thewanderingstraycat: January 2011

Sunday, January 16, 2011

071209 Wat Had Siaw 6 - meditation corridor

An interruption to normal programming - a 'special feature' series of posts on Wat Had Siaw in Chomphet district of Luang Prabang. Please see part 1 of this series for background info on this place & the reason for this 'special feature'.

Facing the viharn is the long narrow building for the practice of walking meditation:

Apparently only 4 temples in Luang Prabang have such a structure, & 3 of them are on this side of the Mekong (the other two being Wat Long Khoun & Wat Khok Phab). The cat has yet to come across any mention of similar structures in temples elsewhere - do they now exist only in Luang Prabang?

Like the viharn, this structure is also crumbling - parts of the roof are gone:

Instead of windows, it has only small openings along its length for ventilation, & a single door in the middle:

The floor of the interior was littered with bits & pieces of the roof & plaster that had cracked off the walls:

The wall facing the viharn is keeling over:

071209 Wat Had Siaw 5 - detail of interior murals

Apologise for poor quality of images - they are all cropped from the photos shown in the previous post i.e. not close-up shots. Hopefully someone with a better camera & skills will be able to show the world the beauty & detail of these paintings.

The cat does not know if the paintings on all interior walls depict scenes from the same story, or from more than one story. However, those on the wall on the left of the altar & the right half of the wall with the main door seem to feature the same guy & his white horse. A Thotsakan/Ravana-like character & an army of demon-like creatures appear in some of the scenes with the guy & his white horse, but the cat can't figure out if he is the equivalent of Hapkhanasouane & whether those scenes have anything to do with stories from the ພຣະລັກພຣະຣາມ Phra Lak Phra Ram (Lao version of Ramayana). The paintings on the wall on the right of the altar & the left half of the wall with the main door have sustained a lot more damage, to the point where the cat is unable to figure out the sequence of the scenes there.

Wall on right of altar - right half:

Interior of main entrance door - right half...

The guy (seated & pointing at two crow-like birds, one on either side of the large crack) & his white steed behind him:

He brings his horse into some enclosure (bottom left) where boys are playing & climbing palm trees (upper right):

Wall on left of altar - left half...

Airborne demon (based on their ears + fangs) army with tiger:

The predecessor of Lao Airlines - first class cabin for a red garuda on upper deck, economy class below:

Below them the greens & the whites meet:

& a white elephant with striped tusks is led through the gates:

Wall on left of altar - right half...

Ancient Lao version of Batman sailing above Gotham city:

White horse takes a break at middle left:

A multi-armed Thotsakan/Ravana-like character charges out of the gates in attack mode - note the two white 3-tiered parasols on the back of his chariot:

Guy & white horse in battle:

Bloody battle scene - five heads get lopped off within this frame, with two of the beheaded trying to catch their own heads (bottom):

The Thotsakan/Ravana-like character has come off his chariot - the two 3-tiered umbrellas have broken off - & fires off three lotus bud-tipped arrows that sail above the white horse:

Guy & white horse report to someone at left:

Green-faced guy leads a princess character out (bottom left):

White horse hitches a ride on the back of a naga:

071209 Wat Had Siaw 4 - state of interior murals

Despite their poor condition, the mural paintings within the viharn of Wat Had Siaw were a pleasant surprise :)

The altar - the largest of the cracks on the walls to the left & right of the altar are arrowed in blue:

Wall on right of altar (with side door) - left half:

The panels of the side door look as if they have not been repainted ever since the day this temple was built.

Wall on right of altar (with side door) - right half:

Wall with main entrance door (facing altar) - left half:

Wall with main entrance door (facing altar) - right half:

Wall on left of altar (nearest the river) - left half:

Wall on left of altar (nearest the river) - right half:

If the angles look weird, it's because all photos were taken while the cat was kneeling down, & the cat is very very short. Details of the interior murals to follow...

