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Spirits of the Stone
Victor Paul Borg explores the mystical sights of laos’ plain of Jars
KHAMMAN PIMMASAN, the government official responsible for historic heritage in Laos, is smiling cheekily. We are on the mountainside at Phukeng, and he is flitting around the towering pine trees, pointing out the unfinished or broken prehistoric stone jars that are thousands of years old.
His exhilaration is certainly palpable: this jar-making site, an archaeological breakthrough when it was discovered years ago, is the fount of most of these ancient urns at the aptly-named Plain of Jars in Laos’ Xieng Khoung Province.
Pimmasan has become surprisingly nimble for a man of 55. When I catch up with him, he asks, “Are you excited to be here?”
I am conscious of the area’s rather turbulent past. As a war-time hideout of the communist group Pathet Lao, this mountain was heavily mined. But now there’s every reason to be excited.
Phukeng is the source: the dozens of jars in various stages of completion scattered on the desolate mountainside is where these megalithic monuments began their journey.
It is also a scenic spot with a lofty vista of the vast plateau: broken lines of pine trees, undulating cattle grassland, meandering streams and patches of rice fields. Beyond the sprawl of the provincial capital Phonsovan are the faint outlines of distant mountains.
MYSTERIOUS MATTERS
The jars were carved from boulders using chisel and hammer, and then transported eight kilometres away to a place now called Site One. Its 334 jars make it the largest of three major sites near Phonsovan that attract thousands of visitors annually.
Site One, like the others, is an evocative sight – hundreds of large jars, some as high as three metres and weighing several tons, clustered on the crests of hills, standing upright like megalithic menhirs – the outlandish mortuary vessels of a mysterious prehistoric civilisation.
“A great mystery is how they were actually transported over such a distance,” marvels Pimmasan. “It had to be a major effort given the size and weight of the haul.”
When asked why so many jars were incomplete, he goes on to explain that there are two possible reasons. “It could have been that construction was abandoned after the rock was deemed unsuitable, or the time for making jars had come to an end.”
No one knows exactly what happened to the people who practised such extravagant death rites, or even who they were. According to a UNESCO report, “It’s one of the most intriguing and enduring puzzles of Southeast Asian prehistory.”
As such, UNESCO is preparing the Plain of Jars for the highest accolade – designation as a World Heritage Site – and has been pouring in funds for research and development.
An extensive survey has already led to the discovery of many previously unrecorded sites: the tally now stands at 1,900 jars in 52 clusters, as well as the 15 jar-making sites.
5 CURRENT UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES ON THE ROUTE MAP
LUANG PRABANG, LAOS
Since it was eulogised by UNESCO as “the best preserved town in Southeast Asia”, Luang Prabang has attracted an increasing number of visitors. Yet the town’s sleepy character has remained intact: you can spend days sauntering through the town’s palm-fringed alleyways, visiting fascinating Buddhist monasteries, and enjoying great Laotian food at outdoor restaurants perched on the banks of the Mekong River.
SUKHOTHAI, THAILAND
Celebrated as the first Thai kingdom, the ruins of Sukhothai conjure the flourish of Buddhism at the time – there are more than a dozen superb temples, as well as the vestiges of marvellous royal temples. Sukhothai is more than the sum of its ruins: the town walls, gates, moats, canals, and system of dykes are testimony to the town that gave rise to the imperial power of Siam.
HIROSHIMA PEACE MEMORIAL, JAPAN
Close to the hypocentre of the nuclear explosion, the skeletal remains of a former exhibition building serves as the evocative centrepiece of the large park called the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Elsewhere, the park houses two museums about the event, cenotaphs, symbolic installations, a bell that rings for world peace, and millions of paper cranes with peace messages from children all over the world.
ANGKOR WAT, CAMBODIA
The massive scale and compositional harmony of Angkor Wat temple surely makes it one of the greatest architectural achievements of all time. One of the most fascinating aspects of the site is the relief or carvings on the central temple proper – especially the depictions of the episodes of the Hindu Ramayana and, in another section, the Buddha images from when it was converted to a Buddhist shrine. A vast spectacle that needs more than a day’s visit to do it proper justice.
ITSUKUSHIMA SHRINE, JAPAN
Hiroshima’s second World Heritage Sight is a fanciful Shinto temple whose dramatic gateway and buildings are painted a vibrant red. Shinto, an elaborate form of animism, was Japan’s state religion up to World War II. The shrine’s unique architecture represents the Heian “shinden-zukuri” style of using the border between mountain and sea, with the temple torres rising up out of the Seto inland sea.
A DYING TRADITION
The jars are believed to have been made over hundreds of years ago, sometime between 500BC and 500AD, as vessels for elaborate death rituals that are still practised to a little extent in the Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia. The dead were placed in the urns until the body decomposed to its essence before being cremated and the charred remains buried with personal or symbolic possessions.
At the time, archaeologists think that the plateau’s strategic importance – it is surrounded by dense high mountains on all sides – made it a base and crossroads along a trade route that extended from India to China. This allowed a civilisation to flourish and prosper, and gave rise to such grand celestial rituals that required the massive undertaking of making and transporting the vases.
