February 25 - Luang Prabang, Laos

Our activities began with a blessing ceremony from a local shaman at 8:30 AM. We also met our local guide here in Luang Prabang who is named Phonsi (the “Ph” is pronounced with a “p” sound). The ceremony began with an extended blessing/prayer sung by the elderly shaman. We were all sitting on chairs in a circle in a large room, which is also located in the shaman’s home. There were also several local women here for the ceremony, including the shaman’s sister. After sounding a gong, the shaman then began circling around the room on his knees to tie a cotton cords with knots around each of our wrists. Each of the women followed him and did the same. We each had quite a bit of cotton around our wrists at this point. Then another blessing was sung. He was wishing us happiness, prosperity and a safe trip home. This particular ceremony is from a Hindu tradition, not Buddhist. We were told to wear these cords for three days or we would receive bad karma. In particular, we were not to CUT the cords. We wore ours until lunch time when we used a knife to cut them off. Did not experience bad karma to our knowledge. The shaman is visited by believers on special occasions to receive a blessing. He is also invited to homes. A birth, marriage, funeral, a new year could be the occasion. The shaman then showed us a plastic water bottle which he claimed his blessing had turned to alcohol. Well, after we tasted it, we couldn’t argue his point. Did not taste good.

On our way to our next destination, Phonsi provided an overview of Laos. We were reminded that technically the country is still considered to be communist. Similar to Vietnam, the country has a free market economy with freedoms for its citizens so long as they do not challenge/criticize the communist government. Property is privately held. The citizens have access to free Thai media sources, and the Thai and Lao languages are mutually comprehensible. The country is not heavily populated and about two thirds of the land is forested. The trees provide a valuable natural resource: teak, mahogany, and ebony, for example. The main crop in Laos is rice, and the Laotians focus on sticky rice, which provides two harvest per year. There are eight million people and they are “laid back.” The people are fortunate to have markets which focus on fresh organic produce.

Phonsi himself was a monk from the age of fourteen through nineteen, which enabled him to get a good high school level education. He left the monastery to go to college. This is a common practice for boys in Laos, especially those from the countryside. Only three percent of the teenagers will remain a monk for life, but there are no bad feelings about this.

We then arrived at Laos’ former Royal Palace, now a museum. It sits in the center of Luang Prabang, which is a world heritage site. Renovations and modifications here in the city center are strictly controlled. The museum building is a mixture of French and Lao architecture. It has a large roof with wings. The size of the roof indicates the size of the wealth. The original name of the country was Lan Xang, which was the name of the kingdom from 1357 to 1707, which means the kingdom of a million elephants. Over the museum flies the Lao flag. It has red, white, and blue horizontal strips with a white circle in the middle. Red signifies the military and the people; blue is for natural resources; and white is the full moon, which is a symbol of purity.

The Royal Palace is also home to a temple which is the home of the golden Buddha. The temple was constructed in 1992. The golden Buddha is much older. It came to Laos from Sri Lanka in the first century AD and is 80% gold, weighing thirty-eight kilograms. The city’s name, Luang Prabang, means “home of the golden Buddha.” Every year exactly sixteen people carry the golden Buddha to a nearby temple called Wat Mai as a “visit.” There have been fifteen replicas made, but only the real one has a pinhole in the bottom of the right foot. Its position with two hands up means “be peaceful, stay calm.” It does not mean “stop fighting.” No photos of the Buddha are permitted. 

As we proceeded to the palace/museum, we saw a large statue of the last Lao king.

Before we entered the museum, Phonsi gave a brief lecture on the history of the building. It was built by the French in a Beaux Arts style. The King of Laos at that time had asked for a spire on the building to reflect Lao style architecture, which was then added to the design. Originally, the main entrance to the building faced the river but was moved to the opposite side for good karma. The king lived here from 1909 until 1959. His son lived here from 1960 until 1975. It became a museum in 1976. Inside there is a display of Buddhas from the local temples that were burned in 1887. In that year, Chinese invaders burned 62 of the city’s 65 temples. On the outside of the building above the entrance are three elephants underneath an umbrella. This is the national symbol of Laos. The three elephants represent the three kingdoms that once comprised the country. Their position under an umbrella signifies the unity of the kingdoms under one constitution. Laos as a country dates back to the 14^th century when it was founded by a king. We also saw imagery of dragons/water serpents. They are called nagas, similar to the seven headed serpent who guards over Buddha.

Entering the museum, the first room we saw was a living room with painted mural walls that are quite beautiful. They were painted by a French artist in the 1930s. Unfortunately, no photos are permitted anywhere in the museum. Our tour then took us into the central hall, where royal coronations took place. This room is magnificent and unlike anything we had ever seen before. All over the walls were scenes created with glass tile mosaic pieces. The scenes were meant to display everyday life in Laos. We also saw rooms that had been living quarters. There was also a painting of a king, whose foot follows you across the room, plus displays of other artifacts. Members of the royal family still live in Luang Prabang, but obviously have no role in the government. They own the hotel called Villa Santi. However, the king and other members of the royal family were imprisoned after 1975, when he lost power, and no one knows exactly what happened to him. Some reports suggest he died shortly thereafter. One relative claimed he lived in the prison camp until 1984.

