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Lingaparvata or Phou Khao seen from Champasak.
There is a confusion as to the location of Lingaparvata, a sacred mountian.
The peak in the upper centre is the same peak that dominates the landscape in Vat Phou, and Google Map indicates it is Lingaparvata. However, the Linga-shaped peak is located in the upper right, which is also indicated by Google Map as Lingaparvata. The latter was almost hidden by the former if seen from Vat Phou.
It is not confirmed but Lingaparvata and Phou Khao could be different peaks and the former would be better called Phou Khao and the latter Lingaparvata.
The water body is a reservoir or a pond that provides water to the surrounding rice paddy. It may have had something to do with the urban plan of the kingdom's former capital.
If you see the satellite image of Champasak, a square shaped embankment is seen clearly although it is almost inundated in the pond. It may have been the original capital of the Kingdom of Champasak. There is an unfinished palace just beside the embankment. I could not find any document regarding the abandonment of Champasak, but I suppose there was a good reason for the French government to decide on building a new local administration centre in Pakse.
Abandoned Champasak is reviving as the base to explore Vat Phou and its related archaeological sites.
A photo taken at the Nakasang pier on the eastern bank of the Mekong.
The town is served by National Route 13 leading to the Cambodian border. Khone Phapheng, another Mekong waterfall, is also accessed from Nakasang.
Southward view from Hang Khon, the southernmost settlement of Don Khon. The Laos - Cambodian border is drawn in the middle of the water from left to right, and the land seen near the horizon belongs to the Stung Treng municipality of Cambodia.
The lake-like expanse of water of the Mekong is known to provides a habitat for Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris). Dolphin watching is a popular activity in Stung Treng.
Alternative shot of Si Phan Don from Don Det.
The boat was probably heading for Don Khon, the southernmost island of Si Phan Don. There are waterfalls and rapids on the both sides of Don Khon; therefore it is impossible to go further downstream by boat.
There is a Vietnam - Laos border 80 km northwest of Kon Tum, which is called Bờ Y. This photo was taken just after crossing the Bờ Y border into Laos.
The bus painted like the Vietnamese flag was a direct service from Pleiku (Gia Lai), 48 km south of Kon Tum, to Pakse in the Champasak province of Laos. It took 10 hours to travel 358 km from Kon Tum to Pakse.
The road was OK and the bus was good, but the problem was that the bus did not use a bus terminal in Kon Tum. I was informed to go to a rotary on QL 14 near the city centre where I waited for almost an hour watching all the number plates of the busses passing by.
For tourists, taking a long distance buss is not easy in Vietnam except for Futa Bus that dispatches a vehicle to your hotel to pick you up. After travelling in areas that are not covered by Futa Bus, I realised how valuable that service was.
Wat Phu or Vat Phou is a ruined Khmer Hindu temple complex in southern Laos in Champasak Province. There was a temple on the site as early as the 5th century, but the surviving structures date from the 11th to 13th centuries. Wat Phu is an UNESCO world heritage site.
Scanned slide, photo taken im mid February 1998.
The Khone and Pha Pheng waterfalls (Khone Phapeng waterfalls) together are the widest (6.7 miles in width) and largest waterfalls in Southeast Asia. The falls on the Mekong River on Don Phapheng Island in the Champasak Province are characterised by thousands of islands and countless waterways giving the area its name Si Phan Don or the ‘4000 islands’. The highest falls reach a height of 21m, and the average discharge of the cataract is approximately 11,000 cubic meters per second. The highest flow on record is an astounding over 49,000 cubic meters per second. The falls are simply breath taking!
Wat Phu or Vat Phou is a ruined Khmer Hindu temple complex in southern Laos in Champasak Province. There was a temple on the site as early as the 5th century, but the surviving structures date from the 11th to 13th centuries. Wat Phu is an UNESCO world heritage site.
Scanned slide, photo taken im mid February 1998.
Wat Phu or Vat Phou is a ruined Khmer Hindu temple complex in southern Laos in Champasak Province. There was a temple on the site as early as the 5th century, but the surviving structures date from the 11th to 13th centuries. Wat Phu is an UNESCO world heritage site.
Scanned slide, photo taken im mid February 1998.
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Please take your time... and enjoy it large on black
In the south of Laos, in Champasak Province near the Cambodian border, some 200 km from Angkor Wat and about a one hour drive from Pakse on a good road, is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Vat Phou. It is an exceptional archeological site originating in the 6th century and thriving until the 15th Century. Its influences come from Khmer, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions that blend elegantly in its architectural, ritualistic, and artistic designs. Construction on what we see today as Vat Phou started around 1000AD, and bears clear visions of Hinduism. Taking advantage of a natural axis from Phou Kao Mountain - from which flows a natural spring that is still considered sacred nowadays - to the Mekong River, the ancient khmers designed a geometric pattern of temples, shrines, and man-made waterways. The deliberately chosen location of Vat Phou along an east – west axis, is coupled with the fact that the peak of Phou Kao Mountain is shaped like a lingam. Such a phallic shape is usually associated with the Hindu God Shiva, as is the worship of the rising sun, hence the east – west alignment of the temple. After centuries of lying in ruin, hidden within the jungle, a French explorer, Henri Pamentier, rediscovered Vat Phou in 1914. After photographing the site, it once again disappeared form the world’s consciousness. Interest resurrected itself again in the mid 1980’s when UNESCO initiated an archaeological survey of the site. This survey led to heritage legislation being implemented, with the conferring of protected status being given to the site in 2001.
