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The Prabang is the most sacred image of the Buddha in Laos and the town of Luang Prabang is named after this statue. The statue is believed to be cast from an alloy of bronze, silver and gold, stands 83cm tall and weighs 43kg. The Prabang is in a standing posture with hands raised and facing forward in the Abhayamudra "Dispelling Fear" posture. Legend ascribes its origin to Sri Lanka but more likely it originates from Angkor.
The original story of the Prabang is from a Pali text named Aḍḍhabhāgabuddharūpanidāna written in the late sixteenth century by a Buddhist monk named Ariyavaṃsa. This same monk had already written a text called Amarakaṭabuddharūpanidāna which describes the history of the Phra Kaeo Buddha, which today is the most revered Buddha image in Bangkok, Thailand. This Pali text was later translated into Lao in the Nithan Prabang and then the Phuen Prabang, subsequently being written into the Luang Prabang chronicles. The history related in these texts say that the Prabang was bought to Lan Xang in the 1350's by the Khmer Princess Keo Keng Nya who married Chao Fa Ngum, the founder of Lan Xang. Together with copies of the Buddhist canon, the Tripitaka, the Prabang was carried from Angkor in a great procession led by twenty monks and four Brahmin priests as well as musicians, craftsmen and several thousand attendants. However it is said that on reaching Vientiane the Prabang refused to travel further north, becoming too heavy for even twenty four men to lift it. Hence the Prabang initially stayed in Vientiane rather than the capital Xieng Thong (Later to be named Luang Prabang). Only in 1502 did King Visoun bring the Prabang up to Xieng Thong where it was initially installed at Vat Manorom before being moved in 1513 to Vat Visoun which had been built especially for this purpose. The Prabang resided there until 1705 when King Setthathirat II moved it to Vientiane. There it was captured by the Siamese in 1778 and taken to Bangkok. However, having two powerful Buddha images together, the Emerald Buddha and the Prabang (Both taken from Vientiane), appeared to bring misfortune to the Siamese kingdom so in 1782 the Prabang was returned to Vientiane. But when the Siamese invaded again in 1828 it was once again taken to Bangkok until King Mongkut allowed the Prabang to be returned to Vat Visoun in 1867. The Prabang was protected during the Haw invasion of 1887 and so survived the destruction of Vat Visoun. Afterwards it was installed in Vat Mai until 1947 when it was moved into the royal palace. |
In the 1960's work began on the Ho Prabang, a shrine built for the Prabang within the grounds of the Royal Palace. However, civil war and revolution intervened and it was only in 2013 that the Prabang was finally moved to this shrine where it resides today.
The Ho Prabang shrine within the grounds of the old royal palace houses the sacred Prabang statue
Once a year during Phi Mai (Lao New Year) celebrations the Prabang is ceremoniously bought out from the Ho Prabang and carried to Vat Mai. There it is installed in the courtyard for three days so people can pay their respects by pouring water over this most sacred of images.
For three days during Phi Mai the Prabang stands in the courtyard of Vat Mai for the people to make merit