Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Jar sites
The
Jarsites
are among the most important prehistoric archeological sites in Southeast Asia.
Clusters of stone jars thought to be two thousand years old, along with seemingly older stone
pillars, are scattered across the Plain and also in other parts of Xieng Khuang and Hua Phan
province. The largest urns measure 2m in height and weigh as much as ten tonnes. Little is
known about the
Iron Age megalithic civilization
that created these artefacts; war and re-
volution kept archeologists from working on the sites for decades. By the time French ar-
cheologist Madeleine Colani began excavating at the Jar sites in the 1930s, most of the urns
had been looted, although she did find bronze and iron tools as well as coloured glass beads,
bronze bracelets and cowrie shells. Colani theorized that the jars were
funerary urns
, ori-
ginally holding cremated remains. More recent discoveries have revealed underground burial
chambers, further supporting Colani's theory.
Of the dozens of Jar sites, twelve are currently open to tourists, though the
threemainsites
are those most commonly visited on tours. The closest one to Phonsavan, known as Site 1,
just 2km southwest of town, has over two hundred jars. Sites 2 and 3 are much more scenic
and are located about 10km southwest of the market village of
Lat Houang
, which is 10km
south of Phonsavan, on the road to Muang Khoun.
Site 1
Site 1 or
Thong Hai Hin
(“Stone Jar Plain”) is the most visited of the sites. Following the
path from the car park to the jars, you'll quickly come to
Hai Cheaum
(“Cheaum Jar”), a
massive jar 2m high that was named after the Tai-Lao hero of lore, who is celebrated in one
version of the jar myth as the liberator of the people of the Plain of Jars from a cruel overlord
named Chao Angka. Legend has it that the jars were made to ferment rice wine to celebrate
the victory; as the jars bear a passing resemblance to
lào hái
jars used today, the liquor-lov-
ing locals didn't have to stretch their imaginations too far to come up with this theory. Walk