Excavations conducted in the late ’90s by a pre-eminent archaeologist in Laos, Thongsa Sayavongkhamdy, who was assisted by Pimmasan, yielded burial possessions such as bracelets, necklaces, earthenware pots and smoking pipes.
The excavations also unearthed bones and other organic material that was dated 3,500-4,000BC. A few years later, a similar date (3,000BC) also came up in analysis of charcoal found adjacent to a burial urn by Julie Van Den Bergh, a Belgian consulting archaeologist for UNESCO.
These dates – earlier than previously believed – have raised many questions. Are the jars older than thought? Are the burials from an earlier period? Were the burial pots made over a longer span of time?
“There are too many unknowns,” says Van Den Bergh. “We need more dateable material to start answering these questions.”
PLAIN OF JARS PRACTICALITIES WHEN TO VISIT: The Plain of Jars can get chilly between November and February – temperatures might drop to single Celsius digits. Between March and May, temperatures are pleasantly hot during the day and drop to the early 20s at night. It rains mostly between May and October. GETTING THERE: Daily public buses connect Luang Prabang (8hrs; US$7) and Vientiane (6hrs; US$7) with Phonsovan. Shared mini-vans are organised by travel agents in both towns for about US$20 per person. WHERE TO STAY: Auberge De La Plain De Jars (Phoupadeng, tel +856 (0)30 517-0282, email auberge_plainjars@yahoo.fr) is the only hotel managed by a professional hotelier, a Laotian who speaks impeccable English and French. It has 15 wooden bungalows set amid pine trees on a hill, offering superb views. From US$30 (includes breakfast). WHERE TO EAT: The central Simmaly Restaurant (Phonsovan Kang; daily 6am–10pm) is the better one for Laotian food among half a dozen restaurants. A few doors away, Craters Restaurant (Phonsovan Kang; daily 6.30am–10pm) serves good Western dishes alongside local staples. Maly Hotel’s restaurant (Phonsaart Village; daily 7am–10pm) offers the finest Laotian cuisine in town, while Auberge de La Plain de Jars’ restaurant (Phoupadeng; daily 6.30am–10pm) features both Lao and classic French dishes in an atmospheric setting. TOUR AGENCIES: Since none of the jar sites are signposted, visitors are advised to use a tour agency. The best tours can be arranged at the Maly Hotel (tel +856 (0)61 312031, www.malyht. laotel.com) and at the local branch of Diethelm Travel (Phonsovan Kang, tel +856 (0)61 213200). The former has cheaper prices, dispatching mini-vans full of visitors to many of the main sites for about US$8 per person, and also has the top tours based on war sites. The latter has a better English-speaking guide and the most imaginative tours for a cultural experience, but is substantially more expensive. Avoid unexpected costs by agreeing in advance exactly what the price includes and excludes, and avoid paying the whole fee upfront. |
DIGGING FOR THE TRUTH
But archaeological excavations at the Plain of Jars were hindered by the explosive detritus of one of the most extensive bombing campaigns in history. From 1964 to 1973, the US attempted to destroy the revolutionary Pathet Lao forces as part of the larger war in Indochina.
The same strategic importance that gave rise to the fantastic urn culture also saw a deluge of aerial bombings. The plateau was a stronghold of the Pathet Lao and a staging post for the Vietcong, resulting in one vast unmarked minefield of unexploded ordnance after the war.
There are now two organisations – the British Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and the national UXO Lao – clearing the ground metre by metre. In 2004, MAG cleared the three main jar fields (Sites One, Two and Three) and is now working on the clearance of four newly-discovered sites so they can be open to tourism.
“War remnants, including bombs, inspire a lot of interest from tourists,” explains David Davenport, MAG’s team leader, when I visit the organisation’s office in Phonsovan. They provide the most common form of decor in local guesthouses and restaurants. And visitors, aided by better infrastructure, are increasing dramatically (with 24,000 visiting in 2005), fuelling something of a development boom in Phonsovan. Gaining World Heritage status will soon open the tourist floodgates.
SITE BEHOLD
The most spectacular of the new tourist attractions is a jar field in the mountains. Discovered in 2003, the 416 jars are the largest cluster ever found.
The mortuary receptacles are scattered near a Hmong village of 28 households called Ban Phakeo. Getting there entails trekking for three hours and an overnight stay, something that makes a visit triply rewarding. The village is a quaint cluster of wooden houses set in a dent in the mountain, where we are greeted by a group of children who trail us to the chief’s house.
Strewn about in forest on the hillcrest and a further 30-minute walk, the jars make a surreal sight – mostly intact, some toppled over, others swaddled in moss and ferns. The large concentration here indicates that these mountains, now home to only a few primitive ethnic villages, were once upon a time densely populated.
Van Den Bergh thinks the ridge could have been a former trade route, a thought that conjures up vivid images of a lost civilisation. My travelling group, which includes Pimmasan and a translator, sit in pensive reverie, gazing at the jars and range upon range of mountains straggling towards the horizon. It’s a peaceful, remote vista, and a perfect resting place for the spirits of the dead.
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