is it a bird or is it a plane?

No it is a Mysterious Plain of Jars….

Going to the Plane of Jars is not easy. I am not just referring to the arduous road journey to get to Xiengkhuong. It is tricky to see the Jars even when you are in Xiengkhuong . And the reason for that is a 3 letter word. UXO.

UXO is an abbreviation for Unexploded Ordnances. And the little country of Laos is full of them. This is due to its unfortunate location between North Vietnam and Myanmar. According to the non-profit organisation Mines Advisory Group (MAG), between 1964 and 1973 more than 270 million tonnes of cluster bombs were dropped by the US forces in Laos to disrupt supply routes of the Viet Congs of North Vietnam. That’s one bomb every 8 minutes. This made Laos the most bombed country in the world . Close to 30% of these bombs did not explode and continue to lay embedded in the fields and forests posing severe danger to the people and animals of Laos. So when you walk across the fields to visit the Plane of Jars and you come across a black and white stone ( which is a sign left by MAG volunteers who are involved in clearing landmines), you know that there were UXOs there and you need to walk on the white side of the stone.

So on a sunny winter’s morning, we left our hotel to visit the Plane of Jars. There are over 90 sites in Xiengkhuong Province. Of these, about 7 have been cleared of UXOs by the MAG volubteers.

We went to Site 3 first. It was a big plateau filled with hundreds of stone jars Some of them were less than two feet in height but several were more than 3 metres high. Some were broken but a sizeable number were still intact. There were several lids as well. Our guide told us that there are several theories concerning these strange jars.

1. Alien Theory : According to this theory, these jars were remnants of an alien civilisation . This theory suggests that these jars were left by aliens to provide visible markers for spaceships to land in this area. This reminded me of the strange Nazca Lines of Peru ( you can read about my visit to the Nazca lines in my Peru travels)
2. Wine Theory : This theory suggests that these jars were actually storage items of an ancient civilisation. The different jars were used to store rice wine and rice beer. I quite liked the idea of a 3 metre jar filled with wine. Such a treasure for a rainy day…
3. Brick Kiln : Simple theory that these jars are remnants of brick kilns of prehistoric times,
4. Burial Chambers : This theory, forwarded by French and Laotian archaeologists, suggests that these jars were remnants of burial chambers of important people and their families. It seems that in between 1200 and 600 BC, the Laotian tribes would cremate their dead and then store the ashes in large jars that acted as urns. This explained why most of the jars were broader at the bottom and narrower at the top.

So which theory do you like?

I will tell you the correct answer. It is most likely to be theory 4. The Plane of Jar is a gigantic burial chamber of prehistoric Laos. But I still like the Wine Theory. And it is definitely a site worth visiting