This morning is sightseeing morning. Most of Luang Prabang’s sights are temples so
we prepared ourselves for a day of Buddha.
The Haw Kham Royal Palace was built in 1904 during the French colonial era for King Sisavang Vong, his family. The site for the palace was chosen so that official visitors to Luang Prabang could disembark from their river voyages directly below the palace and be received there. After the death of King Sisavang Vong, the Crown Prince Savang Vatthana and his family were the last to occupy the grounds. In 1975, the monarchy was overthrown by the communists and the Royal Family were taken to re-education camps. They never returned and most think they were executed. The palace was then converted into a national museum.
On the grounds is a beautiful Buddhist temple, the first of many we viewed today.
The Haw Kham Royal Palace was built in 1904 during the French colonial era for King Sisavang Vong, his family. The site for the palace was chosen so that official visitors to Luang Prabang could disembark from their river voyages directly below the palace and be received there. After the death of King Sisavang Vong, the Crown Prince Savang Vatthana and his family were the last to occupy the grounds. In 1975, the monarchy was overthrown by the communists and the Royal Family were taken to re-education camps. They never returned and most think they were executed. The palace was then converted into a national museum.
From here,
we spent the greater part of the morning taking off and putting on our
shoes. There are over 100 temples and monasteries in Luang
Prabang.
Wat Hosian Voravihane
Carved Figures in Wat Visoun,
1520, the oldest remaining temple in Luang Prabang,
Wat (“temple”) Xieng Thong, the
"Golden City or Golden Tree Monastery" from
1500’s. Until 1975 the wat was a royal
temple under the patronage of the royal family and the Lao kings were crowned
in the wat.
Buddha statue inside of Wat Xieng Thong
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| Tree of life |
By
lunchtime we were all pretty Buddha’d out, plus very tired of taking off and
putting on shoes. Lunch was on a private
boat on the Mekong River. The family
that owned the restaurant also lived in the bow of the boat. Just to be certain
that we still had some flexibility to our backs, we were asked to remove shoes
once more, this time to protect the wooden deck of the boat rather than not
offending Buddha. Lunch was interesting
(Hmmmm), and after seeing the water in the Mekong, we were all questioning the intelligence of
eating fish from said river. Also,
farmed tilapia from this part of the world probably won’t be finding its way to
Troon Dr. any time soon.
Tonight we
had a real treat. We drove into a
residential area in Luang Prabang and had dinner with a local family.
A family
elder first led a ceremony welcoming us which included prayers for safe
journeys for all of us,
followed by family members tying strings around our wrists (32 of them) to keep our 32 critical parts healthy. We were to wear these for at least 3 days. When in Rome….
followed by family members tying strings around our wrists (32 of them) to keep our 32 critical parts healthy. We were to wear these for at least 3 days. When in Rome….
Next, the
teenagers in the family performed for us, boys playing instruments,
And the girls doing traditional dances in traditional dress. The girls dancing was amazing!
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| Our entertainers out of costume |
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Getting ready to take over in a few years
Finally it
was out turn to dance along with the whole family. It wasn’t terribly pretty.
The family
then served us a traditional banquet which , of course, included sticky rice
eaten with the fingers, soup, a fish (Mekong caught?) dish , a pork stew and a
pudding for dessert.
Suzanne
(our new friend, not S. Rothstein-our old friend) presented the family with a
gift she had brought, and they in turn gave her the marigold and banana leaf
centerpiece used in the ceremony.
We all
thanked our hosts and headed out to the night market to stimulate the Laotian
economy.
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