Xieng Khuang villagers discover Buddha images from Lane Xang era
Villagers in Xieng Khuang province have unearthed 303 Buddha images believed to date back some 300-400 years to the era of the Lane Xang Kingdom.
Clay Buddha images unearthed in Xieng Khuang province last month.
The find includes one solid gold, 22 hollowed gold, one solid silver, 155 hollowed silver, 25 bronze and 91 clay Buddha images, as well as others made from lacquered wood, each about 40cm in length and 10cm in width.
The discovery came as Yien villagers in Khoun district dug up a 6m x 6m stupa that had been damaged during the Indochina War over three decades ago, provincial archeologists told Vientiane Times last week.
The villagers’ aim was to take soil from the area for ground levelling in order to build a sim – the temple’s main hall of worship, where all significant and sacred items, including Buddha images, are kept.
Villagers notified district and provincial authorities shortly after the discovery of the images late last month.
On February 5-6, a team of specialists from the heritage departments in Vientiane and Xieng Khuang province visited the site to conduct further excavations.
Among the other items unearthed were pieces of silver pots and fragments of palm leaf scripts.
The Buddha images and other important items were discovered inside six large jars, each of which contained 70 to 80 images.
Archeologists said people often kept such items in jars buried under stupas during the Lane Xang era to prevent them from being looted.
The main reason archeologists believe the Buddha images are 300-400 years old is that another stupa in Khoun district was built around this time.
Last year, people in Phoukoud district, Xieng Khuang province, also unearthed Buddha images dating back to the Lane Xang era.
Before Vientiane’s 450th anniversary as capital in 2010, Buddha images were unearthed in several provinces, leading people to wonder about the significance of the finds.
In September 2010, more than 40 large statues, 30 medium-sized ones and 20 smaller images, were found in That Khao temple in Sisattanak district, Vientiane, after a more than 300 year old stupa at the temple collapsed and monks found an assortment of Buddha images in the ruins.
Around this time, Khammuan province locals discovered Buddha images believed to have been buried during the Lane Xang era at several different sites.
