Vat Phou – Khmer temple of sacrifice
The former capital of Chenla Empire about 1,400 years ago, Champasak is a great civilization stretching south into Cambodia, north and west into northern Thailand and as far as Burma. Presently, there is no sight of the past glory in town since the city was built of wood. Perhaps, the only remnants of this ancient empire are Vat Phou, which lies 4 kilometers away from the city.
Vat Phou is a Hindu temple set at the foot of a curiously shaped 1,416-metre mountain with a flat narrow peak and steep, forested sides. The temple is laid out on an east-facing axis. A paved causeway leads 1.5 kilometers from the ancient reservoirs at its base. The path has three steeply stepped staircases, with terraces at the top of each. Lined with stone pillars and Frangipani trees at the top is an upper sanctuary, the most holy sanctum of the temple. On the summit of the hill is a 15 metre high monolith, the main reason for the site of the temple. The stone is perceived as a natural ‘lingam’ – the symbol of the Hindu god Shiva – a phallic symbol. The temple area used to contain many smaller, carved linga, now mostly removed. Carved representations of the female sex organs, called yoni, can also be found. It was built several hundred years before the great Khmer temples of Angkor Vat. The Khmers, however, rebuilt and improved the buildings, so most of the buildings seen were built between the 11th and 12th century.
At the beginning of the causeway there are 2 ‘palaces’, which their function is unknown. With dark passages surrounding a large open space, they may have been forums. The northern one is built of sandstone, the southern of laterite with sandstone lintels. There are intricate and beautiful carvings on these lintels, depicting scenes from Hindu mythology.
On each of the terraces are the remains of ancient palaces, and a library. At the top is the sanctuary, a small building now containing recent Buddha images, surrounded by carvings of Hindu origin. Many of the lintels are intricately carved, showing similar scenes to the lower ‘palace’, but even more exquisite. Behind the sanctuary to the south is the sacred spring, which flows over an overhanging rock face. To the north, at the foot of a small staircase, is a large stone with the deeply carved outline of a crocodile. The dimensions are human, and this is almost certainly the sacrificial stone described by Chinese historians in the 6th century. They speak of the annual sacrifice of a human by the king of Chenla. The carved channel for the flow of blood supports this gruesome claim.
Nearby is a large carving of the three main Hindu gods of Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu. It is significant that Vishnu, the protector, and Rama, the creator, are bowing down before Shiva, the destroyer.
A temple in the jungle – Oum Muong
Just south of the island of Don Daeng is the village of Huei Thamo, on the east bank of the river, a little downstream from Vat Phou on the opposite bank of the Mekong River. This typical rural Laotian village is a short walk from an ancient temple in the jungle, the Khmer temple of Oum Moung.
Little has changed here since the French archaeologist Lajonquiere discovered the temple at the beginning of the 20th century, giving modern visitors the feeling of finding an unknown site. The temple is named after the sluggish jungle stream that flows into the Mekong at the north side of the site.
The temple’s age is known from an inscription, declaring that it is dedicated to god Rudani, a consort of Shiva. It was built towards the end of the 9th century.
A wall of laterite blocks, once three metres high, surrounds the temple. Beyond this wall is the first, and best-preserved, entrance pavilion (gopura), built of laterite with sandstone door and window frames. Looking out of one of the windows is an unusual structure, a lingam with 4 faces at its tip. Other stone pieces lay scattered amongst the trees, including a boundary stone, a lintel depicting the god Indra and some naga buttresses. The naga is a many headed serpent inhabitant of the underworld, common in many stories of both Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies.
At the centre of the enclosure are three east-facing towers, in brick. North of here is the stream, which provided an effective moat. The name of the temple means ‘underground cavern’, although no such cavern is known to exist.
‘The Niagara of the East’ – Khong Pha Peng waterfalls
From the peaceful waters of the Mekong above, a huge mass of water roars across a wide ledge, a kilometer in width, dropping vertically 30 metres into the lower basin. This is not only a breathtaking sight, but also a place of great geopolitical significance.
France annexed Laos into its Indo-China colony in the late 19th century. They hoped to transport valuable goods from Yunnan, southern China, to Vietnam for export. The falls of Khone Phabeng made that dream impossible to fulfill. The bedrock of the river at this point changes from hard to soft, so the river has gouged out a series of torrents and waterfalls impossible for any vessel to cross. This separates the upper Mekong from the lower Mekong, completely sealing off the two sections for navigation and the transport of goods, and creating a separate history for each.
A French colony lost in the jungle – Khone Island
About half an hour by road from Si Pan Don is the small fishing village of Xieng Di. Here, a maze of waterways winds through marshes and small, low islands. This section of the Mekong River resembles an inland sea, the islands lined with coconut palms and scattered with small fishing and farming villages. The village is situated on the Khone Island where several ruins of French colonial houses, an old customs post, a stone quay and the rusting remains of cranes and other machinery of a bygone age are visible.
Why all this, in what is apparently the middle of nowhere? A clue lies in the waterfalls of Phapeng, which separate the upper and lower Mekong River. During the 19th century, the French troops needed to police and control its new colony of Laos, which is mainly in the upper Mekong. Boats from the south and east, from Vietnam and Cambodia, could not sail beyond the lower Mekong because the waterways are blocked by the Khone Phapeng Waterfall. Hence, the French connected the upper and lower Mekong with a railway across this island. Then, the French sailed warships to the southern edge of the island, below the waterfall, ferried the parts by train along the 7 kilometres of the railway and rebuilt them. It was the job of these ships both to carry supplies to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and to patrol the border of Indo-china. The tracks are still there, although the rails themselves have been taken. Hidden in the jungle, and overgrown with tropical plants, you will find the old engine, slowly rotting away.
There is time to explore the area, and to try to picture this place as it must have been a hundred years ago. If you are very lucky, you might glimpse a rare site – river dolphins. These wonderful mammals have become increasingly rare, due to poaching. Now rigorously protected in Laos, some are still killed by Cambodian fishermen (the southern edge of the river is in Cambodian territory). Amazingly, they are able to migrate up the river to this area, past the rapids and waterfalls.
