Buddha & War

After breakfast we boarded the bus to visit the Great Sacred Stupa, a national symbol of Laos, and a holy site supposedly enclosing the breastbone of the Buddha as a relic. Interesting, but we took more time there than necessary, especially since I was having a bout of stomach upset and would have been better off nearer a toilet!

Our guide spotted a monk who didn't look to be from around here, and began a conversation with him. Turned out he was a young German who had come for a brief spiritual retreat, but had stayed and was now in his second year. His English was quite good, and he answered questions for us about his life as a monk.

On to the Patuxay Victory Gate -- sort of an Asian "Arc de Triumph" -- Mary and the rest of the group climbed the 200+ steps to see the view, but I wasn't feeling up to it, so sat on a bench. I was soon approached by a young man who wanted to sit with me and chat. I'm afraid I wasn't too friendly at first, because I assumed he was selling something, but he turned out just to be a university student trying to practice his English. He wanted to know about my family and work, and I asked him about his studies. He was studying law, and was hoping for a government job on graduation. However, he indicated that he might, instead, be sent to a rural area to teach high school. The group returned, and I left him, but Mary thought my experience had probably been more interesting than the climb.

Back on the bus, we drove only a short distance to the "House of the Emerald Buddha." (There are, apparently, a number of Emerald Buddhas in this part of the world.) This was originally a private temple for the royal family, but is now a museum of some of the finest Buddha statues in Laos. However, the distinction between a working temple and a museum is a thin one -- we had to take off our shoes to enter, and monks were kneeling on a rug before one of the statues, offering incense.

We had quite a conversation with our local guide, Lou, about what one has to do in order to move to a new residence in Laos, compared to the process of moving in the U.S. He was quite amazed that we didn't have to apply for permission to move, or to register with authorities to keep them informed about where we live!

Our local guide, "Lou."

Across the street was an old monastery, now also a museum, noted for having nearly 7,000 buddha statues. Most were in niches along the walls of a cloister surrounding the central temple. Also present, locked in a separate area, were hundreds of Buddha statues that had been destroyed by invading Siamese in the 19th century. Most had been decapitated. 

Apparently, even if one is Buddhist, desecrating your enemy's buddhas is an acceptable way of humiliating those you've conquered. We also learned that all buddhas are not created equal, and that some statues are too holy to touch, while others are venerated by touching. It's all pretty complex.

Lunch was at a place called the Lao Garden, and while the cobwebs in the rafters and light fixtures gave us pause about the possible state of cleanliness in the kitchen, it was some of the best food we've had on the trip. Even better, instead of the usual watermelon for dessert, we were served our choice of several flavors of ice cream. Mary was one of the few brave enough to try taro flavor, and it was actually quite good.

We continued on to a place called the COPE Center, a rehabilitation facility for amputees who have lost limbs to the millions of munitions (mostly unexploded cluster bombs) that still litter northern and eastern Laos, along the former Ho Chi Minh Trail. A sobering exhibit and documentary film (produced by Canadians for PBS) explained that the U.S. dropped more bombs on Laos (supposedly a neutral country) during the Vietnam conflict than it had dropped on Germany and Japan combined during WW II. Hundreds of people, mostly farm children, are killed or maimed by bombs every year to this day. Yet the U.S. does not take responsibility because, officially, there never was a war in Laos. Very sad.

Mary and some others were dropped at a local market, but didn't stay long. I returned to the hotel, with most of the group, to rest and recoup.