Plain of Jars, Xieng Khouang, Laos

Plain of Jars: The Stranger Question Is Not Who Made Them

The Plain of Jars sits on a plateau in Xieng Khouang province in northern Laos, and the stone vessels scattered across it are between 1,500 and 2,500 years old. Most are carved from sandstone, some from limestone, one or two from granite. They range from knee height to taller than a person. The largest weighs around 14 tonnes. Nobody is certain what they were for.

Funeral urns is the best current hypothesis, supported by human bone fragments found inside and around some jars and by cremation pits at several sites. But the jars are also found far from settlement sites, opened at the top, and often grouped in concentrations that do not obviously correspond to population centres. The honest answer is that the culture that made them left no writing and the archaeology is ongoing.

The stranger question is not who made the jars but why so few people visit the plateau. Xieng Khouang is one of the most heavily bombed areas in history. Between 1964 and 1973, during the Secret War in Laos, the United States dropped approximately 2 million tonnes of ordnance on Laos, more than was dropped on Germany and Japan combined during World War II. Xieng Khouang, as a supply route and Pathet Lao stronghold, received a disproportionate share. Roughly 30% of bombs dropped failed to detonate. The province remains one of the most UXO-contaminated areas on earth. The craters around the jar sites are visible. Some are bomb craters; some are jar excavation pits. You cannot always tell which is which.

The Sites

UNESCO listed the Plain of Jars as a World Heritage Site in 2019 covering three main areas and numerous smaller jar groupings across the province.

Site 1 at Ban Hai Hin, 10 kilometres southeast of Phonsavan, is the largest and most accessible. Around 300 jars are spread across a hillside with good footpaths, cleared and demarcated safe zones, and information boards. The jar concentrations here include some of the largest individual pieces and the variety in size and state of preservation is the best of any single site. A bombed Pathet Lao cave shelter used during the American air campaign is accessible at the northern end of the site.

Site 2 at Hai Hin Phu Salato requires either a hired motorbike or a tour vehicle, 25 kilometres from town. Two hillsides with jar groupings and good views over the plateau landscape. Site 3 at Hai Hin Lat Khai is more remote, accessible by rough track, and has fewer jars but the least tourist presence of the main sites.

Entry fees are 10,000-15,000 LAK per site (roughly $0.50-0.75 USD at current rates). Guides are available and add context; hiring one from Phonsavan rather than the site itself typically costs less and comes with area knowledge.

The UXO Reality

Stay on marked paths at all jar sites. The MAG (Mines Advisory Group) and UXO Lao have cleared and marked safe zones but the surrounding terrain is not cleared. If you see anything metallic and cylindrical in the ground or vegetation outside the marked areas, leave it and report it to the site office. This is not hypothetical caution; there are active casualties in the province from UXO encounters each year.

The UXO visitor information centre in Phonsavan provides context on the extent of contamination, the scale of the ongoing clearance effort, and what to do if you encounter suspect ordnance.

Phonsavan

The provincial capital was destroyed by bombing in the 1960s and rebuilt in the post-war period. It is a functional rather than atmospheric town, with a grid of streets, a morning market worth visiting for the hill tribe textiles and local produce, and a handful of guesthouses clustered near the central area.

The Jar restaurant and the Nisha restaurant are both consistently recommended by travellers for Lao food, with the laap, tam mak hoong (green papaya salad), and river fish preparations being the best options. A meal costs 30,000-60,000 LAK.

Getting to Phonsavan: daily flights from Vientiane on Lao Airlines (50 minutes, around $80-100 USD one way) or the overland route from Vang Vieng or Luang Prabang on roads that are improved but still slow (5-7 hours). The overland journey through mountain landscapes is worthwhile if you have the time.

Tham Piu Cave

Twelve kilometres from Phonsavan, this cave was used by villagers as a bomb shelter during the air campaign. On 24 November 1969, a rocket attack on the cave killed between 374 and 450 people who had taken shelter inside. The cave is now a memorial. The scale of what happened there – civilians sheltering from bombs, killed inside the shelter – is difficult to absorb in the abstract but harder to dismiss when you are standing at the mouth.