Laotian Cemetery

Location: Vang Vieng, Laos (18° 55' 60 N, 102° 27' 0 E)
Date: 4 November 2004; 10.20am
Camera: Canon EOS 300D with kit lens
I always enjoy visiting cemeteries in all the countries that I visited. Not that I am a horror movie fan or anything like that, but cemeteries are an important cultural statement. Cemeteries of different races, religions, ethnic groups and nationalities are all different and they are a statement of a group's identity. Muslim Malays' tend to be very small simple tombstones while Christians may have angelic sculptures. Cemeteries also embody a particular group's belief in the power of death and its relationship to the living. Hence the richer Chinese erect huge elaborate tombs in locations chosen by their fengshui masters to bestow fortune and everything else that is good to their descendants. Cemeteries are also an expression of the art and architecture heritage of a group as is illustrated by these Laotian tombs.