071209 Wat Had Siaw 3 - exterior murals

Above main entrance door of viharn - scenes from Buddha's life story:

The Earth Mother/Goddess deity แม่ธรณี Mae Thoranii wrings water from her hair (left half) to drown Mara & other demons attacking Buddha (right half):

Beware of what's lurking in the flood created by Mae Thoranii - victim #1 has his head chomped on by shark-like creature #1, while all that's left of victim #2 are 2 legs sticking out from the jaws of shark-like creature #2:

Prince Siddartha leaves home & cut off his hair by the banks of the Anoma river to become a mendicant:

On his right are his servant Chana & horse Kanthanka. At bottom right, after eating, he floats a bowl in the river & it travels upstream against the current, indicating that he will gain enlightenment in time to come. The bowl contained an offering of milk rice given to him by a noble lady called Sujatha.

Scenes that the cat has never come across before:

At the top, a god(?) appears to be playing a musical instrument while Buddha rests below some trees, & at left, Buddha looks up at a stupa...?

When he finally attains Enlightenment he is depicted as sitting on a lotus flower (middle):

Below the above paintings, flanking the main door:

071209 Wat Had Siaw 2 - viharn exterior

The humble little viharn of Wat Had Siaw:

Just as the cat arrived, novice monks were scurrying around to locate their stock of fuel for the boat & to get dressed in full robes - the abbot (& the novice monks accompanying him) had to climb down to the riverbank & cross the Mekong to attend some meeting/event. & so the cat had the entire place to itself - & no one to ask about the history of the temple...although the oldest monk present said something about a path to a 'Phou something' before he hurried off with the rest.

Is there any kind of art to be found in this temple?

The walls of the viharn had large cracks running across & all the way through, such that one could peep through them into the interior:

Anatomy of a temple pillar:

Front view of viharn:

How long more before it crumbles to bits? Such is impermanance.

071209 Wat Had Siaw 1 - background

An interruption to normal programming - a 'special feature' series of posts on Wat Had Siaw in Chomphet district of Luang Prabang.

This little temple is hidden on the forested banks of the Mekong. Within the viharn (main building housing the altar + main Buddha image) are some beautiful mural paintings, depicting some story(ies) that the cat has not come across before in the many other temples it has been to. Wat Had Siaw is also one of the only 4 temples in Luang Prabang that has a long, narrow window-less building purpose-built for the practice of walking meditation.

As of December 2009, the temple buildings were not in great shape. There are large cracks right through the walls of the viharn - not sure if it is structurally sound. The mural paintings have seen quite a lot of damage. & one wall of the 'meditation building' is in danger of collapse. (By all accounts, all that remain of two of the temples further upriver from Wat Had Siaw are ruins.)

The cat does not know if there are any plans by anyone to restore Wat Had Siaw. These posts are made in hope that Wat Had Siaw will catch the interest of someone:

with a much better camera
with much better photography skills
who would like to help create & share with everyone a sort of photographic record/documentation of this temple & its murals, before it is too late.

Anyone interested/with ideas or info about this temple is welcome to contact the cat at wanderingstraycat at gmail dot com.

In December 2006, the cat chanced upon an exhibition, The Quiet in the Land, at the Royal Palace Museum in Luang Prabang. One of the exhibits mentioned that 4 temples in Luang Prabang have a long, narrow window-less building purpose-built for the practice of walking meditation. One of the temples is ວັດຫາດສ້ຽວ Wat Had Siaw (also romanised as Vat Hat Siao, Wat Had Seo, etc).

In December 2009, the cat decided to try & track down this temple during its visit to the Chomphet side of Luang Prabang. Back then, hobomaps.com had yet to publish its detailed hiking map of Chomphet district. None of the locals the cat asked had ever heard of this temple. All it knew - from a map in Hans Georg Berger's book Het Bun Dai Bun - was that Wat Had Siaw was somewhere along the Mekong, upriver from Wat Tham Sakkhalin.

& so one afternoon, the cat crossed the Mekong to Ban Xieng Maen, & started walking for as long as it could make out a path parallel to the Mekong & leading upriver. Without this map, the cat ended up detouring along narrow branch trails while trying to figure out where various forks in the path lined by vegetation well above its height (the cat is very short!) & blocked off by 'fence ladders' led to. After crossing a small gully & a much larger one, it finally saw this some 40 minutes after leaving Wat Long Khoun:

The very well-ventilated (note gaping hole beneath roof) residence for monks & novices:

Doesn't seem that promising - looks like the remains of the foundations of 2 buildings: