Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Laos → Plain of Jars

Location: Xiangkhoang Plateau, Laos

Time Required: 1 hour for Site 1, half a day to visit Sites 1-3, 1 day to see Sites 1-3 and 16. More than 1 day to see additional sites.

Red Tape/Notes: Entrance to the jar sites costs 15,000 kip for foreigners. Hours depend on the site, but generally they’ll open at 8am and close at sunset.

What’s Nearby?: Muang Khoun

The Plain of Jars is one of a handful of “well known” attractions in Laos, and many people come to Xiangkhoang just to see the massive stone jars (they range in height from 1 to 3 meters). More than 90 jar sites have been identified throughout the lowland valleys and foothills of the province, with some sites containing up to 400 jars, although only 7 of these sites have been sufficiently cleared of Unexploded Ordinances (UXO’s) to allow visitation. An estimated 78 million UXO’s remain from US bombing raids on Laos during the Second Indochina War, and this area was heavily targeted, as evidenced by the numerous bomb craters and shattered jars that can be seen around the sites. Although the UK based Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is actively engaged in clearing mines throughout the country, there are many areas where only specific paths have been certified as clear. When visiting any of the sites, you must stay between the markers which have been placed to indicate the cleared paths – specifically, the markers are half red and half white, and you should stay on the white sides of the markers; red indicates the area has not been cleared.

The jars are dated to the Iron Age (500 BCE to 500 CE) and although their precise purpose is unknown, the general consensus is that they were used for funerary purposes, possibly as a two-stage process involving distillation of the remains followed by secondary cremation – evidence of cremation has been found both inside and outside of the jars, although unburnt remains have been found as well and the variations and inconsistencies in the findings have proved difficult to explain. A majority of visitors to the area see only Site 1, which is one of the larger sites and certainly the most accessible. In my opinion, this is a big mistake. I had to specifically ask to have sites 2 and 3 added into our itinerary when planning the trip, and our guide still tried not to take us to them – he took us all over the place wasting time and then suddenly referred to our itinerary and realized we were supposed to be seeing the other jar sites, at which point we only had time to visit site 2 before dark. He claimed that “most everyone only wants to see Site 1, because it’s the best.” After seeing Site 2, I told him that this was total nonsense, and that Site 2 was far more enjoyable than Site 1. I’m pretty annoyed that we didn’t get to Site 3, but seeing as there are so many other things we missed in the area, we’ll be making a return trip anyway. And then we can make the time to see some of the other even more remote sites! Anyway, the reason I preferred Site 2, is because the setting is much more organic. Aside from being very crowded with people and having paved roads and defined pathways, the jars are all just sitting in a large open field. By contrast, the jars at Site 2 are located on small hills, in wooded areas amongst trees, and the jars are covered with green moss and exhibit a more mysterious, ancient appearance. It’s like the difference between visiting an archaeological site that’s been fully restored vs. one with a more neglected, Indiana Jones feel. Site 1 does have an interesting natural limestone cave – the guides may feed you some rubbish about how the two holes in the top of the cave are from US bombs and how loads of people who were hiding inside were killed, but this is impossible since the holes were present during excavations in the 1930’s (I believe the guides are simply confusing this cave with nearby Tham Piu, where 300 villagers were in fact tragically killed by US bombs while hiding in the cave). The truth of the cave at Site 1 is interesting, however; it’s thought that the holes were manmade chimneys, and that the cave was used as a crematorium. Various quarry sites have been found, and one of the nearby quarries is certainly worth visiting, since it also provides access to a “secret tunnel” used by the Pathet Laos during the Second Indochina War. Other sites which can be visited are Site 16, which is just outside of Muang Khoun (which lies just east of Phonsavan), site 23, located just off Route 7 near Muang Kham (northeast of Phonsavan and near the previously mentioned cave Tham Piu), Site 25, which is located north of Phonsavan in the Phou Khout district and is rarely visited, and site 52, which lies to the northeast about midway between Site 1 and Site 23 – it can only be reached on foot, but is the largest site and therefore does see some visitation, typically via overnight trekking tours.

Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Laos → Plain of Jars