to house some of Wat Phou's more vulnerable artefacts.
　　　　  Two hundred years older than Angkor Wat in Kampuchea, Wat Phou was
　　　　  built in the second half of the fifth century. At that time it was a
　　　　  centre of kingly power on the lower Mekong River, one of a
　　　　  collection of principalities stretching along the coast but
　　　　  extending inland to encompass what is now southern Laos. The temple
　　　　  was the site of a cult closely associated with the Indianized
　　　　  monarchies of ancient Indochina, part of the vast Khmer Empire that,
　　　　  some two hundred years later, made Angkor its capital.
　　　　  The speeches over, the group from Vientiane, accompanied by town
　　　　  elders, drove the short distance through the forest to the temple. A
　　　　  long causeway led them into the centre of an architectural
　　　　  composition whose ancient stones were bathed in the golden light of
　　　　  the late afternoon.
　　　　  Rising above the Mekong River, Wat Phou is a majestic ruin covered
　　　　  with a mantle of vegetation, a symbol of what the Laotians
　　　　  themselves had suffered and withstood--invasions, colonialism and
　　　　  wars. Nowadays, Wat Phou's battle is against the vegatation that
　　　　  relentlessly attacks its ancient stones. The conflict is between the
　　　　  ruins and the jungle which has overrun them.
　　　　  At the end of the causeway, two exquisite rectangular pavilions made
　　　　  of sandstone stand near a large artificial lake, believed by the
　　　　  Khmers to have possessed extraordinary purificatory powers. For the
　　　　  god-kings of the Khmer Empire Wat Phou was a favourite royal bathing
　　　　  place, with its grand approach, its majestic flight of steps flanked
　　　　  by statues of lions and mythical animals. Today the lions are
　　　　  faceless and the statutes have lost their heads. Buffaloes stand
　　　　  motionless in the waters of the lake, only their heads showing.
　　　　  The rectangular pavilions used to be temples for segregated
　　　　  worship--one for women and the other for men. Roots follow the
　　　　  outlines of the masonry along the temple walls, mimicking the
　　　　  architectural motives which they cover. A whole section of wall is
　　　　  cracked and prevented from disintegration by the roots' embrace.
　　　　  Ferns and underbrush have attached themselves to walls, screening
　　　　  the idealized representations of the Khmer aristocracy, while
　　　　  beneath the onslaught of vegetation, the powerful Brahman gods of
　　　　  the Khmer Empire--Krishna, Vishnu and Indra riding the elephant
　　　　  Airavata--are slowly suffocating.
　　　　  A wide avenue leads from the temples to a majestic stairway carved