Wat Thakmo and Wat Aham, Luang Prabang

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. Hav­ing recently trav­eled to Sri Lanka, I can only say at this time that I look for­ward to study­ing this com­par­i­son fur­ther. It is dif­fer­ent than the rest of the wats we vis­ited in Luang Pra­bang. It is referred to as the Water­melon stupa because of water­melon shaped dome.

If you step down over the wall next to the two very tall palm trees on the grounds of Wat Thakmo, you are at the more recently ren­o­vated Wat Aham, with its red-lipped, stuc­cio lions guard­ing the entrance stairs and Ramayana deities sta­tioned at the front cor­ners of the building.

We were there at lunchtime where we got to see a food ven­dor serv­ing lunch to monks at the site.