Buddhist Arts

When we visited Luang Prabang in 2002, this small town, sitting on the Mekong River and home to at least 34 wats, or Buddhist temples, still felt a little undiscovered. While walking along the main drag, though, I sometimes felt as though I was in a European city with the French colonial buildings lining the [...]

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The Peacefulness Temple, or Pra Tard Kong, is a recently built temple just outside of town. It has become a favorite of locals and SE Asian visitors. The day we were there they were having some kind of ceremony, so we were unable to enter the temple. But as you can see from the pictures, [...]

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Here are two small wats in Luang Prabang. I only spent a short amount of time at each, in fact I have 2 pictures of each wat. Wat Pa Khe or the Monastery of the Forest of Khe Trees and Wat Paphane or Monastery of the Flame Tree Forest are both located near Mount Phousi. [...]

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Wat Tham Phousi is located on Mount Phousi. It is an unremarkable wat except for the tall cupola topped with a single parasol and surrounded by 4 more parasols at its 4 corners. I did not see anything else like this in Luang Prabang. Additionally, it is built into the side of a large [...]

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The Royal Palace was home to the royal family until 1975 when the communist Pathet Lao took over. The last crown prince of Laos, Savang Vatthana, and his family were removed from the palace and died about 5 years later in the hills near the Plain of Jars. It is now the National Museum where [...]

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These two wats are situated very close together and share the oldest archway in Luang Prabang. I show two pictures of it where you may wonder how on earth it is still standing, which is understandable considering that it was built in 1504.
Wat Thakmo is described in Ancient Luang Prabang as displaying Sinhalese influence. [...]

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Wat Nong Sikhunmuang is located on Kounxoa Road, in the next block from Wat Sene. The roof colors are vibrant yellow and orange and the exterior gold decoration of the gable is set against a backdrop of deep red. The wat itself is whitewashed, which really sets off the deep gold framed windows along the [...]

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Otherwise known simply as Wat Mai, this is a fairly large temple complex. The main temple is unusual in that it has a five-tiered roof. Each tier is finished with a naga finial and the very top tier is decorated with a 3-spire dok so faa, or metal roof decoration. The lowest roof sweeps nearly [...]

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Wat Khili is situated opposite Wat Xieng Thong and next door to Wat Si Boun Houang. The first picture in this set is of the 2-story white stucco French colonial style monks quarters attached to this wat.
What I love most about this wat are the colorful tree of life mosaics on the red front of [...]

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While many of the wats in Luang Prabang were renovated in mid to late 20th century, this wat seems older because it was last renovated in 1900. It was built in the mid 18th century. The small sim has 4 columns, 2 round and 2 square, topped with lotus petal capitals supporting a low sweeping [...]

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