Buddha image and ubosot at Wat Phia remains unrepaired.
Forgotten for many decades amid the chaos and conflict which swept this remote corner of Laos, Xiang Khouang is today welcoming tourists back to view its unique mix of natural and man-made wonders.
Stone jars like these dot the landscape.
Discarded war materiel as tourist draw.
Lush meadows and rolling hills—a typically pastoral scene in this lovely corner of Laos.
*Bron: Bangkok Post / www.bangkokpost.com *