The Plain of Jars in Laos Becomes a World Heritage Site
UNESCO inscribed the megalithic jar sites of Xiengkhuang in July 2019. More than 2,100 stone jars, some three metres tall, lie on the hills around Phonsavan. Their makers left no other record.
UNESCO added the Plain of Jars to the World Heritage list on 6 July 2019, under the title Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang. It was the third World Heritage site in Laos, after the town of Luang Prabang and the temple of Vat Phou.
The jars
The jars stand on a high, grassy plateau in the north-east of the country, around the town of Phonsavan. More than 2,100 have been recorded, at over 120 sites. They are cut from single blocks of stone, mostly sandstone, and range from one to three metres in height. The largest weigh many tons. Most are plain cylinders with a rim, and a few stone lids lie near them. They are grouped on ridges and hilltops, in clusters of a few or of several hundred.
Nothing is written about the people who made them. Archaeologists agree that the jars were connected with burial. Human bones, beads and iron objects have been found in and around them, and a cave at the main site appears to have been used for cremation. The dating is still debated. The jars are generally assigned to the Iron Age, and recent tests suggest that some were set in place more than two and a half thousand years ago, while the burials continued much later.
Local legend offers a different account. A king of giants, Khun Cheung, is said to have had the jars made to brew rice wine for the feast after a victory.
The war
The plateau was one of the most heavily bombed places on earth. Between 1964 and 1973 it was struck repeatedly during the war in Indochina, and a large share of the cluster munitions dropped did not explode. Craters and trenches are still visible among the jars. Unexploded bombs prevented research for decades and remain a danger in the province. Clearance teams have made certain sites safe, and their work was a condition of the listing.
For travellers
Seven sites have been cleared and opened. Three are usually visited. Site 1, just outside Phonsavan, is the largest, with more than 300 jars including the biggest of all. Sites 2 and 3 are smaller and stand among trees and rice fields, reached by short walks. At every site, visitors must keep within the white markers set in the ground by the clearance teams.
Phonsavan has flights from Vientiane. By road it is six to seven hours from Luang Prabang over the mountains. The Laos-China railway has shortened the first part of that journey. The plateau is cool, at about 1,100 metres, and is best from November to March. Two days are enough, and the visit combines naturally with Luang Prabang.