After the museum we were brought to an extremely pleasant spot to see the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers in Luang Prabang. We could see the two seasonal bamboo bridges (removed during the rainy season). 

Although it was very warm, Phonsi took this opportunity to provide more history. As a land-locked country, Laos faces many challenges, but it does benefit from the Mekong River. The country has seventeen provinces as well as the capital. The French came in 1893 and stayed until 1954. While the Vietnam War raged to the west, Laos was in the middle of a civil war from 1954 through 1975. During this time, the United States dropped over two million tons of bombs on Laos as it was the home of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Since 1975 there has been peace, after nearly 200 years of war.

From here we walked to the temple called Wat Xieng Thang. The word “wat” refers not just to a Buddhist temple, but to the whole temple complex, including the monastery. “Sim” means temple. This wat dates back to 1559 and is considered to be the best example of architecture in Laos. It has a three-tiered roof and was one of the temples that was NOT burned by the Chinese, because a Chinese son studied here. It was restored in 1952. This temple also features the glass mosaics that we had seen in the Royal Palace Museum. Here photography is permitted so we snapped away at the beautiful and unique artwork. The roof features a green dragon/naga for protection. According to Buddhist teachings, the naga originally wanted to become a Buddhist monk, but Buddha said no. He then offered to protect Buddha, to which he agreed. We were told that Buddhism has five precepts. They are: (1) to refrain from taking life or killing any living creature, (2) to refrain from taking what is not freely given or theft, (3) to refrain from misuse of the senses or sexual misconduct, i.e., overindulgence in sex or committing sexual offences, (4) to refrain from wrong speech, lying or gossiping, (5) to refrain from intoxicants that cloud the mind, for example drugs or alcohol. In addition to the Buddha figure inside the temple, there is also a small temple onsite with another Buddha figure – this is used more for 24/7 access. 

We then went across the street to visit Wat Khili, but it was closed for some reason.

At this point, the group broke up; some returned to the hotel, some went for lunch. We decided to visit some more wats that were mapped out for us. They were all mostly along the main street through this small city. We saw a nice-looking shop called Celadon and purchased a small wooden, more modern looking Buddha figure. Then we stopped for lunch ourselves at a café that had been recommended called La Banneton – with a French theme. We both had rather large tuna salad and hard cooked egg baguette sandwiches, which were delicious, with Coke Zero (no ice). When we paid the bill, the clerk gave a long once-over to my American $20 bill. I guess they worry about counterfeits here. When he gave me change in Lao money, Roy pretended to do the same, which got him a laugh!

We continued down the main street and visited other wats; there are many in this city for sure. First, we saw Wat Sensoukharam that had white dragon dogs and beautiful elephants. There was also a standing Buddha figure in a side temple (24/7 access). 

Then we saw Wat Mai Souvanna Poumaram. This is the famous temple that the golden Buddha visits once per year. A person outside the temple claimed that we were supposed to pay her to enter (this had also happened at Wat Xieng Thang). We are pretty sure this is a scam against tourists so we just pretended that we don’t see or hear her. After this we crossed the main street to climb Mount Phousi, a large hill in the center of town that is especially visible at night. We stopped to admire the exterior of Wat Pa Houak with its glass mosaics. 

Halfway up the hill, a man was quite demanding that we had to pay him to climb the hill and see the temple at the top. At first, we walked past him, but he was very insistant. We buckled and gave him the money. Then we demanded that we receive tickets, and to our surprise, he gave us fake tickets (very realistic looking). It was $5 each. We continued to the top where of course there was no one asking to see any tickets. The weather today was rather warm and a little humid, so we were a little sweaty by the time we got to the top. At the top was another tourist ploy. In this town apparently, they sell baby birds (chicks?) in tiny bamboo cages that you can then release for the benefit of the monks? Not really sure, did not buy any obviously. The temple at the top was not impressive, but the views were nice – not too smoky today. Unfortunately, we were not able to see the confluence of the two rivers, because trees were in the way. But we did have a nice view of the Royal Palace/Museum from up high. We returned to the main street and hailed a tuktuk back to our hotel – we had walked enough for today.

With some time to relax before dinner, we cooled down and showered. At 6:00 PM, the group assembled to tour Luang Prabang’s night market, which was really for tourists. We bought a few items for gifts plus a few small things. 

Dinner was at the very nice restaurant Manda Da Lao.  With a pre-set and intriguing menu, we enjoyed Luang Prabang sausage, banana flower salad, and Lao style fish salad as starters.  Then for the mains, we had steamed fish hormok style, Lao chicken stew, buffalo Lao Lao, and stir-fried vegetables with organic red sticky rice. Dessert was coconut crème brulee. Delicious food in a elegant setting.