Vientiane and the northwest - The Rough Guide to Laos - page 104

Wat Sisaket
Setthathilat Rd ∙ Daily 8am-noon & 1-4pm ∙ 5000K
The oldest wat in Vientiane, Wat Sisaket was constructed by King Anouvong (Chao Anou)
in 1818, and was the site of a ceremony in which Lao lords and nobles swore an oath of loy-
alty to the king. During the 1828 sack of Vientiane by the Siamese, this was the only monas-
tery not put to the torch and, once the smoke had cleared, the Siamese brought the surviving
Lao nobility here and made them swear another oath of loyalty, this time to their new over-
lords. Later, in 1893, the whole ceremony was repeated again at this very same wat before
new masters - the French.
Surrounded by a tile-roofed cloister, the sim contains some charming murals similar in style
to those found at Bangkok's Wat Phra Kaew. The murals, together with the niches in the up-
per walls containing small Buddha images, and the ornate ceiling, are best taken in while
kneeling on the floor (taking care not to point your feet towards the altar). The Buddha im-
ages on the altar are not particularly notable, but a splendidly ornate hao thian , or candle
holder, of carved wood situated before the altar is an example of nineteenth-century Lao
woodcarving at its best.
Outside, the interior walls of the cloister echo those of the sim , with countless niches from
which peer diminutive Buddhas in twos and threes. Lining the galleries are larger images
that survived the destruction of 1828 and, in a locker at the western wall, a heap of Buddhas
that did not. The shaded galleries are a cool and pleasant place to linger and soak up the
atmosphere. Breaching the wall that runs along Lane Xang Avenue, the structure with the
multi-tiered roof is the monastery's former library (closed to the public), where its palm-leaf
manuscripts were once kept.