Laos Pictures
Plain of Jars, Phonsavan

Plain of Jars, near Phonsavan, Xieng Khuang province.

Xieng Khuang is a high green mountainous province offering a beneficial climate but a decidedly unhealthy environment, with large quantities of UXO [unexploded ordnance, aka bombs or bomblets] still lying around in the undergrowth - solid proof of allegations that the CIA and US Air Force conspired in a secret war against the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces in the late 60's, using saturation bombing as their main tool of attack. In the process the USAF totally obliterated many towns and villages, forcing survivors to live in the area's caves.
When flying in or out of Phonsavan thousands of bomb craters and shrapnel pockmarks are clearly visible. A UN supported group, Lao National UXO Programme, and others, are currently working to clear UXOs that still claim around 50 local victims a year. Visitors will be fine if they stay on regular pathways, it's off-piste kids or farmers that bear the brunt of US military arrogance and stupidity. Plus ça change...

Phonsavan is off the main tourist route and is very much a city for the locals, but while it's not a thing of great beauty it's good to see how real Laos live, and the town is adjacent to the stunning and mysterious Plain of Jars.
In spite of US Air Force's attempt to obliterate 'PDJ' or Plaine de Jarres [in French], the three Plain of Jars sites near Phonsavan are still a must see. There's nothing like them elsewhere in Laos, or the world for that matter. The hundreds of stone-carved jars in different sizes - one of them weighs about 600 tonnes - are quite mystical and definitely worth a day or two on anyone's itinerary.

The function and age of these jars is still unknown, though 2,000 years old is the best educated guess in the absence of organic material for carbon dating. Exploring the function or full layout of the jars is still hazardous due to UXOs, but archeologists suggest that they were either used for storing rice, fermenting wine or for human burial, i.e. they were sarcophagi.

Lao children outside a bomb-ironic guest house, Phonsavan, Xieng Khuang province.

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