Day 2 - Laos: 5-7 Days of Exploring Vientiane and Luang Prabang - page 29

• Address: About 6 kilometers down a dirt road, off of Thadeua road
(17.912633,102.764289)
(In case you were curious, it's 5,000 kip admission per person, 3,000 kip 'photography fee'
per person, and 3,000 kip for parking your motorbike.)
Erected in 1958 by Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat, a priest / shaman who aimed to integrate
Hinduism and Buddhism into a single religion. After the revolution in 1975 forced the king
to abdicate, the 'Venerable Grandfather' fled south of the river to Thailand, where he cre-
ated a second sculpture park just a few kilometers away. Ornate but bizarre, this entire area
looks centuries old, but is in reality mere decades old. Depending on how much you know
of Buddhist and Hindu beliefs, the names Avalokiteśvara, Shiva, Vishnu, and Arjuna may
not mean much to you.
In any case, the reinforced concrete statues were supposedly made by unskilled workers
underLuang'ssupervision.Thehighlightisrightasyouenter:athree-levelstatueyouenter
through a demon's mouth. Enter through hell, climb the stairs to Earth, and up the final