Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Buddha Park
25km southeast of downtown Vientiane on the Mekong river ∙ Daily 8am-5pm ∙ 5000K, plus 3000K for cameras
∙ Bus #14 from Vientiane's main bus station (every 15min) is scheduled to stop outside the Buddha Park. A
common problem is for the bus to travel as far as the Friendship Bridge, where you will be shepherded into an
(overpriced) tuk-tuk for the final few kilometres. If this happens, walk back to the main road and jump into a
shared tuk-tuk heading east (it should cost no more than 5000K). It's also possible to charter a tuk-tuk for the
round trip from Vientiane (you should be able to get the price down to around 150,000K for a full vehicle, in-
cluding a 2hr wait)
Xieng Khuan
, or the “
Buddha Park
”, is surely Laos's quirkiest attraction - a tacky tourist
trap to some travellers, one of the most interesting sights in Vientiane to others. This collec-
tion of massive ferro-concrete sculptures, dotted around a wide riverside meadow, was cre-
ated under the direction of Luang Pou Bounleua Soulilat, a self-styled holy man who claimed
to have been the disciple of a cave-dwelling Hindu hermit in Vietnam. Upon returning to
Laos, Bounleua began the sculpture garden in the late 1950s as a means of spreading his
philosophy of life and his ideas about the cosmos. After the revolution, Bounleua was forced
to flee across the Mekong to Nong Khai, Thailand, where he established an even more elab-
orate version of his philosophy in concrete. Ironically, the Lao National Tourism Authority
chose Bounleua's sculptures as the symbol of their “Visit Laos Year” campaign, and posters
depicting the exiled guru's works can be seen in government offices throughout the country.
Besides the brontosaurian reclining Buddha that dominates the park, there are statues of
every conceivable deity in the Hindu-Buddhist pantheon and even a handful of personalit-
ies from the old regime. Near the park's entrance is a strange edifice that resembles a giant
pumpkin with a dead tree sprouting from its crown. Entering the structure through the gaping
maw of devouring time, you can explore representations of the “three planes of existence”:
hell, earth and heaven. A spiral stairway leads to the roof of the building, which affords good
views of the park and river.
