Luang Prabang, the former royal capital of Laos, is situated by the Mekong river in the mountainous north of the country. It is easy to understand why this peaceful city of exquisite charm and beauty was appointed "the best preserved city of Indochina" and official "Heritage of Culture" by UNESCO in December’ 96. Its origins go back to very ancient times.

According to the legends of Khun Borom, the mythic founder of Laos, Luang Prabang was first called Xieng Dong, Xieng Tong - the city of the river Dong, the city of the Flametree. The name was given to the city by two sages who saw a magnificent flametree shoot up at the merging point of the rivers Mekong and Nam Khan. Deeming the place favourable and wonderful, they evoked the fifteen nagas, water spirits, of the territory and indicated the site where they should erect the King’s Palace. Therewith they pronounced the name of the man who would come and rule over the city. Khun Borom.

Under the sword of Prince Fa Ngum, a descendant of Khun Borom, Laos emerged politically in the middle of the XIVth century. This prince not only conquered Sip Song Pan Na and Lan Na kingdoms that stretched from present day Thailand to southern China - but he also managed to unite the country from Cambodia to the Chinese border. He named his territory "Lane Xang", the Kingdom of a Million Elephants and Xieng Dong, Xieng Tong became the capital of the kingdom.

Prince Fa Ngum built Lane Xang in the same fashion as Angkor court, where he had grown up. He even married a Khmer princess and sent for preachers, scholars and artists from Cambodia. The priests brought with them the Pha Bang, the Golden Buddha, which is said to have been cast in Ceylon during the first century of our time. The Pha Bang became the city’s guardian and gave it its new name: Luang Prabang. Since theravada Buddhism was practised by the monarchy, it was rapidly established in the city where the people immediately started building the temples and Buddha statues for which the city has earned its fame.

As is its custom, theravda Buddhism integrated the local cults of spirits and ancestors into its doctrine and thus managed to create a symbiotic relation with beliefs in the area. The inhabitants of Luang Prabang used to worship the Pou Nyeu Nya Nyeu, the ancestors of the city. When you speak to an elder in Luang Prabang, he will tell you that, a long time ago, these forebears lived in heaven. At that time, heaven hung very low over the world since it was hooked close to the earth by an enormous vine. This vine had such thick foliage that it cast a vast shadow over the world and, consequently, no crops could be grown by people on earth. When Pou Nyeu Nya Nheu came down to earth, they severed the vine with an axe. By doing so they freed the heaven to fly way up and so the light came back to earth.

Each year, during the festivities of Pi May Lao - the Lao new year-, the people of Luang Prabang seize the opportunity to pay homage to their ancestors but also to Buddha. This time of splendid celebrations occurs in mid-April, when spring, preceding the heavy rains, reaches the area. This is the time when trees and flowers come to life and the paddy fields, put to rest during several months of draught, turn fresh and green. In the book of Lao traditions, the Hid Sip Song Khon Sip Si - the Twelve Rites and the Fourteen Rules - it is written that "at new year each and every one must show his gratitude for the year that went by and his delight for yet another one. Everyone must express his wish for the coming year to be as prosperous as the last and that it will bring joy, happiness, riches and good health". Thus Pi May should above all be consecrated to pleasure and the merits you acquire through the worship of Buddha and the respect for his teachings.

People from all over Laos and the neighbouring countries go to Luang Prabang for Pimay. For those who know how tranquil the old capital is for the rest of the year, these days are quite a contrast. The streets are crowded, the hotels are full and accommodation is extremely hard to get by. People come to visit the vats: they clean them, burn incense and cover the holy statues with flowers. There are several Pimay ceremonies. The first one starts on the night of April 12 when girls from the whole province, ethnic minorities as well as Lao Loum, come down to the city to participate in the election of Miss Luang Prabang. This beauty contest is very important since the elected girl represents a mythic goddess upon who the fortunes of the coming days depend. The expected fortune of a Lao peasant is basically the promise of a certain quantity of rain that the heavens will spread over the earth at the beginning of the new year. In the Pimay procession the new Miss, accompanied by her maids, stands at the top of the first chariot following the masks of the ancestors. This year the girls were of such remarkable beauty that the finalists had to stay on stage until dawn before the members of the jury could select the winner.

In the morning of the 13 there is a market where parents go with their children to buy all sorts of captured animals; small birds, parrots, turtles, lizards and a magnitude of fish. The reason, however, is not to offer their children a pet but to help them on their way to nirvana by setting the animals free. Another important item that is for sale at the market is the zodiac flag, all serious pimay celebrates buy one. The flags come to use later in the afternoon when most people catch a boat to an island in the Mekong where they build sand stupas on the beach. This is an act of personal purification since each grain of sand that is incorporated in your stupa signify a sin that you are getting rid of. As soon as a stupa is finished it is crowned with a zodiac flag while the year is written in the sand. This April the official Lao calendar announced the year 2539, commemorating the death of Buddha.

In spite of the religious nature of this ritual it is a very merry event accompanied by a great variety of games and competitions such as carrying an egg with chop sticks. The most predominant factor, however, is water. People throw hundreds and thousands of litres of water over each other as a mischievous form of the original act of a sprinkled blessing and refreshment. This seems to be the best part of the celebrations for the younger generations who, after having completed their stupas, chase each other with water guns and buckets, but even adults and tourists take an active part in this. Returning to the city in the golden twilight the sight of the stupas, decorated with burning candles and incense, flags flapping gently in the breeze, is decidedly mesmerising.

On Sangkarn Luang day (the last day of the year -14th April- "Sangkarn" means "passage"), the ancestral masks are invited to come out of their wooden boxes at Ho Thevada Luang ( the Shrine of the Grand Deities) in the Vat Aham complex. In the afternoon, they head the long procession crossing the whole city up to Vat Xieng Thong, the former Royal Pagoda where the King went to purify himself on his return from foreign countries. The masks of the ancestors and the small lion, shielded from the crowd by a rope, open the procession followed by miss Luang Prabang and two lines of young girls dressed in their most beautiful sins, the traditional Lao skirt. The girls precede two long lines of monks, the young are walking slowly, all carrying black umbrellas to protect themselves from the scorching sun, the older are sitting on pick-up trucks. Originally the old monks were carried by their subordinates, a tradition that has been abandoned at the monks’ own request. On both sides of the streets people sprinkle them with lustral water to gain merits for their future lives. Dancers and musicians close the procession before the raving crowd.

At Vat Xieng Thong, the masks of the ancestors receive offerings from the people. Then they dance in front of the sala. The movements of the dance remind of the mythological creation of the universe, the division of space into regions and the drawing of boundaries of future kingdoms. The dance also praise the spirits who protect the city from the yaksas, the evil spirits.

The purpose of the second procession on Sangkharn Kheun, New Year’s day, is to allow the ancestors to dance at Vat That Noy and Vat Visoun where they hear sermons and once again receive food. On the second day of the year the ancestors visit the former royal palace, now a museum, and invite Pha Bang, the most revered Buddha image in the country, to come to Vat May. The ancestral effigies are always the first to pour water on the Pha Bang, leading the authorities and then the people.