Southern Laos is famous for its cultural diversity and natural beauty especially many beautiful waterfalls, but traveling in this region can not be completed if not visited the 1,500 years old Khmer ruin, Vat Phou, the second Khmer heritage in the World Heritage list.

Vat Phou is very important as it is one of the first stone buildings built by ancient Khmer and served as the main temple of the early capital of Chenla Kingdom which is the predecessor of Angkor Empire in present-day Cambodia, but that was not the main reason made Vat Phou to be accepted by UNESCO. Vat Phou is a part of Champasak Cultural Landscape; the center of the landscape is a lingam-liked mountain. Since ancient Khmer were Hinduism, the lingam-liked mountain had to be regarded as the symbol of god deserved to be worship by constructing the temple for. Moreover behind the temple has spring, the holy water from Lingam Mountain!, with the clever ancient engineering, Champasak people built waterway to let the spring flow pass the small man-made lingam in the main temple building before the spring flow down to the reservoir in front of the temple complex. For ancient pilgrims, Vat Phou was the place where they could receive the blessing from God via the double passed lingam spring (double holy).

I have to admit that after read UNESCO evaluation and other study reports, my imagination on this place go far beyond the reality. Right now, Vat Phou is a ruined complex with only 3 buildings that are still standing hardly testify your imagination, the story of the double holy water is very hard to contemplate the possibility of existence. Actually I can not find any lingam since Vat Phou has been converted to become a Buddhist temple long time ago. In reality Vat Phou can not be competed with other important Khmer ruins like Phimai or Phanomroong in Thailand or Preah Vihear in nearby Cambodia (all are in UNESCO tentative list) and surely Vat Phou is disappointing if you visited those sites before. However, please do not consider I do not like Vat Phou and the lingam mountain; they have their own charms with serene and holy atmosphere which are surprisingly existed, so if you visit Southern Laos, there is no reason to not visit this place, it is the must and you can not find any important Khmer ruins that is so peaceful, solitude and less tourist like Vat Phou (except other forgotten sites in Cambodia) and that's alone make Vat Phou special.