I have been told that any visit to Nong Khai has to include a look around a sculpture park. I was a little skeptic, I must say, but it turns out that this is, indeed, a sculpture park like no other and I spent a good couple of hours taking in all the sights........
Also known as the "garden of the concrete gods", Sala Kaew is both intriguing and mysterious. The small park is packed with enough arcane imagery to baffle the best theologians and weird enough to entertain both a seasoned traveller & bus loads of local school children.....
The park's origins may be traced to the 1970's and a Lao mystic named Luang Pa Bunleua Sulilat. The story goes, that as a child, Sulilat fell into a hole while wandering around a mountain range in Laos. At the other end of which he met a hermit called Kaewkoo, who taught him about Buddhism, the underworld and other mystic goings-on... He must have been a bright child, for returning home, he began to build a concrete sculpture park to give physical form to his vision.!
In 1978 Sulilat fled Laos and settled in Thailand, as he feared his teachings would no longer be tolerated by the Laos ruling Communist Party.
The many hundreds of sculptures represented in the park include those of Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Ganesh and other Hindu dieties, as well as Buddha images and a 'wonderful' collection of anthropomorphic dogs........
Here are a few examples:
Also known as the "garden of the concrete gods", Sala Kaew is both intriguing and mysterious. The small park is packed with enough arcane imagery to baffle the best theologians and weird enough to entertain both a seasoned traveller & bus loads of local school children.....
The park's origins may be traced to the 1970's and a Lao mystic named Luang Pa Bunleua Sulilat. The story goes, that as a child, Sulilat fell into a hole while wandering around a mountain range in Laos. At the other end of which he met a hermit called Kaewkoo, who taught him about Buddhism, the underworld and other mystic goings-on... He must have been a bright child, for returning home, he began to build a concrete sculpture park to give physical form to his vision.!
In 1978 Sulilat fled Laos and settled in Thailand, as he feared his teachings would no longer be tolerated by the Laos ruling Communist Party.
The many hundreds of sculptures represented in the park include those of Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Ganesh and other Hindu dieties, as well as Buddha images and a 'wonderful' collection of anthropomorphic dogs........
Here are a few examples:
At 30 metres high, this statue has an awning of fiercely open-mouthed Naga serpents shading a meditating Buddha.....
This one with all the dogs is a particular favourite.......!!
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