Asia Journey

Wat Phu Champasak - Human Sacrifice

Mar 26, 2009

We start our journey approaching the mountain. It's sunset, there are hundreds...

The initial walk is past a baray - ceremonial pond. Quite scenic,...

We stumble along the ceremonial promenade. It's lined with torches and chanting...

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We reach the middle level - sandstone quadrangular pavilions

You think about making a run for one of the pavilion doors...

We begin the walk to the upper level...

Looking back you see the causeway and the barays (ceremonial ponds) below

Up the steps to the upper level....

We walk past the sanctuary, which is illuminated by torch light now...

We're getting close to the top, it's getting pretty scary now...

We're on top now. The chanting has increased dramatically....

Glancing at the temple detail you become more than a little nervous...

Onwards past the temple.....

We walk past the elephant stone. Almost there now, the crowd is...

We reach the crocodile stone (hint - the tail is at the...

Wat Phu, near Champasak in Laos, is an Angkor-era temple and religeous site. It is simlar in architecture to the famous Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but on a much smaller basis.

Local tradition has it that the site - in particular the crocodile stone near the sanctuary on top of the mountain - was used for human sacrifice at certain important dates in the year. Walking aroung the site you do get a strong feeling of mystery.....

So rather than me showing you the normal boring list of temple shots, let's play a little game. Let's pretend that you and I are the chosen human sacrifices, and are making our way up the mountain to the temple, to meet our ultimate fate. A little sick I'll grant you, but I'm not the one who invented human sacrifice, as a race we've been doing it for thousands of years.

Let the journey begin.....

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