After a grueling 10 hour bus ride from Luang Prabang (complete with blaring Thai/Lao pop music, vomiting Laotians, and chickens), we arrived in Phonsavan. The main reason to visit Phonsavan is to see the Plain of Jars–thousands of gigantic, ancient jars scattered across many different large areas of land. There are over 90 sites of these jars, some with only a few jars and some with hundreds. We rented a motorbike since the closest site is 11 kms outside of town and due to a combination of me forgetting my wallet and our bike having a faulty gas gauge, we only visited one site (3 sites are accessible from Phonsavan).

Nonetheless, the site we visited was pretty incredible. The over 250 jars at this site are just massive and spread out everywhere. It is quite eerie to see hundreds of these obviously ancient looking jars spread across a mostly empty field. The fact that no one knows for certain what these jars were used for definitely adds to this feeling. There is a lot of evidence to support the theory that these jars were used for burial purposes, since bone fragments and teeth were found in and around them. However, it’s not clear exactly how they were used for this purpose, with the initial theory being that bodies were cremated and left in the jars and others believing the jars were primarily used to dry out bodies before cremation.

Sadly, Phonsavan is located in a part of Laos that was the most heavily bombed during America’s “Secret War” in Laos between 1964 and 1973. Over 2 million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos during this time (despite the U.S. “only” being at war with Vietnam), making it the most bombed country per capita in the world. Over 30% of these bombs failed to explode. Since the end of the war, over 20,000 people have been killed and many more injured by these unexploded bombs. The other ramification of this massive bombing campaign is that over 40 years later, the Plain of Jars is considered to be the most dangerous and contaminated archaeological site in the world. Laos wants to apply for the Plain of Jars to be categorized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, but the site would only be eligible for such categorization if it is safe enough for tourists to visit. For this reason, when visiting any of the Plain of Jars sites (and really any part of this province in Laos) you are advised to only stay on obvious paths which have already been cleared of unexploded ordnance (UXO).

The Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a British headquartered NGO, has been working in Laos to clear UXO since 1994. They also have an office located in the main town of Phonsavan that shows several documentaries every day. We watched two of their documentaries which put a real human face on the impacts of UXO in Laos. One of the families featured in the documentary was impacted when the father was starting a fire in their backyard for cooking and it ignited a UXO underneath which exploded in his face. He was left almost completely blinded and severly injured. His family is suffering because he can no longer help to provide for them. The documentary also featured several children that had been injured or killed by UXO, because they play with them and then they explode. There is actually a huge educational campaign in Laos to teach children about the dangers of playing with any UXO they find, how to identify them and what to do if they find them. The other important impact the documentaries pointed out is that these UXO are really keeping Laos a poor country since it is difficult to develop when the people there are scared to expand roads, farming areas and other industry out of fear of these bombs. Needless to say, it is extremely sad. But we were glad to hear about the good work that MAG is doing and ended up making a donation while we were there.