Wolfgang's photos with the keyword: Wat Si Saket

Side walk of the main sim or ordination hall of Wat Si Saket.

The images were made between the 16th and 19th Centuries. Sitting on long shelves below the niches are over 300 mostly Lao-style Buddhas.

Small stupa-shaped monuments containing the cremated remains of temple devotees.

The reason the temple was not destroyed was because Siamese troops were using it as a base. It had a reputation as being sacred and protected by spirits. They believed that if it was destroyed, they would lose the war, so they chose to preserve it. After the war was over the Lao people set about rebuilding and preserving their style of architecture. In 1935 Vat Sisaket was restored to the form we know today.

Inside the arcade around the temple complex about 2,000 Buddha images displayed in and at the wall.

The Si Saket wall paintings are not true frescoes, in that they were painted onto dry stucco rather than wet plaster; this makes them fragile and over time the drawings have flaked off.

Wat Si Saket features a cloister wall with more than 2000 ceramic and silver Buddha images. The wat also houses a museum.

Wat Si Saket was built in 1818 on the orders of King Anouvong. It was built in the Siamese style of Buddhist architecture, with a surrounding terrace and an ornate five-tiered roof, rather than in the Lao style, keeping it safe from the armies of Siam which sacked Vientiane in 1827.

Although such history might be lost on the average tourist exploring the temple, what is not lost on visitors to the temple is its feature: a square tile-roofed cloister that encloses the sim (ordination hall). This is a common feature of large Thai temples, but is less common in Lao temples.