Vientiane and the northwest - The Rough Guide to Laos - page 105

WAT IS THAT?
The wat , or Buddhist monastery , is the centrepiece of most villages populated by ethnic
Lao. A contingent of monks and novices lives in each wat, providing the laypeople with
an outlet for merit-making . The wat also serves as a hub for social gatherings and, during
annual festivals and Buddhist holy days, a venue for entertainment.
Sometimes referred to as a “temple” in English, a wat is actually composed of a number
of religious and secular structures, some of which could also be described as a temple. The
sim is usually the grandest structure in the monastery grounds, as it houses the monastery's
principal Buddha images, as well as being the place where monks are ordained. The that ,
or stupa , is generally a pyramid or bell-shaped structure which contains holy relics, usually
a cache of small Buddhas. Occasionally, a that will be the reputed repository of a splinter
of bone belonging to the historic Buddha himself, while miniature stupas, or that kaduk ,
contain the ashes of deceased adherents. The haw tai is a solid structure, usually raised
high off the ground, for storing palm-leaf manuscripts, and kuti are monks' quarters. Be-
cause the latter two buildings are not considered as important as other religious structures
in the monastery grounds, they are not as frequently restored, and are thus most likely to
exude that “timeless Asia” charm. Minor buildings sometimes found at a wat include a bell
tower and a sala , or open-air pavilion. Many monasteries also have a venerable specimen
of a bodhi ( Ficus religiosa ), a wonderfully shady tree of spade-shaped leaves that is said to
have sheltered the Buddha while he meditated his way to enlightenment.
Because the wat and resident monks depend on adherents for support, the extravagance
of a monastery's decoration is directly related to the amount of cash flow in the host vil-
lage or town. In poor villages, the wat may consist of just a sim , which will be a large but
simple hut-like structure, raised on stilts without any ornamentation. The only clue to the
outsider that this is a monastery will be the freshly laundered monks' robes hanging out
to dry alongside a piece of junk metal or war scrap, such as an old artillery-shell casing,
which when struck serves as a bell to wake the monks or call them to assemble.
Haw Pha Kaew
Setthathilat Rd ∙ Daily 8am-noon & 1-4pm ∙ 5000K
Haw Pha Kaew was once the king's personal Buddhist temple, but now functions as a mu-
seum of art and antiquities . Said to date from the mid-sixteenth century, the structure was
destroyed by marauding Siamese during the sack of Vientiane in 1828 and was later ear-
marked for restoration by the French. The temple is named for the EmeraldBuddha , or Pha
Kaew, which, along with the Pha Bang , the most sacred Buddha image in Laos, was pilfered
by the Siamese in 1779 and carried off to their capital. The Pha Bang was eventually returned