Wat Phou: a miracle waiting to happen
Ruth Massey
UN Chronicle
Vol.24 No.4
Nov 1987
pp.72-73
            
COPYRIGHT United Nations Publications 1987

            CHAMPASSAK WAS ANIMATED despite the sweltering heat of mid-morning.
            Women dressed in sarong-like skirts and white blouses converged on 
            the community hall that overlooks the palm-shaded river meandering 
            through the town. The women of Champassak had been cooking for 
            several days now; enough rice, fish, pork and poultry to feed the 
            whole town and its guests. Many of the men were inside the hall 
            awaiting the arrival of a group of visitors from Vientiane. They had 
            seen the orange dust cloud in the wake of the vehicle bearing the 
            visitors long before it came to a halt in front of the community 
            hall. The group of men and women who emerged--Laotian, American, 
            Indian, Bulgarian and English--had all been waiting for this moment: 
            their first glimpse of Wat Phou, the legendary temple that had been 
            built in this remote corner of Laos in the days of the Khmer Empire. 
            
            While the elders led the visitors into the community hall, an 
            orchestra struck up an undulating rhythmic song played on 
            traditional instruments: flutes, clarinets, xylophones with bamboo 
            cross-pieces, drums, cymbals, and the khen, a hand-held pipe organ 
            that is the national instrument. In a large room about 70 men sat 
            around a centrepiece in the form of a tree made from banana leaves 
            and flowers and surrounded by symbolic foods. The baci ceremony, 
            marking the importance of the occasion, was about to start. While a 
            lay priest intoned benedictions and prayers, the hosts tied cotton 
            strips around the wrists of their guests, symbolizing good health, 
            prosperity and happiness. 
            At the banquet that followed the baci, women served steaming dishes 
            of fish, pork and chicken and the staple of all Laotian 
            meals--sticky rice. There were toasts in lau lao, the potent 
            locally-brewed rice liquor, followed by speeches dedicated to the 
            purpose of this gathering: the restoration of Wat Phou. 
            Built by the Khmer kings on the slopes of the mountain that emerged 
            from the forest surrounding this small provincial town, Wat Phou is 
            in ruins. Champassak was celebrating the fact that it was about to 
            be saved from the tidal wave of vegetation in which the heavenly 
            dancers of its bas-reliefs were drowning. The visitors represented 
            years of effort by the Government of Laos and the international 
            community to save this national treasure, efforts that had now 
            culminated in UNDP and UNESCO agreeing to finance and assist in the 
            renovation work, and in the establishment of a museum in Champassak 
            to house some of Wat Phou's more vulnerable artefacts. 
            Two hundred years older than Angkor Wat in Kampuchea, Wat Phou was 
            built in the second half of the fifth century. At that time it was a 
            centre of kingly power on the lower Mekong River, one of a 
            collection of principalities stretching along the coast but 
            extending inland to encompass what is now southern Laos. The temple 
            was the site of a cult closely associated with the Indianized 
            monarchies of ancient Indochina, part of the vast Khmer Empire that, 
            some two hundred years later, made Angkor its capital. 
            The speeches over, the group from Vientiane, accompanied by town 
            elders, drove the short distance through the forest to the temple. A 
            long causeway led them into the centre of an architectural 
            composition whose ancient stones were bathed in the golden light of 
            the late afternoon. 
            Rising above the Mekong River, Wat Phou is a majestic ruin covered 
            with a mantle of vegetation, a symbol of what the Laotians 
            themselves had suffered and withstood--invasions, colonialism and 
            wars. Nowadays, Wat Phou's battle is against the vegatation that 
            relentlessly attacks its ancient stones. The conflict is between the 
            ruins and the jungle which has overrun them. 
            At the end of the causeway, two exquisite rectangular pavilions made 
            of sandstone stand near a large artificial lake, believed by the 
            Khmers to have possessed extraordinary purificatory powers. For the 
            god-kings of the Khmer Empire Wat Phou was a favourite royal bathing 
            place, with its grand approach, its majestic flight of steps flanked 
            by statues of lions and mythical animals. Today the lions are 
            faceless and the statutes have lost their heads. Buffaloes stand 
            motionless in the waters of the lake, only their heads showing. 
            The rectangular pavilions used to be temples for segregated 
            worship--one for women and the other for men. Roots follow the 
            outlines of the masonry along the temple walls, mimicking the 
            architectural motives which they cover. A whole section of wall is 
            cracked and prevented from disintegration by the roots' embrace. 
            Ferns and underbrush have attached themselves to walls, screening 
            the idealized representations of the Khmer aristocracy, while 
            beneath the onslaught of vegetation, the powerful Brahman gods of 
            the Khmer Empire--Krishna, Vishnu and Indra riding the elephant 
            Airavata--are slowly suffocating. 
            A wide avenue leads from the temples to a majestic stairway carved 
            into the side of the mountain. At the top is the sanctuary which had 
            once housed the idol of the cult. Here time has wrought wonders with 
            the sandstone, and the sun and rain have softened the decorative 
            instincts of the Khmers. Local legend has it that the Emerald Buddha 
            which now sits in Bangkok is a fake and that the authentic one is 
            hidden here. 
            Behind the sanctuary the side of the mountain rises perpendicularly 
            to the skies. From here it is easy to imagine the beauty of this 
            site in its prime. The view spreads out harmoniously from mountain 
            to plain. First the sanctuary, then the immense staircase 
            interspersed by large terraces, the esplanade with the two 
            rectangular temples, the artificial lake, the park, the forest and, 
            beyond it, the course of the majestic Mekong flowing towards the 
            horizon. 
            By the time the party of visitors had climbed down the stairway and 
            reached the forecourt, the day was waning. A group of boys strolled 
            through the ruins. They had come to this once exclusive place to 
            burn incense-sticks at a small Buddhist shrine made of sticks and 
            paper. It was all that was left from a festival that had been held 
            in the previous month. For four days Wat Phou had basked in some of 
            its ancient splendour, with processions and fireworks and hundreds 
            of people from the surrounding regions chanting and praying to the 
            rhythm of the khen and the deep sounds of gongs. 
            In just over an hour night would descend over the mountain 
            sanctuary. The last rays of the sun lit up the growth of tropical 
            vegatation, highlighting the deterioration of the buildings. The 
            task of restoration is immense and greatly exceeds the resources of 
            the Government of Laos. In associating itself with the efforts of 
            the Laotian people, the world community will help to conserve a 
            monumental site which is not only the work of a particular people, 
            but also belongs to the common heritage of mankind. 
            Photo: A legendary temple in a remote corner of Lao People's 
            Democratic Republic . . .