Shaman's Universe - Buddha Park near Vientiane

12-29-2010 - near Vientiane, Laos

Buddha Park

As much as Vientiane did not impress me, this sculptural hidden gem near the capital more than made up for the capital's dusty lack of luster/WOW factor. An influential shaman-priest has created this marvel in the 50s. It is a striking chimera of Buddhism and Hinduism in sculpture.... together with an integrative 3D model of the soul's evolution. That is the part that has impacted me to the core. A bulbous labyrinthine pagoda, the entrance into which is a voraciously open mouth that leads one to layers and levels of displays of worldly suffering - physically and metaphorically. 

The "bulb" has a layered structure of an onion, and, once within the deepest layer, one can journey up and down via intricate steep staircases that plunge one sequentially into the darkness of the underworld, where cement/clay figures arise from the mud of the floor and the walls....where root/tentacle-like projections crawl on the ceiling.....it is truly Animism/Shamanic universe at its WOW. After meditating on mortality in the 3 layers of earthly hell in the giant bulb, I ascended to its roof through a cave-like opening. From there, the whole world of the Buddha Park has revealed itself. Together with the monumental tree of life/heaven[?] that graced the tip of the bulb.

It was only later that I noticed a quinta-faced creature divine delivering a person straight into the mouth of the hell/tree of life pagoda. It was a matter of perspective - literally ;O)

I touched a creation of a real shaman.......a beautiful, monumental dream that moved, presenced people to something greater than self. It touched something in me. "Yes! Yes! More of that!" something in me incanted....