Plain of Jars

The Plain of Jars is a group of historic cultural sites in Laos containing thousands of stone-like jars, ranging from three feet to 10 feet in height, which lie scattered throughout the Xieng Khouang plain in the Laotian Highlands at the northern end of the Annamese Cordillera, the principal mountain range of Indochina. The town of Xieng Khouang was utterly destroyed during the fighting between the Pathet Lao and American backed troops during the Vietnam War. A new town was built in the mid 1970s, known locally as Phonsavan.

The Jar Sites

The jars, which can weigh up to six tons and are carved from giant pieces of sedimentary rock, are believed to have been used 1500 to 2000 years ago, by an ancient Southeast Asian race whose culture is now totally unknown. Lao stories and legends suggest that there was a race of giants who once inhabited the area. Anthropologist and archeologists have theorized that the jars may have been used as funeral urns or perhaps storage for food.

Although the jars are the most well known and most visible aspect of the plains, there were/are other stone carvings that were discovered and photographed. For example, very tall, thin slabs of stone. One wonders how such thin portions of stone could have been created without the entire piece falling into hundreds of pieces.

The first to survey, study and catalogue the Plain of Jars was a French archaeologist, Madeleine Colani of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient in the 1930s. Although as comprehensive as her work was, it should be noted that Colani and her team did not find everything. In fact many new pieces were discovered after her study.

The jars lay in clusters, the largest of which, known as Site 1, contains over 250 jars of varying sizes. The jars now lie amidst thousands of unexploded ordinance/bombs left behind by America's Secret War in Laos in the 1960s. The large quantity of UXO in the area means that only Sites 1, 2 and 3 are open to visitors - the others are considered too dangerous.

The Laotian caretakers of the Plain of Jars are currently applying for status as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Clearing of the UXO hazard will be necessary before many of the sites can be studied. In more recent times, those from Ministry of Information and Culture and from Australian universities, among others, have taken part in studies of the jars.

The beads, bronzes and other artifacts that Colani discovered led her to believe that the jars were funerary urns. They have all since been dispersed, many to France. However her archaeological accounts remain in the form of two large volumes. More jar fields have been found southward all the way to Northern India. The jars appear to be laid in a linear path that was most likely a trade route.

Origins of the Jars

Madeleine Colani speculated that the plains of jars connected a caravan route from northern India, for which there is much evidence. Colani also found a natural double chimney-ed cave at the site of the largest jar field, with evidence of smoke accumulation by the chimneys, similar to a primitive kiln. She believed what she found to be a crematorium. Colani spectulated that the jars were used to deposit cremated human remains. However, though this theory has largely held sway in modern archaeology, various competing theories exist.

For one, many look towards local tradition regarding the jars, which states the jars were molded, by using natural materials such as clay, sand, sugar, and animal products in a type of stone mix. This leads some to believe the cave Colani found was actually a kiln, and that the huge jars were moulded as the locals believe, and not of imported stone. The cave was damaged by an American bomb during the war, when it was used as a stronghold by the Pathet Lao - the surrounding area still has trench systems and bomb craters visible.

Another explanation for the jar's use is for collecting monsoon rainwater for the caravan travellers along their journey in a time where rain may have been only seasonal and water not readily available on the easiest foot travelled path. Rainwater could then be boiled even if stagnant, to become potable again, a practice long understood in Eastern Eurasia. Beads could have been placed inside jars as prayers for rain, or by the trade caravans constantly camping around these jars and simply losing items.

External links

• spikemagazine.com's article on visiting The Plain Of Jars (http://www.spikemagazine.com/1203plainofjars.php)

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