Cave of the Thousands Statues

The Pak Ou Caves - Tham Ting - are among the most revered holy sites in Laos. A cave filled with thousands of statues of the Buddha. Hundreds of statues line the stairways; rest on nooks in the cave walls, and teeter on stone shelves. More than thousands of very small and mostly damaged wooden Buddhist figures are laid out over the wall shelves inside the cave. The Statues take many different positions, including meditation, teaching, peace, rain, and reclining (nirvana).

Pak Ou Cave (mouth of the Ou river) the Tham Ting (lower cave) and the Tham Theung (upper cave) are caves overlooking the founder name Mekong River, 25 km from Luang Prabang, Laos. About two hours upstream from the centre of Luang Prabang, and have become well known by tourists.

Mystery to this cave is that when it was first discovered by a local villager, the cave was well take care of and there were no dust. It seems like someone or some thing was there maintaining and house cleaning it.

 How the thousands statues Buddhist figures got there?

 During the last 500 years, kings and pilgrims have worshipped at Pak Ou's lower cave, Tham Ting, by placing wooden, clue, or gold statues or figures of Buddhist monk in hoping to cast bad karma and bring wealth and health to themselves and the kingdom. After the war and time, it was forgotten, lost and abandon for many years, until the cave was discovered by a local villager by accident. Man went hunting and discovers a group of birds flying in the Pak Ou cave and decided to check it out and found the hidden cave buried deep in the forest.

Here’s the video:

Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler tour central Laos. He's heading up the Mekong River to explore the thousands of Buddhist sculptures found in the caves of Pak Ou.