Luang Prabang - The Rough Guide to Laos - page 178

Akha, Hmong and Khmu people, among others. Exhibits include numerous items of clothing,
such as an amazing Akha Pouly Nyai woman's headdress made up of over three hundred sil-
ver ornaments, traditionally worn even when bathing, sleeping and working in fields, as well
as household objects and religious artefacts. Annually changing exhibitions keep the centre's
displays fresh, and there's an excellent shop and café .
Project Space
Kitsalat Rd, opposite TAEC ∙ Daily 9am-6pm ∙ Free ∙ 071 213091, projectspace-luangprabang.com
A one-room, not-for-profit gallery, Project Space hosts frequently changing, usually worth-
while art and photography exhibitions by local and international practitioners with a Lao or
Southeast Asian theme. It's also sometimes used as a screening venue during the Luang Pra-
bang Film Festival .
Wat Hosian Voravihane
Chao Fa Ngum Rd
Wat Hosian Voravihane is reached via a stairway flanked by some impressive and undu-
lating seven-headed naga spewing from the mouths of snaggle-toothed makara . Elements of
the wat suggest influence from northern Thailand, namely the gold-topped that . The graceful
stupa is very similar to examples found in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Wat That Luang
Off Photisalath Rd
Situated on a low hill 1km southwest of the old city, Wat That Luang dates from 1818 and
is notable as the last resting place of King Sisavang Vong, whose ashes are said to be interred
in the golden stupa in front of the sim . The whitewashed sim itself , simple yet distinctive in
design, largely eschews the rich ornamentation seen on temples elsewhere across the city, ex-
cept in the lacquering of its heavy timber door and window panels, decorated tympanums and
in the fifteen-point dok so fa crest surmounting the roof, said to represent Mount Meru.
Wat Visoun
Ban Wat Visoun ∙ 20,000K (includes Wat Aham)
Wat Visoun shares a parcel of land with Wat Aham on the opposite side of Phousi from
the Royal Palace Museum. The monastery's sim , as seen in a wood-block print executed by
French artist Louis Delaporte in 1873, was once a lavishly decorated example of the all-but-
extinct Xieng Khuang style. The original sim was razed during the sack of Luang Prabang
in 1887 by Chinese bandits, and the bulbous, finial-topped stupa, known as that makmo -
the watermelon stupa - was destroyed as well. The looters made off with treasures stored
within, but fortunately didn't take everything. What they left behind is now on display in the
throne room of the Royal Palace Museum . Wat Visoun's reconstructed sim is an unremark-