Level of clay jugs
| Megalithic Jugs in Xieng Khouang - Plain of Stone Jugs | |
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UNESCO world heritage 
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| National territory: | Laos |
| Type: | Culture |
| Criteria : | iii |
| Surface: | 174 ha |
| Buffer zone: | 1012 ha |
| Reference No .: | 1587 |
| UNESCO region : | Asia |
| History of enrollment | |
| Enrollment: | 2019 ( session 43 ) |
The plain of the clay jugs ( Laotian : ທົ່ງ ໄຫ ຫິນ , Thong Hay Hin , actually "plain of the stone jugs ") is located in the province of Xieng Khouang in Laos near the provincial capital Phonsavan . There are several hundred stone jugs ranging in size from half a meter to three meters. Although the jugs are not made of clay and cannot be found in a coherent plane, the name has become common. The age of the jugs is estimated at 1500 to 2000 years. The weight is up to 6,000 kilograms.
The majority of the jugs are on the three major deposits, sites 1,2,3 . At site 1 alone there are more than 250 of these large stone jars. The stone jugs were rediscovered by the French archaeologist Madeleine Colani around 1930 at Ban Ang . Archaeologists consider the vessels to be the funeral urns of a megalithic, proto-Malay people, relatives of the Lao Theung .
In 2019 the area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The UNESCO justifies this with the extraordinary testimony that the jugs give for civilization in this area and as an example for the production, transport and use of such jugs in Southeast Asia between 500 BC and 500 AD.
Since the Xieng Khouang Province was massively bombed by the American Air Force during the Lao Civil War in the 1960s and 1970s , many of the deposits are still inaccessible today. Only at sites 1, 2 and 3 were most of the bombs cleared. The accessible areas are marked there.
Impressions from the level of the clay jugs
Stone jugs at site 1
Site 3
Hmong girls climb one of the stone jars at Site 1
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ World Heritage worldwide. Retrieved August 1, 2019 .