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Luang Prabang is an important spiritual center with many Buddhist temples. Every morning, monks walk down the streets at dawn. Kneeling housewives are ready for them with offerings of rice. The temples, some historical and magnificent, some others more ordinary, appear to be very active. |
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The American built Christian church, however, is abandoned, yet not one bit vandalized. |
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You are always welcome
to visit
the inside of the temples as long as you observe a few rules: no shoes,
no noise...
Women visitors must be more cautious: they mustn't touch monks or be higher than them. Actually, monks are very talkative and as soon as they see a Westerner, they ask "Where you from?" The correct answer is "Ameleeka." |
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Some of the architectural detail of the temples is exquisite. More than once I was overwhelmed by the beauty, yet I never felt intimidated as one does in a cathedral. |
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Spirituality hangs heavy in the air in Luang Prabang. Although not a Buddhist, I couldn't help being affected. |
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A stupa is a mausoleum. You find them all over Laos, in all sizes. This is the melon stupa, an ancient and haunting model. |
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Regular people like you and me will have a stupa the size of a birdbath as our tombstone. |
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I really was there, I'm not making it up. |
