Plain of Jars – Plain of Mystery
Sharon Koehler
Artistic Stone Design
Just to keep things on the up and up and to avoid any cries of bias when I only write about “certain continents,” I asked a coworker to pick the next continent out of the bowl for this series. He pulled out Asia.
There are so many ancient stone places to write about in Asia: Borobudur in Indonesia, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and the Great Wall of China, just to name a few. I was so undecided. Then I stumbled across the Plain of Jars in Laos. I didn’t settle on it because it was ornate or an engineering marvel. Although, to make the jars, it must have taken a lot of hard work by a lot of people to hollow out thousands of boulders by hand, with no modern tools or machines. I decided on it because it was mysterious.
Laos is a country in Southeast Asia bordered in part by China, Myanmar and Thailand. Usually when people think about Laos, they think of the beautiful natural scenery such as the waterfalls and lush, beautiful forests. But, up in the highlands, there is a place called Plain of Jars.
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| Above: “Site One” on the Plain of Jars and other stone jar sites in Laos are close to being awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. |
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| First “discovered” and excavated by French archaeologists in the 1930s, the stone vessels are slowly yielding their secrets. |
The Plain of Jars is scattered with thousands of large stone boulders that have been hollowed out to make jars. They are scattered over the area in clusters ranging from 1 jar to several hundred jars. Some of the jars are thought to have had lids, but very few lids have been found. Most of the jars were made from sandstone but there are also some made of granite, limestone, and breccia. No matter what site the jars are found in (there are well over 60 sites), the jars carry the basic cylinder shape with the base being wider than the top. They range in height from 3 feet to 10 feet and can weigh up to 14 tons per jar. The jars are thought to be between 1,500 and 2,000 years old.
Some of the materials for the jars have been linked to a local quarry. Some folks think the boulders were transported by elephants and other large animals, while still others think that the boulders were transported by raft on a nearby river. Whether by elephant or by river barge, somehow, someway these huge rock jars ended up hollowed out and scattered in the highlands.
While none of this sounds very mysterious, it is the use of these jars that seems to be the mystery.
A local legend says that long ago a race of giants lived in this area. They were ruled by King Kuhn Cheung. After they won a long, hard-fought war, he supposedly had the jars fabricated to make and store rice beer and wine for the victory celebration.
Another theory is that the jars were placed along an ancient salt trade route. The jars were used to collect and store rainwater during the monsoon season so traders could have water during the dry months.
It’s theorized the traders would boil the water over open fires to make it drinkable. Then they would leave beads or other trinkets at the site as thanks and/or payment.
Another theory is that the jars were used as food storage by the local population (not the giants), and to help deter plundering by animals. This one idea is linked to the fact that even though many of the jars were fashioned to have lids, so few lids were found. It is thought that the majority of lids were made of non-stone material so they would not weigh as much. That way they would be easier to move when necessary.
It is also thought that the jars were used in ancient burial practices. The deceased was placed in a jar during the beginning stages of the funeral process so its soul could make the transfer from earth to the heavens. Once the soul transfer was complete, the burial ritual would continue. This particular idea seems to be the most popular and accepted use of the jars, a theory that is borne out by ongoing archaeological exploration of the different sites.
Of all the jar sites found, only a few can be visited at this time. Only three sites and the local quarry have been cleared for visitors. The other sites are considered unsafe as they are still littered with unexploded cluster bombs dropped on the countryside during the 1960s. Work is ongoing to clear these other sites so that one day tourists and others will be able to visit all the sites. Currently, an innovative use of drone photography and 3D mapping give a safer avenue of exploration for researchers.
Whether you believe in war-mongering giants, ancient burial rituals or something in between, the mystery of the Plain of Jars remains to this day—a modern mystery rooted in ancient stone times.
Please send your thoughts on this article to Sharon Koehler at Sharon@asdrva.rocks.