Paying homage to the devout in Laos

Two of the 900 Buddhist monks in Luang Prabang. Picture / Alan Gibson

At 6am every day a strange ritual occurs in the main streets of the ancient Laotian city of Luang Prabang.

First a swarm of female food vendors turn up with baskets of sticky rice and vegetables wrapped in banana leaves.

Then tourists arrive and buy this basic food for considerably more than they would pay for a delicious restaurant meal of, say, laap pqa, the national dish of minced fish, mint and chillies.

Next many of Luang Prabang's devout Buddhists arrive, also carrying food, and take up station on the footpath sitting on woven mats.

Finally, parading down the footpath in a seemingly endless procession, come the objects of the exercise, the city's 900 monks, wearing their bright orange robes and carrying large, covered begging bowls.

There is nothing unusual about Buddhist monks begging for their food - it even happens in New Zealand - but this is the most spectacular parade of monks I've seen.

Leading the procession on the day I took part in this ceremony was an ancient monk who almost looked as though he wasn't going to stop when he came to where I was sitting at the head of the line of donors.

However, he did deign to slow a little and take the top from his bowl in order to let me drop in a handful of the sticky rice which I had formed into a rather neat ball plus one of my banana leaf packets.

That launched a period of hectic activity as we tourists, and the rather more practiced locals, endeavoured to give something to each monk in this vast procession.

I don't know what the food we had bought at such exorbitant prices was like but I did notice that one or two monks put the lids back on their bowls when they saw what I had.

A little further down the road two enterprising small boys were sitting on the footpath with cardboard boxes in front of them and several monks gave them food from their bowls ... especially the mysterious banana leaf parcels.

Afterwards, when the monks had returned to their temples to eat, the boys sat on the roadside and chomped with gusto on their booty.

I couldn't help wondering how well the monks ate at the height of the monsoon season when few tourists are around.

Pset, a trainee guide who was a monk for eight years, provided an answer. "Sometimes we get only sticky rice and banana for many days. On Buddha's Day we eat well. Other times not really."

Nevertheless, he said, he had enjoyed being a monk, appreciated the education he had received and thought seriously of staying in a monastery for life. "I only left because I wanted to try something else to see."

Luang Prabang, the ancient capital of Laos, is full of monks because it is full of temples, 66 in a town of only 27,000.

It's a delightful, sleepy place, picturesquely sited on a peninsula created where the Khan River flows into the mighty Mekong, with lively markets, gracious French colonial houses, good hotels and lots of charming little guesthouses.

But the big attraction is the proliferation of temples, especially the 500-year-old Wat Xieng Thong, regarded as the most beautiful in Laos.

It escaped being destroyed along with most of the town's other temples in 1880s, when the region was ravaged by the Black Flag Haw army from China, apparently because the leader of the invaders had trained there as a monk.

As a result the main temple, with its high roofs, which sweep close to the earth and then soar towards heaven, still retains the classic design decreed by King Setthathirat in 1550.

The walls are covered with magnificent mosaics, some created centuries ago and showing the exploits of gods and kings, others done more recently and depicting local village life.

The presiding Buddha is a magnificent golden figure surrounded by the story of a legendary king stencilled in gold.

The grounds are dotted with huge trees under which young monks were chatting, sipping soft drinks and playing chess, while local children did bicycle tricks in the sweeping courtyard.

There are also numerous smaller chapels with Buddhas in different poses, including a reclining figure considered so elegant that the occupying French took it to the Paris Exhibition in 1931.

Another building holds a magnificent golden royal funeral carriage, several funeral urns used to hold the ashes of princes and princesses, and serried ranks of discarded Buddhas.

The steps of the temple sweep majestically down to the Mekong where two giant stone cats - well, they look like cats - gaze out to where the fishermen continue to haul in treats they will never enjoy.

Almost any of Luang Parabang's other temples is worth visiting.

At one I found bomb casings used as plant holders.

At another a teaching monk proudly showed off the library he had developed for the 700 novices he teaches: about a hundred old magazines, including copies of Newsweek and The Bulletin, and a couple of books.

Yet another had pictures of a Dutch explorer, distinctive in his European clothing and top hat, among the carvings on the door.

In the grounds of the old royal palace a particularly gaudy temple is being built as the new home of the most precious relic in Laos, the Pha Bang Buddha, made of gold, silver and bronze and said to have been made in Sri Lanka nearly 2000 years ago (though experts doubt this).

Unfortunately, despite 30 years of planning and 12 years of construction it is still unfinished, and the Pha Bang still sits behind bars in a cluttered corner of the palace.

The rest of the palace is grander, having been left pretty much as it was when the Pathet Lao exiled the king and queen to a remote cave where they died of neglect.

It has huge spacious rooms, superb teak furniture, beautiful displays of Buddhist art and an exhibition of royal gifts ... including a plain wooden boomerang from Australia which looks just a little mean among the gold, silver and ivory from the rest of the world.

Looming above the palace is Pousi Hill, which dominates the town, and can be climbed by a series of staircases.

Part way up you can crawl through a low entrance to see a metre-long footprint in the rock said to have been left by Buddha. It does indeed look like a footprint and a very big and powerful one at that.

Higher up, at the top of the hill, are panoramic views over Luang Prabang's gleaming temples, wide brown rivers and misty forests.

It is also the site of the 24m high golden stupa of That Chomsi, the town's most prominent landmark, which serves as the starting point for a lot of the local festivals and processions.

There were no processions during my visit but I did find a lot of monks up there relaxing - including one smoking elegantly with a cigarette holder - you can't get away from monks in Luang Prabang.

* Jim Eagles travelled to Laos as guest of World Expeditions and Singapore Airlines.

Getting there
Singapore Airlines flies 19 times weekly out of New Zealand direct to Singapore. From Singapore, passengers can choose from 41 weekly flights to Bangkok or from 11 weekly flights to Phnom Penh, then travel on Lao Aviation to Luang Prabang. For more information on Singapore Airlines services visit www.singaporeair.co.nz (see link below).

Getting around
World Expeditions' regular, 11-day Best of Laos and Cambodia trips, which start from Luang Prabang, cost $2320 (not including airfares to and from New Zealand, visas and some meals). As well as three days in Luang Prabang the itinerary includes the Lao capital of Vientiane, the town of Vang Vieng on the Mekong River, the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, and three days at Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat and other temples of the Khmer empire.

Further information
World Expeditions can be contacted at 0800 350 354 or www.worldexpeditions.co.nz (link below).