January 28, 2004

Plain of Jars

Phonsavan, Laos

We headed today for Phonsavan, famous for the Plain of Jars. It's about 120km from Luang Prabang as the crow flies but about seven hours by bus across the twisty mountain passes between the two towns. Things have improved though, before the road was completely sealed the journey took thirteen hours.

The trip was fairly uneventful save for the constant stream of young soldiers getting on and off the bus with their rifles. They weren't checking on the passengers, they were simply travelling from one observation post to the next. Only a few years ago this road was very unsafe. Disaffected hill-tribes would come down and cause havoc. The government countered this with signficantly increased security, and increased funding for the disaffected regions. So I guess they got their point across.

Phonsavan was a pretty non-descript town but with a little haggling we managed to get on to a tour by car of the Plain of Jars and other sites.

The Plain of Jars is exactly that. A plain, full of jars. Hundreds of them. The jars are big. More than a metre high and wide and carved from solid granite (as far as I could tell). No-one really knows what they are for. The chief government archeologist is currently studying for an advanced degree in Australia. Presumably when he gets back he'll have it sussed.

The whole region was also a prime target in America's secret war. Following the Geneva agreement of 1962 the North Vietnamese denied using Laos as part of the Ho Chi Minh supply trail and the Americans denied trying to bomb the bejeezus out of them. Often-times planes returning from unsuccessful sorties in North Vietnam would drop whatever remaining ordinance they were carrying where-ever they crossed the border in to Laos. By 1973 they had dropped an average of one planeload of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours a days, for nine years. 1.9 million tonnes worth in total, or over half-a-tonne for every man, woman, and child in Laos.

The result is clear to see over the whole district. Most obviously in the bomb craters evident everywhere. But more subtly in the fact that there are no buildings more than 30 years old. The whole region was completely destroyed. It's remarkable that the jars survived.

Posted by David at January 28, 2004 11:26 PM