Haw Phra Kaew

Across the road from Wat Si Saket is Haw Phra Kaew.  Haw Phra Keuw was built as a temple in the 15th century to house the Great Emerald Buddha. The emerald Buddha had come from Chiang Mai in Thailand. In 1778 Siam seized the Buddha back and it now sits in Bangkok at Wat Phra Kaew.

In the 1828 Siam war the temple was destroyed by the invaders and the temple we see today was completed in 1942 with French money.  According to the Lonely Planet it was supposed to be built based exactly on the original plans.  But architecturally it resembles none of the other local temples and bears a strong resemblance to Bangkok style temples.

 

Today Haw Phra Keuw has a wooden replica where the emerald Buddha once was.  It is now a museum of religious artifacts and has a serene collection of Buddhas

  

And as a comparison here are three photos of slightly less serene subjects - and these were not inserted in response to someone's comments about the number of pictures of Andrew so far!

 

But to finish, back to a more Laoation subject