Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Laos → Buddha Park

Location: Vientiane, Laos

Time Required: 30 minutes – 1 hour (not including travel time, which is between 30 and 45 minutes if you’re driving from central Vientiane)

Red Tape/Notes: Open daily from 8am – 6pm; admission is 4,000 kip and an additional 3,000 kip if you want to take pictures. The park is popular with tourists and tour groups; if you’re not into swarms of people, arrive as close to opening time as possible

What’s Nearby?: Phou Khao Khouay, Tad Xay and Pha Xay

Built in 1958 by a monk named Bunleua Sulilat who studied both Buddhism and Hinduism, this sculpture park (generally referred to as the “Buddha Park” but also known as “Xieng Khuan”) contains over 200 religious statues including gods and demons from Hinduism as well as statues of Buddha (including a 40 meter reclining Buddha). Two of the sculptures allow you to climb up to get aerial views of the park – they’re located at opposite ends of the park, one near the entrance and the other at the far side. The sculpture near the entrance is probably the most famous sculpture in the park, a large pumpkin-shaped structure with a large tree on top and an opening fashioned as a demons mouth. The fact that you get to walk through the demons mouth was a major draw for us to come here. Once inside you can visit three levels of internal rooms (representing hell, earth, and heaven…which makes sense since you passed through a demon’s mouth at the lowest level, aka hell); each level contains numerous smaller sculptures representing that level and a narrow staircase allowing access to the adjacent levels. Eventually you emerge at the top of the structure (where the tree is located) to view the park from above. The far side sculpture is one that sees far fewer people climbing on it. A multi-tiered temple with a narrow upper terrace and a small enclosed chamber above the terrace (with a small window you can peek in) can be climbed via set of narrow (and increasingly steep) steps. We obviously climbed it (because why not? and what if there was something AMAZING in that tiny room up there???) but sadly there wasn’t anything particularly interesting inside, and the view isn’t as good as the view from the giant pumpkin (since you’re not as high). Still, I enjoyed the fact that they’ll let you climb it. The sculptures are very nice and the setting is quite pretty, particularly if it’s not jam packed with people and you can stroll amidst the sculptures and enjoy them peacefully. Interestingly enough, Bunleua Sulilat escaped Laos in 1978, in the wake of the 1975 revolution, and fled to Thailand, where he built another Buddha Park in Nong Khai called Sala Keoku (where you can now find his mummified body…as well as more sculptures). The two parks are within a few kilometers of each other, separated mainly by the Mekong River – and of course the Laos-Thai border.

Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Laos → Buddha Park