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Wat Phou
Vat Phou (or Vat Phu; ''temple-mountain'') is a ruined Khmer-Hindu temple complex in southern Laos and one of the oldest places of worship in Southeast Asia. It is at the base of mount Phou Khao, some from the Mekong in Champasak province. There was a sanctuary on the site, centred on a sacred spring and an offering place for a mighty tutelary sprit dating back to pre-historic times. The first megalithic stone structures had been built probably as early as the second century BCE, consisting of two stone cells, a carving of a crocodile, serpent stairs, and several offering platforms. One of the first pre-Angkor brick buildings onsite was erected in the early 7th century and became the focus of all consequent building activities. Most of the other surviving buildings date from the Angkor period, in the 11th—13th centuries. History Vat Phou was initially associated with the city of Shrestapura, which lay on the bank of the Mekong directly east of Lingaparvata Mountain (now ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Champasak Province
Champasak (or Champassak, Champasack – Laotian language, Lao: ຈຳປາສັກ ) is a province in southwestern Laos, near the borders with Thailand and Cambodia. It is 1 of the 3 principalities that succeeded the Laos, Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. As of the 2015 census, it had a population of 694,023. The capital is Pakse, and the province takes its name from Champasak (town), Champasak, the former capital of the Kingdom of Champasak. Champasak is bordered by Salavan province to the north, Sekong province to the northeast, Attapeu province to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. The Mekong River forms part of the border with neighboring Thailand and contains Si Phan Don ('Four Thousand Islands') in the south of the province, on the border with Cambodia. Champasak has played a role in the history of Siam and Laos, with battles taking place in and around Champasak. Its cultural heritage includes temple ruins and French colonial architecture. Champasak has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angkor
Angkor ( , 'capital city'), also known as Yasodharapura (; ),Headly, Robert K.; Chhor, Kylin; Lim, Lam Kheng; Kheang, Lim Hak; Chun, Chen. 1977. ''Cambodian-English Dictionary''. Bureau of Special Research in Modern Languages. The Catholic University of America Press. Washington, D.C. Chuon Nath Khmer Dictionary (1966, Buddhist Institute, Phnom Penh). was the capital city of the Khmer Empire, located in present-day Cambodia. The city and empire flourished from approximately the 9th to the 15th centuries. The city houses the Angkor Wat, one of Cambodia's most popular tourist attractions. The name ''Angkor'' is derived from ''nokor'' (), a Khmer language, Khmer word meaning "kingdom" which in turn derived from Sanskrit ''nagara'' (), meaning "city". The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer people, Khmer Hinduism, Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "Devaraja, god-king", and lasted until the late 14th century, first falling under Ayut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clothed Statues Of The Buddha In The Ruined Khmer Hindu Temple Of Wat Phou, Champasak, Laos
Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural products found in the environment, put together. The wearing of clothing is mostly restricted to human beings and is a feature of all human societies. The amount and type of clothing worn depends on gender, body type, social factors, and geographic considerations. Garments cover the body, footwear covers the feet, gloves cover the hands, while hats and headgear cover the head, and underwear covers the intimate parts. Clothing serves many purposes: it can serve as protection from the elements, rough surfaces, sharp stones, rash-causing plants, and insect bites, by providing a barrier between the skin and the environment. Clothing can insulate against cold or hot conditions, and it can provide a hygienic barrier, keeping i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar, because they are the most resistant minerals to the weathering processes at the Earth's surface. Like uncemented sand, sandstone may be imparted any color by impurities within the minerals, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Because sandstone beds can form highly visible cliffs and other topography, topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have become strongly identified with certain regions, such as the red rock deserts of Arches National Park and other areas of the Southwestern United States, American Southwest. Rock formations composed of sandstone usually allow the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laterite
Laterite is a soil type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolonged weathering of the underlying parent rock, usually when there are conditions of high temperatures and heavy rainfall with alternate wet and dry periods. The process of formation is called laterization. Tropical weathering is a prolonged process of chemical weathering which produces a wide variety in the thickness, grade, chemistry and ore mineralogy of the resulting soils. The majority of the land area containing laterites is between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Laterite has commonly been referred to as a soil type as well as being a rock type. This, and further variation in the modes of conceptualizing about laterite (e.g. also as a complete weathering profile or theory about weathering), has led to calls for the term to be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reservoir
A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrupting a watercourse to form an Bay, embayment within it, excavating, or building any number of retaining walls or levees to enclose any area to store water. Types Dammed valleys Dammed reservoirs are artificial lakes created and controlled by a dam constructed across a valley and rely on the natural topography to provide most of the basin of the reservoir. These reservoirs can either be ''on-stream reservoirs'', which are located on the original streambed of the downstream river and are filled by stream, creeks, rivers or rainwater that surface runoff, runs off the surrounding forested catchments, or ''off-stream reservoirs'', which receive water diversion, diverted water from a nearby stream or aqueduct (water supply), aq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khmer Architecture
Khmer architecture (), also known as Angkorian architecture (), is the architecture produced by the Khmer during the Angkor period of the Khmer Empire from approximately the later half of the 8th century CE to the first half of the 15th century CE. The Indian rock-cut architecture, architecture of the Indian rock-cut temples, particularly in sculpture, had an influence on Southeast Asia and was widely adopted into the Indianization of Southeast Asia, Indianised architecture of Cambodian (Khmer), Names of Vietnam, Annamese and Javanese temples (of the Greater India). Evolved from Indian influences, Khmer architecture became clearly distinct from that of the Indian sub-continent as it developed its own special characteristics, some of which were created independently and others of which were incorporated from neighboring cultural traditions, resulting in a new artistic style in Asian architecture unique to the Angkorian tradition. The development of Khmer architecture as a distinct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity". To be selected, a World Heritage Site is nominated by its host country and determined by the UNESCO's World Heritage Committee to be a unique landmark which is geographically and historically identifiable, having a special cultural or physical significance, and to be under a sufficient system of legal protection. World Heritage Sites might be ancient ruins or historical structures, buildings, cities, deserts, forests, islands, lakes, monuments, mountains or wilderness areas, and others. A World Heritage Site may signify a remarkable accomplishment of humankind and serve as evidence of humanity's intellectual history on the planet, or it might be a place of grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lao People
The Lao people are a Tai peoples, Tai ethnic group native to Southeast Asia, primarily inhabiting Laos and northeastern Thailand. They speak the Lao language, part of the Kra–Dai languages, Kra–Dai language family, and are the dominant ethnic group in Laos. Significant Lao communities also reside in Thailand’s Isan region, where they form a regional majority, as well as in smaller numbers in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar. Culturally and linguistically, the Lao share close ties with other Tai peoples, particularly the Thai people, Thai. The Isan people of Thailand, for instance, are ethnically Lao but nationally Thai. Theravada, Theravada Buddhism is central to Lao identity, shaping cultural practices and social norms, though Tai folk religion, animist traditions persist, especially in rural communities. This syncretism reflects a blend of indigenous beliefs and Buddhist influences. Historically, the terms "Lao" and "Laotian" were used ambiguously in Western contexts. Bef ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
