Plain of Jars Site 2 Tour with Sousath Phetrasy Part 5

I just found out today (1/20/2010) that Sousath died about five months ago from untreated high blood pressure. That's a shock, and his presence will be missed in Phonsavan in Xieng Khuang Province. I guess it makes this interview series even more important/historical...

I think there are many reasons to travel to and through Xieng Khuang Province. Probably the main reason for most tourists though would be to visit the Plain of Jars. While most people visit Site #1, there are two more sites fairly accessible. In this video, Sousath Phetrasy, owner of the Maly Hotel and tour guide extraordinaire traveled with us and we recorded what he had to say about the Plain of Jars. We were there in December, which is a couple of months into the dry season, and you can see that the grass is brown and the wind is blowing, as it often does on the plateau where the Plain of Jars are situated. The Xiangkhouang Plateau or Tran Ninh Plateau is a plateau in the north of Laos and the highest peaks of the plateau are between 2000 and 3000 meters high. Several tributaries of the Mekong originate in the Plateau and of course it is the location of the Plain of Jars featured in this video, which is a collective name for several sites with archeological remains. The plateau is also one of the most heavily contaminated areas in the world from unexploded cluster munitions.

As I found written on the web, Perhaps 2,000 years old, the jars are one of the oldest archeological wonders of Southeast Asia. They have survived looters, the elements, and American bombs, but for decades were largely forgotten in the chaos and conflict that swept Laos

In the 1930s, French archeologist Madeline Colani documented the jars in a 600-page monograph, The Megaliths of Upper Laos, She discovered some jars contained bronze and iron tools, and bracelets, along with cowry shells and glass beads, while the rest appeared to have been looted, and concluded that they were funeral urns carved by a vanished Bronze Age people. This theory has been strengthened by the more recent discovery of underground burial chambers.

A little more than a mile northeast of Ponsavan lies the principal jar site, called Ban Ang, known as Site 1, containing more than 250 urns. In her words "They are disposed without regularity, some of them pressing one against another, others quite isolated. Each one is fashioned from a separate block of stone, and a small number of them are very well executed, as though turned on a lathe, bespeaking the hand of a true artist." Here, there also is a cave, which she believed served as the crematorium, having found ashes and bones inside it.

The Lao, unlike this French archeologist like to think that according to legend they were made for brewing and storing Lao wine!

Right now there is a World Heritage nomination of the Plain of Jars Archaeological Landscape being proposed which would make it the third World Heritage Site in Laos, the first being Luang Prabang and the second being Wat Phu.

Xieng Khuang is also an important place to visit because it was the main battlefield during the Secret War and was heavily bombed by the Americans. Its a tragedy really, what happened, and whether one walks by the side of a huge bomb crater or sees the endless craters from the air, its something Americans never really have taken full responsibility for.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Laos
• Xieng Khuang
• Plain of Jars

[peterlaos]

Hi,

I wish I could tell you, but I've never read anything that explains the carving on these jars. I'm going to Laos soon and if I find out anything I'll report back here.

[64Albere]

One thing for sure; It is important that archeological sites of the world be perserved for future generations; In the country of Laos... cleanup of the of the unexploded ammo must continue no matter what the cost. Just some thoughts I wanted to share; to all viwers of this video >> what do you think ?

[jasomasso]

what exactly was that carving on the lid?