Wats of Luang Prabang

In the 18th century Luang Prabang had over 65 Buddhist temples, called wats. Most of them were damaged or destroyed when the Chinese Haw Black Flag marauders sacked the city in 1887, by a typhoon in 1900, and during US carpet bombing in the 1960's and 1970's. An ongoing wat restoration throughout the 20th century has preserved 33 of the city's originals.

This one, a few blocks from our house, exemplifies many of their common features.

All the wats we've visited are enclosed by this style of wall. Sadly, an hour's worth of internet research failed to tell me anything about it.

What my research did reveal is that Luang Prabang has its own unique architectural style. This style is characterized by a high-pointed tile roof with multiple tiers, each representing a different cosmological level in Buddhist doctrine. In the very center of the roof, you can see a metallic ornament called a Dok So Fa (literally: pointing to the sky). These are common in much Southeast Asian Buddhist architecture, and are supposed to represent the universe.


Serpentine creatures called nagas are another ubiquitous architectural ornament of the wats. Here, a 7-headed naga spews from the mouth of a larger one whose body follows the stairway leading to the wat.


The word naga comes from Sanskrit (for a deity taking the form of a great snake), and depictions of nagas are common throughout the Buhddist and Hindu world. According to wikipedia, Thai and Lao people living along the Mekong River believe nagas protect it, and revere them as sacred creatures. It is common for those who make their living on the river to make offerings to the nagas for protection. Several other bloggers related anecdotes told by locals who attest to the reality and power of the nagas. (For example: you aren't supposed to work the day after you dream about a naga (!) and a man who ignored this custom was killed by falling rocks the next day).

Most prominantly, it has been said for centuries that one can see small fireballs float into the air from the surface of the river in October, around the end of the Buddhist rain retreat of Vassa. These fireballs are reputedly shot by the nagas that live in the river in celebration of the end of their meditation. According to wikipedia the fireball phenomenon has been verified but its causes are still not well understood. It's been suggested that "the balls are produced by the fermintation [sic] of sediment in the river, which can combust in the particular ... atmospheric conditions of the nights in question." Pretty badly written, wikipedia, but plausible enough.

While not always multi-headed, nagas adorn most stairways and many windows and roof tops.


The walls of many wats also include ornate depictions of scenes from the life of Buddha, ordinary activities of Lao villagers, and elements of Buddhist iconography, such as ornate lotus leaves. (Often these are in gold leaf, which I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of).





Another curious feature of many wats we've been unable to explain is the presence of what appears to be a small monk (though sometimes the figure appears in a more fantastical form) straddling the entrance to the wat's stuppa. Make of this what you will.