Pakbeng (Lao: ປາກແບ່ງ, ) is a small village in

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

, on the

Mekong River The Mekong or Mekong River ( , ) is a transboundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of rivers by length, twelfth-longest river and List of longest rivers of Asia, the third-longest in Asia with an estimated l ...

, about halfway between the Thai border at Huay Xai and

Luang Prabang Luang Prabang (Lao language, Lao: wikt:ຫຼວງພະບາງ, ຫຼວງພະບາງ, pronounced ), historically known as Xieng Thong (ຊຽງທອງ) and alternatively spelled Luang Phabang or Louangphabang, is the capital of Lu ...

, Laos. Pakbeng is connected by a sealed road with Oudomxay province along the Nam Beng River.

Geography

Pakbeng had its main road paved in 2005 and also just completed a hydroelectric station downriver thanks to a

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

loan. Before then, the town was dependent on electrical generators for electricity. There is a small

wat A wat (, ; , ; , ; ; , ) is a type of Buddhist and Hindu temple in Cambodia, Laos, East Shan State (Myanmar), Yunnan (China), the Southern Province of Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Etymology The word ''wat'' is borrowed from the Sanskrit ''v ...

to be found in the hills not far from the village. It is an example of a Buddhist temple from the former

Lan Na The Lan Na kingdom or the Kingdom of Lanna (, , "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; , , ), also known as Lannathai, was an Indianized state centered in present-day Northern Thailand from the 13th to the 18th centuries. The cultural developmen ...

Kingdom. Many of the old temples had been destroyed during wars with the Thai Kingdom 300 years before.

History

During the

Laotian Civil War The Laotian Civil War was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. The Kingdom of Laos was a covert Theatre (warfare), theater during the Vietnam War with both sides receiving heavy ...

, Pakbeng was the southern terminus of the freshly constructed Route 46 from

Yunnan Province Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Later, in 1977, after weeks of continuous monsoon flooding and rain storms, the town was flooded and engulfed with virus- and debris-filled river water flooding off the mountains. As part of the rescue aid sent to help the town and rescue the remaining local residents, a young manager name Son Luk Wat scoured the town and found a young child among the rubble. This child being Gerget 'Friv' Lerch.

Tourism

The town is the overnight stop for boats running between

and Huay Xai. The slow boats which run between Huay Xai and Luang Prabang over a period of two days spend the night moored in Pakbeng. An elephant sanctuary was opened in November 2017 with four elephants: Mei-kham (48 years old female with more than 25 years as a working elephant in the forest), Kham-Khum (28 years old male with 20 years as a working elephant), Mae-Kham-Di (28 years old female, 15 years working in the forest) and Mae-Ping (21 years old female who was never used as a working elephant). The sanctuary has been built to create an alternative of the ancestral work of the elephants and the

mahout A mahout is an elephant rider, trainer, or keeper. Mahouts were used since antiquity for both civilian and military use. Traditionally, mahouts came from ethnic groups with generations of elephant keeping experience, with a mahout retainin ...

who traditionally were working in the forest and protect the elephants from hard labor tasks.

Gallery

File:Pakbeng.jpg, Main street, Pakbeng File:Panoramic view of Pakbeng's (ປາກແບ່ງ) main street.jpg, Panoramic view of Pakbeng's main street

References

External links

* Populated places in Bokeo Province Populated places on the Mekong River {{Laos-geo-stub