Touring Vientiane

To avoid missing the highlights of Vientiane we booked a one day tour with Green Discovery Laos. Our guide, Noy, willing answered our many questions. We learned so much from him I am writing more about what we learned than what we saw. If my comments are wrong or not quite correct – it is my fault (bad memory or misunderstanding), not Noy's.

At Wat Sisaket, the oldest surviving temple in Vientiane, we talked about the difference between Lao Buddhism and Bhutanese Buddhism. Absent from the temples were prayer wheels, prayer flags, butter candles and flowers, and cash offerings in front of the Buddhas, nor could one circa-ambulate most altars. When I saw the joss sticks and numbered cubbie holes filled with papers, I assumed that the papers had standard prayers (similar to the prayer flags). Wrong. The chop sticks had numbers. So a devotee would mix them up, draw one, and get his “fortune” from the numbered box.

On right hand side - numbered chopsticks and cubbie holes
On left (toward back) altar to burn papers & burn joss sticks

Stupa at Wat Sisaket

Some stupas had embedded photographs. The stupas contained the ashes on the pictured couple. In Lao Buddhists are cremated. Unlike India, where the oldest son lights the funeral pyre, a selected attendee lights it. The next day family members return to the cremation site and gather the bones. The remains may be put in a stupa or elsewhere, perhaps a family garden.

The niches pictured below contain over 2000 images of Buddha. Among the large seated Buddhas some have pointed head coverings and others don't. The pointed coverings were removed by invaders or vandals, who believed that gems were hidden in the Buddha images.

More Buddhas - More Merit?

Our next stop was Ho Prakeo “image of the Emerald Buddha.” We heard more about Lao’s history, a history filled with wars primarily with Thailand, including Laotians being used as slave labor in Thailand. The Emerald Buddha was stolen and is housed in Bangkok. On the grounds is a jar from the Plains of Jars – we learned that only 3 areas in the Plain of Jars can be visited because of unexploded landmines and unexploded cluster bombs, which still kill or maim Laotians.


Noy told us that this father had been in the Pathet Lao where he met and married Noy's mother. She had joined the army when she was 14 and was trained as a nurse's aid. Noy said members in the present Laotian army where boys who had not finished school. Primary education is free, but secondary education isn't. In the rural areas, where we assume may students do not go beyond primary school, marriages typically take place among 15-16 year olds. In the cities couples will often wait until they are in the 30s. Marriages are love matches and at least some, if not all, ethnic groups prohibit marriages between people in the same village.

Our third, and last temple, of the day was Wat Si Muang. The temple was filled with worshipers, so we spent our time on the grounds. The linked video suggests that we need to revisit the temple and go inside. Devotees were carrying flowers, making offerings, and circa- ambulating the temple. We saw a display of Linga, the symbol of Shiva. Noy’s description of the linga as representing Shiva's power, lacked the scatological presentation of our guide at My Son near Hoi An Vietnam.

Selling birds for release - a harmful practice

Corridor filled with linga

Monkey making an offering to Buddha

Weaving is a major Laotian handicraft. We stopped at Carol Cassidy's shop/studio. Ms. Cassidy is an American designer who has been in Lao for 20 years. As we were wandering around we eavesdropped on a tour she was giving. Until recently she was marketing to museums and collectors, but now with an easing of visa restrictions she also has included retail items. `The Vientiane studio hires local women who learned to weave at home. The weavers work from patterns designed by either Ms. Cassidy or another master designer. She has also has a major role in Weaves of Cambodia, which employs disabled women (including land mine survivors).

Weaving from a pattern

Having glasses can add years to a weaver's career

After lunch we drove over a "dancing road" to the Buddha Park. It reminded us of Tiger Balm Gardens (now Haw Par Villa) in Singapore. Tiger Balm Gardens were created to teach children traditional Chinese values. Buddha Park was created by a Lao mystic who wanted to unite Buddhist and Hindu faiths. Why similar to Tiger Balm Gardens? Our first impression of both was that they were bizarre. Both seem delapidated. The structures at Buddha Park are 55 years old, to me they seemed much older.

Back in Vientiane we went to the Patuxai, the victory gate. It was completed in 1968 and built with the American-supplied cement used to construct the airport in 1958.

The Patuxai

View from Patuxai - note the light traffic about 4:00 p.m.

During the day we traveled by tuk tuk, a major form of short distance public transit. Climbing in and out was a challenge and our heads were bumped nearly every time. We would have welcomed an auto rickshaw.