A Buddhism-meets-Hinduism landmark: Vientiane’s curious Buddha Park!

ສະບາຍດີທຸກຄົນ!

Let me continue my tourism tales in and around Vientiane – the capital of Laos. Located 25km from the city center by road (15km as the crow flies) is a rather curious little place that goes by the name of Buddha Park. Here, on a relatively small patch of land (180x100m), stand around two hundred assorted Buddhist and Hindu statues, sculptures, and all sorts of other stone installations.

They look pretty ancient; however, the park was built either in 1958 (if the internet is to be believed) or in 1959 (if our guide is to be believed). Not that it matters. Anyway, these aren’t historical artifacts but relatively recent “faux antiques” made of… reinforced concrete and, in places, simply brickwork under a layer of cement. But don’t let that put you off; the place is still very charming and visit-worthy.

Interestingly, this sculpture park was built during the Vietnam War, which, of course, was fought mostly in neighboring Vietnam – but Laos took a beating too. Nevertheless, the sculptures kept on going up and filling the park:

Here’s what it looks like from above:

Here’s the entrance…

And right by it stands this sizable objet d’art:

It turned out to be a three-story structure symbolizing three worlds: hell (on the first floor), earth (or life, on the second), and heaven up on the roof of the whole edifice.

The entrance… yes – very welcoming :)

Should we climb up to heaven or not?…

Then, approaching the “Mouth of Hell”, a sign was spotted: “No entry for anyone over 50 years of age” – ha! Agism or what?! Well, that decided it: I just had to climb in!…

…Even if it was on all-fours!

Inside, there’s this corridor running around in a circle. Of course there is!

Then you climb up a narrow, none-too-comfortable staircase (everything here is like that) to the “life” level:

Well… best left without comment, I think:

And from the “life” level, you go back down to hell via this little staircase – complete with a bump on the head:

“Hell” held no surprises:

Next I had to try to get up into “heaven” – through a real narrow tunnel:

The view of the park from above was taken from up here:

It would all be well and good up top if not for the steps running around the roof being on the narrow side and sloping, and the little railings looking like they were made for toddlers!…

Here, a short section is covered by a more sensible structure. But everywhere else it’s kinda sketchy, so, should anything go wrong, you’d be taking a flight from the third floor.

We headed back down, and over to the main part of the park:

The park’s founder was a religious sculptor who wanted to bring Buddhism and Hinduism together; accordingly, Buddhist sculptures stand in one half of the park, and Hindu ones in the other.

Interesting concept, but we didn’t think too hard about it; we stuck to simply strolling around and looking this way and that:

Naturally, these installations feature national symbols, religious ideas, and parables from epic stories of old. Alas, I’m not all that well versed in these subjects – which is a shame.

An audio guide would probably have helped us familiarize ourselves with all the requisite information in more detail (those little number tags aren’t installed everywhere for nothing), but the weather was so hot and humid that all we wanted to do was take a quick look around and then dive back into the air-conditioned coach.

So we simply carry on walking and observing…

Here’s another Hindu parable of some sort (and we knew is was Hindu because it’s on the Hinduism side). Our two versions of what it could mean: “No pain, no grasshopper!”, and “A grasshopper in the hand is worth two in the bush!” ->