You’ll see a similar picture of this impressive reclining Buddha on the front of a lot of postcards in Laos. The image on the cards has been made to look quite old, as if the Buddha were an ancient carving, but in fact it’s a concrete statue that was made in 1958.
It’s one of the many unusual exhibits at Buddha Park, or Xieng Khuan in Lao, which means “Spirit City”.
It’s the brainchild of artist, and mystic, Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat who filled the park with images of strange creatures, humans and demons from Buddhist and Hindu mythology.
As there wasn’t much to see or do in Vientiane, other than visit yet another wat, Aki and I went to check it out one day.
The first structure you come to looks like a circular pill box with a bizarre radio mast.
The entrance is through a demon’s mouth. There are three floors inside that you can clamber around. They are supposed to represent earth, heaven and hell.
It’s my least favourite exhibit as there’s nothing particularly pleasant to see and it’s full of concrete dust. The rest of the park is quite fun though, in a twisted kind of way.
Click on the photos to expand them if you’re on a computer.
And that was the end of my time in lovely Laos. I’ll have to go back as there’s plenty of lovely countryside I didn’t have time to see. Got to keep on trucking though. Off to Spain next…