Wat Phu

Wat Phu

Wat Phu and associated vestiges, situated in the vicinity of Champassak Town in southern Laos, comprise the ancient Hindu temple itself, an eclectic collection of outlying sanctuaries and the remains of at least two significant-sized ancient settlements. Much of what we see today at Wat Phu dates to the 11th century and the reign of King Suryavarman I, although the site was originally much earlier. A string of secondary temples stretches south from Champassak to the present-day Cambodian border and includes ruined temples, in varying states of preservation, dating from the early 10th up until the late 12th centuries.

A large, walled settlement – today known as Muang Kao – covers the area between Wat Phu and the right bank of the Mekong and probably began life as the city of Shrestapura, or Kurukshetra (1), at least as far back as the 5th century. A later incarnation of the settlement occupies an area south of Wat Phu and appears to have gone under the name Lingapura.

The origins of the 5th-century city are obscure and it may have been founded as a distant settlement of the Cham Empire, but by the mid-6th century, what was a relatively obscure polity abruptly embarked on a massive expansionist programme. According to inscriptions a King Viravarman (possibly the son of King Shrestavarman, who would have been responsible for renaming the site), himself had two sons, Bhavavarman and Citrasena. For reasons unspecified, the princes set out from Shrestapura in different directions with the former leading his followers south along the banks of the Mekong and the latter heading west into what is today the Isan region of Thailand.

Bhavavarman left a string of minor sanctuaries along the Mekong Valley before establishing the important early settlement of Thala Borivat in the region of what is now Stueng Treng. Citrasena’s odyssey is well-marked by a series of inscriptions that took him on a rambling journey through central and southern Isan, subduing multiple minor chiefdoms and towns along the way.

The two princes were to meet up a decade or so later at Bhavapura – today the World Heritage-listed site of Sambor Prei Kuk in central Cambodia. Bhavavarman, presumably the elder of the two, ruled his new, eponymously named capital until the end of the century, when he was succeeded by his brother, who took the royal name of Mahendravarman upon attaining the throne.

Between them, the brothers succeeded in uniting (by force if necessary) a wide swathe of minor Mon/Khmer settlements and kingdoms in what was to become northern and central Cambodia and northeastern Thailand. The main rival to what historians name the Chenla civilisation was Funan, located to the south in the present-day Mekong Delta region and inscriptions indicate that by the 7th century, Funan had fallen under the control of Sambor Prei Kuk. In the early part of the 8th century, the capital was, for various reasons, relocated to the area of what is now Angkor, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Temple Today

Although a wide area of ancient vestiges falls under the UNESCO listing, little remains of the ancient city itself and the 11th-century sanctuary of Wat Phu provides the main site of interest to casual visitors. We recommend a short hike to the outlying site of Nang Sida – an impressive, slightly later temple that has been extensively restored, while the atmospheric jungle ruins of Wat Tomo, on the left bank of the Mekong, are also well worth including.

Wat Phu itself sits spectacularly on a series of man-made terraces on the lower slopes of Phu Kao overlooking what would have been Shrestapura and the Mekong itself in the distance. A sacred linga atop the mountain purifies rain, which then reemerges as holy water from a natural spring at the foot of the mountain before being channelled into the temple’s main sanctuary.

Artificial reservoirs to the east are followed by a ceremonial walkway leading to a pair of largely intact entrance halls, after which stepped terraces rise to the main sanctuary, which offers awesome views back down to the valley. The main shrine features several intact reliefs while a collection of boulders to the immediate north includes some interesting features such as a life-sized, carved crocodile (thought by some to have been a sacrificial site), an elephant relief and the remains of a possible, small Bhavavarman-period sanctuary.

The small museum in the carpark is also well worth a look, (and even houses Viravarman’s famous inscription). An evocative, picturesque and historically important site.

Wat Phu on All Points East Tours

Both our south Laos small group tours, Mekong Adventure and Far South to Far North, include both Wat Phu – with an optional hike to Nang Sida – and Wat Tomo as does our off-the-beaten-track Thailand Laos tour, Emerald Triangle and Laos family tour.

(1) A 5th-century inscribed stele identifies the city as Kurukshetra or New Kurukshetra, after the town mentioned in the Hindu Mahabharata text.