Photo Favorite: Detailed Stone Carving at Wat Phou Temple in Laos

By Mark Wiens 8 Comments
Wat Phou, Laos
Wat Phou, Laos

After spending a few days at the wonderfully relaxing 4000 Islands area of Laos, I headed a few hours north to the sleepy town of Champasak in order to visit the temple complex of Wat Phou.

My favorite thing about the temple was the elaborate detailed reliefs carved deep into the stones of the temple. This particular lintel (above) really caught my attention. If you have a chance to visit Laos, I’d highly recommend checking out Wat Phou.

8 comments. I'd love to hear from you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

  • Arti

    12 years ago

    This is so detailed and just so beautiful!!
    So India beckons in 2012?

    • Mark Wiens

      12 years ago

      I really hope so! I can’t wait to visit India!

  • Selvakumar

    12 years ago

    Hi Mark,

    The elephant picture and the king on the the elephant is cholan king from INDIA (Tamil King). They have concurerd almost all south asian countries. Angkor wat is also build by one that kings family only. You can see a picture in this link till where he has ruled. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chola_dynasty. When is ur trip to india ?

    • Mark Wiens

      12 years ago

      Thanks for sharing that Selvakumar! I am hoping to visit India next year, I’m really looking forward to it!

  • Turkey’s For Life

    12 years ago

    Wow. wonder how long all that work took to complete. There are / were some clever, patient people on this earth!
    Julia

    • Mark Wiens

      12 years ago

      I can only imagine, definitely takes some patience to do something like this!

  • Caren Van

    12 years ago

    OMG, such a masterpiece, and if we try to imagine how hard it was to make it by hand… Unbelievable!

    • Mark Wiens

      12 years ago

      Definitely, thanks for checking this out Caren!