This Buddha statue stood out from others at Wat Xieng Thong in Luang Prabang because the gilt on his face and neck was not the usual smooth gold paint that I had seen on other Buddhas in Laos. Instead it appeared as if small postage-stamp-sized pieces of gold leaf had been haphazardly applied over the [...]
Happily for those who spend a full week there, Luang Prabang has more to offer than just wats, wats, wats. In February, I spent two full days taking a weaving course through OckPopTok, which operates two shops in the town and a weaving center just outside of it. I had never done any weaving before [...]
One of Luang Prabang’s most distinctive traits is its superabundance of wats — Buddhist monastery-temples. The wats themselves create the ritual of morning alms, one of the most popular “sights” in the city.
At promptly 6:30 a.m. each day, orange-clad monks leave the wats and process around town to collect alms of sticky rice. The alms-givers [...]