Photo of the facade of Vat Phou sanctuary in Champasak - Laos. The sanctuary is in two parts. The front section, of sandstone, is now occupied by four Buddha images, while the brick rear part, which formerly contained the central linga, is now occupied by a large Buddha image and altar. The light and colors of the Buddha altar are perfect since the entire roof is missing, although a makeshift covering has been added to the front. Here you don't feel like a tourist but more like an explorer. Water from the spring which emerges from the cliff about 60 m southwest of the sanctuary was channeled along stone aqueducts into the rear chamber, continuously bathing the linga. The sanctuary is later than the north and south palaces, belonging to the Baphuon period of the later 11th century.
Het Wat Phou tempelcomplex ligt op een uurtje fietsen vanaf Champasak. Een fiets kun je voor 0,50 per dag huren via je guesthouse. Je kunt Wat Phou ook met een gecharterde tuk-tuk bereiken. Wat Phou betekent in het Laotiaans bergklooster. De Wat Phou, de meest interessante Khmer-ruine buiten, ligt op 8 kilometer ten zuidwesten van Champasak. Het is in feite een verzameling tempels en heiligdommen aan de voet van de Lingaparvata berg. Het Khmertempelcomplex werd in de 9de eeuw door koning Jayavarman IV als Shiva-heiligdom gebouwd. In vroegere tijden verbond een 200 km lange weg deze tempel met Angkor Wat in Cambodja. Hoewel de plek nu verbonden is met het Theravada Boeddhisme, wijzen zandstenen reliefs erop dat de ruines ooit aan de Hindoe-goden gewijd waren. Met de ondergang van het Angkor rijk werd Wat Phou overwoekerd door de jungle. In 2001 is Wat Phou door UNESCO uitgeroepen tot een World Heritage Site. Met steun van de UNESCO zijn restauratiewerkzaamheden in volle gang. UNESCO heeft inmiddels wel geleerd van eerdere restauratiewerkzaamheden aan Angkor Wat. De inmiddels gestarte herstelwerkzaamheden stuitten daar op opmerkelijk verzet van deze bezoekers. Ze waren ontstemd over de pogingen het overwoekerende oerwoud terug te dringen. Voor hen werden een paar gebouwen ongemoeid gelaten, zodat het beeld gelijk bleef aan de op foto's vastgelegde dromen die ze, eerder thuis hadden gezien. Gelukkig krijg je hier als je door de gedeeltelijk overgroeide ruïnes dwaalt een goede indruk hoe groot het complex geweest moet zijn. Boven op de heuvel staat een verborgen tempel in het oerwoud. Je voelt je even geen toerist maar ontdekkings-reiziger! Vanaf de boven op een heuvel gelegen centrale tempel kijk je uit over een groot deel van het complex en de in de verte gelegen Mekong.
private trade with cherokee
Vat Phon and associated Ancient Settlement within the Champasak Cultural Landscape
UNESCO WHS Ref. 481
Pakse/Laos
Copyright © 2010 by inigolai/Photography
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Seen on Don Khong Island, Champasak, Laos
The woolly-necked stork or whitenecked stork (Ciconia episcopus) is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It breeds singly, or in small loose colonies. It is distributed in a wide variety of habitats including marshes in forests, agricultural areas, and freshwater wetlands.
It is a widespread tropical species which breeds in Asia, from India to Indonesia, and in tropical Africa. It is a resident breeder in wetlands with trees. They use a variety of freshwater wetlands including seasonal and perennial reservoirs and marshes, crop lands, irrigation canals and rivers. They are attracted to fires in grasslands and crop fields where they capture insects trying to escape the fire. They use ponds and marshes inside forests in both Africa and Asia, especially in south-east Asia where they use grassy and marshy areas in clearings in evergreen rainforests. In India, they are an uncommon species in coastal habitats. They use coastal areas in Africa also, with birds in Sulawasi observed to be eating sea snakes, and birds on the Kenya coast foraging in coral reefs and mudflats. In an agricultural landscape in north India, woolly-necked storks preferred fallow fields during the summer and monsoon seasons, and natural freshwater wetlands during the winter. Here, irrigation canals were preferentially used during winters when water levels were low, and birds avoided crop fields in all seasons. Assisted by construction of new irrigation canals, this species is spreading to arid areas like the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, India.
Source: Wikipedia
Thanks to ecvoho for helping me with the identification!