The Plain of Jars is a megalithic site believed to be up to 3,000 years old and located on the Xieng Khouang Plateau in northeast Laos. There are around 2,000 jars on the slopes of the plateau and the Xieng Khouang Tourist Department says a detailed survey as stipulated by UNESCO will take more than two years.
The bureau says it has catalogued 70 sites so far, but still has another 50 to go. Although many jars are smaller, the biggest measures three metres high and eight metres around its circumference. To ensure the jars are preserved for posterity, local residents have been helping to keep them maintained.
Governor Mangnomek says the delay in getting the Plain of Jars listed as a UNESCO site will have a knock-on effect in that Xieng Khouang will not attract significant numbers of tourists. The initial budget for UNESCO status submissions was supposed to get the Plain of Jars listed first and then start preparing a similar application for the Hin Nam Nor nature reserve in the south of the nation.
Lao needs funds to finish UNESCO proposal for Plain of Jars
News in Asia
The governor of Laos’s Xieng Khouang Province says there are not enough funds to prepare a proposal to get the Plain of Jars listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Somkot Mangnomek told reporters in the province that the body charged with amassing and organising the information needed for the application had used up its funding quota.