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Probably the most historic and enchanting Buddhist monastery in the entire country, Wat Xiang Thong , the Golden City Monastery (daily 8am to dusk; 3000K), near the northernmost tip of the peninsula, should not be missed. The wonderfully graceful main temple or sim was built in 1560 by King Setthathilat and, unlike nearly every other temple in Louang Phabang, was neither razed by Chinese marauders or over-enthusiastically restored. You'll need to stand at a distance to get a view of the roof, the temple's most outstanding feature. Elegant lines curve and overlap, sweeping nearly to the ground, and evoke a bird with outstretched wings or, as the locals say, a mother hen sheltering her brood. The walls of the sim are decorated inside and out with stencilled gold motifs. Many of these depict a variety of tales, including the Lao version of the Ramayana - the Pha Lak Pha Lam - and scenes from the jataka (stories about the lives of the Buddha), as well as graphic scenes of punishments doled out in the many levels of Buddhist hell. Such depictions were meant to give a basic education in religion to illiterate laypeople. In one of these punishment scenes, on the wall to the right of the main entrance, an adulterous couple is being forced to flee a pack of rabid dogs by climbing a tree studded with wicked thorns. In the branches above perch a flock of crows, awaiting the chance to peck out the sinners' eyes. Other unfortunate souls are being cooked in a copper cauldron of boiling oil (for committing murder) or are suspended by a hook through their tongues (guilty of telling lies). In the rafters above and to the right of the main entrance runs a long wooden aquaduct in the shape of a mythical serpent. During Lao New Year, lustral water is poured into a receptacle in the serpent's tail and spouts from its mouth, bathing a Buddha image housed in a wooden pagoda-like structure situated near the altar. A drain in the floor of the pagoda channels the water under the floor and out of the mouth of a mirror-spangled elephant's head on the exterior wall. The water is considered to be highly sacred and the faithful will use it to anoint themselves or to ritually bathe household Buddhas. To the left of the sim, as you face it, stands a small brick-and-stucco shrine containing a standing Buddha image. The intricate purple and gold mirrored mosaics on the pediments are probably the country's finest example of this kind of ornamentation, which is thought to have originated in Thailand and spread to Burma as well. Directly behind the shrine, the Red Chapel enshrines a sixteenth-century reclining Buddha image, one of Laos's greatest sculptures in bronze. On the other side of the monastery grounds is the Funerary Carriage Hall (daily 8am to dusk) or haw latsalot. Built in 1962, the hall's wide teakwood panels are deeply carved with depictions of Rama, Sita, Ravana and Hanuman, characters from the Lao version of the Ramayana. Check out the carved window shutters on the building's left side where Hanuman, the King of the Monkeys, is depicted in pursuit of the fair sex. Inside, the principal article on display is the latsalot, the royal funerary carriage, used to transport the mortal remains of King Sisavong Vong to cremation. The vehicle is built in the form of several bodies of parallel naga, whose jagged fangs and dripping tongues heralded the king's final passage through Louang Phabang. Atop the carriage are three gilded urns in which the royal corpse was kept in foetal position until the cremation.
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