Wat Ban Pak Sang, Khemerat

12 December 2007. We squeezed in a short visit to the gleaming "Wat Ban Pak Sang," which (like Wat Po) lies alongside the Mekong River in Khemerat. While growing up in the area, Newt (like hundreds or thousands of other schoolkids--teens--her age) remembers dancing on the temple grounds during fundraisers. The bot, with its marvelous wall protected by elephants and naga, gleams under new paint, fresh gilt decorations, recently carved door and window panels, and new marble exterior floors. Construction is still underway, and the interior (closed while we were there) must be extraordinary.

It's worth a trip just to see how crisply and deeply those teak door panels can be carved. I wonder how the craftsmen who do this work are trained...are techniques and skills passed from parent to child/apprentice? Or are there woodworking schools where students study and practice for years? Regardless, the results are stunning.

The sala wat is more rambling, and has a much older feel. There is a profusion of that exotic "string art," which seems both ornamental and somehow spiritual. There is a lot of new marble and old statuary. Ancient-looking Buddha images and old gongs are situated next to those wierd, electronic LED fortune-telling machines (the traditional and modern coming, or clashing, together). We're struck by this grouping of "monks holding alms bowls." Newt says this display is for "tak baht," where we can gain merit by making coin donations into the offering bowls.


The seated Buddha on the raised platform in the sala wat is said to have a mysteriously miraculous past. Was it found near the Mekong River, and carried by villagers here to the temple? Was a solid gold smaller Buddha found hidden within a carved, wooden Buddha near the same area? How much of what we were told, and heard or overheard, is accurate? In any case, the Buddha statue, upon which the sisters and Putaporn apply gold leaf, does have a certain presence, and gravity.

The Mekong River ("Mae Nam Kong") is especially beautiful around the Wat area. Look straight across the river, we can see a rural/modern Laos village just on the treeline. Looking right, downriver, is this rock outcropping--we can see where the current swirls, and where fish probably seek shelter and food.

Wat Ban Pak Sang, in Khemerat, is a wonderful mix of the old and new, and we're glad to have spent some time here. We got to talk with the attending monk, and received a sprinkling of holy water (Sue is given a bottle of this water, which she later forgets in the hotel room). Newt can compare her childhood memories with the reality (and changes) she sees before her. We are refreshed and upbeat, enroute to our next adventure.