Page 36 - World Buddhist Heritage Through Stamps

LAOS

Vat Phou within Champasak Cultural Landscape

Over thousand year Khmer stone temple

Year of Inscription: 2001

The Champasak cultural landscape, including

the Vat Phou Temple complex, is a

remarkably well-preserved planned

landscape of more than 1000 years old.

Vat Phou is a ruined Khmer Hindu temple

complex in southern Laos. There was a

temple on the site as early as the 5th century,

but the surviving structures date from the 11th

to 13th centuries AD. It has a unique structure.

The elements lead to a shrine where a lingam

dedicated to Lord Shiva was bathed in water

from a mountain spring. The site later

⽡普寺的雕刻
became a centre of Theravada Buddhist Detailed Lintel at Vat Phou

worship, which has remained until today. (寮国 Laos: 2003