Sala Keo Ku - a step forward from Wat Xieng Khuan

Sala Keo Ku is a sculpture park near Nong Khai featuring a fantastic amount of concrete Buddha, Hindu and other statues. The park is in close proximity to the Thai-Lao border.

Sala Keo Ku as well as a similar sculpture park in Laos - Wat Xieng Khuan - have been designed and built by Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat. Wat Xieng Khuan was constructed earlier than Sala Keo Ku, before the revolution through the Pathet Lao in 1975. The revered monk left Laos and built Sala Keo Ku on the Thai side in 1978.

Sala Kao Ku shares therefore the style and fantasy of Sulilat's earlier creation, but it contains even more figures and they are also more extravagant and greater in their design and proportions.

Some of the status rise as high as 25m into the sky. One of those immense sculptures is a monumental depiction Buddha, meditating and protected under a seven-headed Naga. This subject is very common in Buddhist art and can be found throughout all Buddhist countries in various forms and sizes...

The Wat of Sala Keo Ku is a mosque like three-story concrete building, sourounded by snailhouse shaped pilers. The building contains Sulitat's mummified body.

A great place to visit 5 km outside of Nong Khai city. I personally prefer Sala Keo Ku as it is better maintained and also more interesting than Wat Xieng Khuan in Laos...

Wat Xieng Khuan - Vientiane's Buddha Park

Wat Xieng Khuan - also know as Vientiane's Buddha sculpture park, is about 25 km outside of Vientiane, passing the Friendship bridge for probably 6 km. The park itself is in a small garden and located directly on the banks of the Mekong River opposite Nong Khai in Thailand.

In Lao language Xieng Khuan means Spirit City, however this place is a park and not a Buddhist temple (wat). The park contains around 200 Hindu and Buddhist sculptures.
Wat Xieng Khuan was constructed by Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat in 1958. He was a shaman who was integrating Hinduism and Buddhism traditions. After the communist take over in 1975 he fled to Thailand. Where he built Sala Keo Ku in Nong Khai, a similar sculpture park, but bigger in size.

The bizarre design of the cement made sculptures is quite appealing and interesting... Somehow they give the observer the feeling, that they are century old, which they are obviously not.

There are numerous Buddha and Hindu statues, along with sculptures of humans, gods, animals, and demons. One sculpture which looks like a giant tomato has in the front a face of a daemon. Viewers can enter the sculpture through the giant and widely open mouth. At the top of the tomato shaped figure is a view point where the entire park is visible. The enormous 40 m long reclining Buddha is the other main attraction.

Wat Xieng Khuan is one of Vientiane's better know attractions.