Buddha Park

On a meadow beside the Mekong, a short way downriver from Vientiane, some two hundred concrete gods, demons, animals and Buddhas crowd together in a park that looks centuries old but was begun in 1958. Its Lao name, Xieng Khuan, is usually translated as "spirit city". The creator was Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat, a priest and mystic who blended Buddhism and Hinduism, a synthesis he is said to have learned from a Hindu teacher in Vietnam. The sculptures are reinforced concrete, modelled by workers under his direction, and their rough, weathered surfaces are part of their strange charm.

The cast of characters is wide: humans, gods, animals and demons, many images of the Buddha, the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and figures from Hindu mythology including Shiva, Vishnu and the hero Arjuna. The centrepiece is a reclining Buddha some 40 metres long, stretched out across the lawn. The most memorable structure is a huge round form often compared to a pumpkin, entered through the gaping mouth of a demon's head about three metres tall. Inside, three storeys stand for hell, earth and heaven, each filled with figures of its own, and stairs lead up through them to a rooftop from which the whole park can be taken in at a glance.

The park has a twin. After the revolution of 1975, Bunleua left Laos for Thailand and built a second sculpture garden, Sala Keoku, on the other bank of the Mekong near Nong Khai. The two visionary parks face each other across the river only a few kilometres apart, and the tallest figures of Xieng Khuan are said to be visible from the Thai bank. Xieng Khuan is today run by the Lao state as a public park.

Although it is sometimes called Wat Xieng Khuan, it is not a working temple, which is part of its appeal: the place feels less like a shrine than a stage set for one man's cosmology, a crowd of heavenly and infernal figures gathered on a riverside lawn.

Getting there

Buddha Park lies about 25 km southeast of central Vientiane along the Mekong, beyond the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge; the Thai town of Nong Khai is about 4.5 km away across the river. Wattay International Airport (VTE) in Vientiane is about 22 km away. Local bus 14 runs from the central bus station by Talat Sao market; some services terminate at the Friendship Bridge, so check that the bus continues to Xieng Khuan. Tuk-tuks can also be hired for the round trip.