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A ghost of its former self, MUANG KHOUN , old Xiang Khouang, 35km southeast of Phonsavan, was once the royal seat of the minor kingdom Xiang Khouang, renowned in the sixteenth century for its 62 opulent stupas, whose sides were said to be covered in treasure. Years of bloody invasions, pillaging and a monsoon of bombs that lasted nearly a decade during the Second Indochina War taxed this town so heavily that, by the time the air raids stopped, next to nothing was left of the kingdom's exquisite temples. Although the town has been rebuilt and renamed, all that remains of the kingdom's former glory are a few evocative ruins, usually visited as part of a day-trip to the Jar sites. A path alongside the market leads up to the blackened hilltop stupa of That Dam , the base of which has been tunnelled straight through by treasure seekers. Continuing on the main road beyond the market, you'll pass the ruins of a villa, the only reminder that this town was once a temperate French outpost of ochre colonial villas and shop-houses, and arrive at the ruins of sixteenth-century Wat Phia Wat . Brick columns reach skywards around a seated Buddha of impressive size, a mere hint at the temple architecture for which the city was renowned.
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