The countryside surrounding the town of Phonsavan is home to some very ancient stone jars, which sporadically litter the land at many different sites and no one truly knows what their purpose was or how they came to be here.
I visit site one of The Plain of jars, as it is known, with the most jars and (I have to disagree with lonely planet) a lovely hillside setting. There are several different theories on what the jars were used for and there is no evidence to verify any of them. The locals will tell you that a King created them to store Lao Lao (local whiskey) after a victorious battle while academic studies have concluded that they were funerary urns. To me neither of these explanations seems satisfactory but I can’t imagine realistically what their purpose could have been. Some of them are very large and they seem to be scattered so randomly across the landscape. Only one jar at this site remains with a lid although my guide Ponsai tells us that all had
them but most were destroyed during the bombings. How tragic that this fascinating historical site also fell victim to the brutality of war. Most of the area here has been cleared of UXO (unexploded ordnance) by
MAG who have marked out safe paths but craters from past explosions are still visible very close to the jars. The plain of huge stone urns is almost other-worldly and I imagine fairytale giants sitting on a hillside and gulping from the heavy containers before discarding them on the ground. In a dream world.
I visit site one of The Plain of jars, as it is known, with the most jars and (I have to disagree with lonely planet) a lovely hillside setting. There are several different theories on what the jars were used for and there is no evidence to verify any of them. The locals will tell you that a King created them to store Lao Lao (local whiskey) after a victorious battle while academic studies have concluded that they were funerary urns. To me neither of these explanations seems satisfactory but I can’t imagine realistically what their purpose could have been. Some of them are very large and they seem to be scattered so randomly across the landscape. Only one jar at this site remains with a lid although my guide Ponsai tells us that all had 
them but most were destroyed during the bombings. How tragic that this fascinating historical site also fell victim to the brutality of war. Most of the area here has been cleared of UXO (unexploded ordnance) by MAG who have marked out safe paths but craters from past explosions are still visible very close to the jars. The plain of huge stone urns is almost other-worldly and I imagine fairytale giants sitting on a hillside and gulping from the heavy containers before discarding them on the ground. In a dream world.
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