Pha That Luang Buddhist stupa description and photos - Laos: Vientiane (Topic)

Pha That Luang Buddhist stupa description and photos - Laos: Vientiane. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Pha That Luang.

Photo and description

The visiting card of Laos, the Pha Thatluang Buddhist stupa, depicted on its coat of arms, is located in the capital of this country, Vientiane, a few kilometers from the historic center. Tourists are not allowed into the middle of the temple. They can only wander around the courtyard. You can get into it through the main gate, set in a high fence that surrounds the entire Thatluang temple complex. The courtyard contains many interesting statues and small stupas, including monuments to the kings of Laos. In front of the complex there is a monument to the founder of this temple - King Sethathirat.

Thatluang Temple, which is also called the Big Stupa, consists of three parts. The first part is the foundation. It symbolizes the earthly world. Prayer halls adjoin it, in which there are stairs leading to the second floor. A square hall with sides of 48 meters on the second floor is decorated with small stupas. On these two bases rests a stupa, the height of which is 45 meters. It is made of bricks and covered with gold plates.

In Vientiane, there is a legend according to which the Thatluang stupa was laid more than 23 centuries ago by the Indians, who brought the relic of the Buddha to the territory of present-day Laos - his bone. But architectural research refutes this theory. Before the construction of the Big Stupa, there was a monastery built in the XII century.

The temple complex in its modern form appeared in the XVI century. At that time, Vientiane became the capital of Laos, which means that it should have had its own large Buddhist temple. The Pha Thatluang stupa was plundered several times, but was restored by the French colonialists at the beginning of the 20th century.

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Topic: Pha That Luang Buddhist stupa description and photos - Laos: Vientiane.