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Laos Essential Artistry Posting Page
Thursday, January 15, 2009
 At Laos Essential Artistry we're not only selling handwoven silk textiles and hand-embroidered Hmong and Mien handicrafts, we're very, very interested in helping people learn more about Laos. You could say it's our passion... Ever since they unveiled Sam Neua's city pillar on May 17, 2008, we've been eager to go back and see what it looks like ourselves. I've searched on the Internet and there aren't a lot of photos, so I feel we're doing a service here by including four photos of the city pillar, two take from the air, and two from the ground. The first photo above shows the city pillar within the context of "downtown" Sam Neua. As you can see Sam Neua is not very big and the city pillar is located at the intersection of two main roads, the road to Vieng Xai (coming from the lower left-hand corner) T's into the road which takes one back to Xieng Khuang heading out towards the upper left-hand corner of the photo. The road going right extends to the outskirts of Sam Neua and is the road we take to get to the Nuaykeo galleries. The first line of text points toward the Khaem Xam Guest House where we usually stay. Sam Neua is named after the Xam River which you can see in the foreground of the photo and the Khaem in "Khaem Xam" means on the banks of the Xam River, which you can see is quite true. The other line of text points toward a new guest house being built by our friend, Phonchit, who owns a restaurant that was on the site of the new guest house, but is now located temporarily behind where the new guesthouse is being built. He is also our driver and someone we rely and count on when we're traveling and researching through Huaphan Province. His guesthouse may be open when we go in June, but probably not. It should be very nice and will include the first Internet Café in Sam Neua!  The photo above is a close-up of the city pillar from the air.  This photo was taken at about 1:00 p.m. and when one sees the sparkling glass ball they can better understand as was written in the Vientiane Times newspaper "This crystal ball symbolizes a popular folk song, Xamneua Pennuaykeo , describing Xamneua as being rich in natural beauty and comparing it to a glittering ball, like the one created especially for the province. The song goes on to tell how the people of the province enjoy strong friendships among all ethnic groups, and how in their various colorful costumes they resemble a jeweled ball." We bought two VCD's in Vientiane the commemorate the unveiling of the city pillar. One shows all the ceremonies connected with the unveling and one contains songs about Sam Neua. Very interesting.  This bottom photo was taken at night right before 10:00 p.m. As I wrote in the previous post we were extremely rushed in our one day in Sam Neua and getting photos of the city pillar was a priority. But we didn't have any free time in the evening until right before 10:00 p.m. and luckily our guest house is just a very short ways away from the city pillar (as you can see in the first photo) and I stopped, having forgot my tripod and took a few shots with the camera on the roof of a truck (two luckily came out ok) and then as we walked toward the city pillar for more shots, the city pillar went dark!!! We looked at our watches, saw it was 10:00 p.m. and figured out this must be the time when the turn off the lights illuminating the pillar, so we'll have to wait until we return in June to get some more evening shots... by: Laos Essential Artistry 
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2 Comments:
I too took a photo just because I couldn't figure out what the heck it was. I'm still kind of scratching my head even after reading your web site.
I used the internet across the bridge and up a little ways on the left. Buncha kids playing video games, connection a little slow.
Hello,
I think we've used the same Internet shop, I think it's run by Vietnamese. Not at all like in Vientiane or Luang Prabang, but at least it's better than nothing! But that will change soon when Phonchit opens his new guesthouse in June to the right of the Khaem Xam guesthouse.
The City Pillar is a symbol of the Nuaykeo as I explain in the post. I don't know what else I can say except this pillar represents the soul of the people from Sam Neua. There is a great VCD for sale of the ceremonies marking the opening of the city pillar you can buy in Vientiane that you might want to pick up.
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