Pha That Luang relighous/ monument, speritual

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Laos - Vientiane - Sights- Pha That Luang

Pha That Luang
Address Muang Saisettha
Keyword religious/spiritual, monument, religious/spiritual

The most important national monument in Laos, Pha That Luang is a symbol of both the Buddhist religion and Lao sovereignty. Its full official name, Pha Chedi Lokajulamani, means World-Precious Sacred Stupa, and an image of the main stupa appears on the national seal and in countless other places. Legend has it that Ashokan missionaries from India erected a thâat or reliquary stupa here to enclose a piece of the Buddha's breastbone as early as the 3rd century BC.

Excavations have found no trace of this, but did find suggestion of a Khmer monastery that might have been built near here between the 11th and 13th centuries AD. The monument looks almost like a gilded missile cluster from a distance. Surrounding it is a high-walled cloister with tiny windows, added by King Anouvong in the early 19th century as a defence against invaders. Even more aggressive-looking than the thick walls are the pointed stupas themselves, which are built in three levels. In 1641, Gerrit van Wuysthoff, an envoy of the Dutch East India Company, visited Vientiane and was received by King Suriya Vongsa in a reportedly magnificent ceremony at Pha That Luang. The Lan Xang kingdom was at its peak and van Wuysthoff was deeply impressed by the 'enormous pyramid, the top of which was covered with gold leaf weighing about a thousand pounds'. Unfortunately, the glory of Lan Xang and Pha That Luang was only to last another 60 years or so. Repeated damaging assaults were carried out during the 18th century by invading Burmese and Siamese armies. Then, in 1828, a Siamese invasion ransacked and depopulated Vientiane to such an extent that Pha That Luang remained abandoned, and eventually dismantled by treasure seekers, until it was (badly) restored by the French in 1900. That restoration left the stupa looking a bit too chunky and none too attractive, at least that's what the locals thought. In a victory of town-planning over history, the orientation was changed so that the main entrance faced south, rather than east. This meant the wide new Th That Luang ran straight up to the stupa, but didn't fit with traditional Buddhist doctrine, which has most temples and religious monuments facing east. In fairness to the French, they did try to fix it. Changing the orientation back was clearly too hard, but between 1931 and 1935 a French university department dismantled the stupa and rebuilt it in the original Lao-style lotus-bud shape. For guidance they used the drawings of French explorer and architect Louis Delaporte, who had stumbled on the abandoned and overgrown Pha That Luang in 1867 and made a number of detailed sketches of the monument. Pha That Luang is about 4km northeast of the centre of Vientiane at the end of Th That Luang. Facing the compound is a statue of King Setthathirat. The temple is the site of a major festival, held in early November .

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