Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Presevation

National Treasure to be Restored

The Sisaket mural paintings tell the story of a previous lifetime of the Buddha.

The government is working to restore these paintings which are part of a rich legacy of the country's past.

Since last Friday, twelve officials from the concerned sectors are being trained to understand the complexities of wall paintings. This is expected to help them in restoration activities.

This is the first generation to learn about this subject considered necessary to help preserve Vat Sisaket, one of the oldest temples in Vientiane.

The Director of Ministry of Information and Culture's Division of Archaeological Research, Mr Viengkeo Souksavatdy, said, “After this, we will try to seek funds for the restoration of the unique paintings, which is expected to cost around US$1 million.”

Vat Sisaket, which faces the Presidential Palace, is the only important structure to have survived the Siamese razing of Vientiane in 1827-28, marking the defeat of Chao Anouvong, the last king of the Vientiane dynasty of Lane Xang kingdom.

A decade earlier, King Anouvong had overseen the construction of the elaborately decorated Royal Monastery (original name: Vat Satasahatsarama) on a site next to the palace.

The murals inside the sim of the contemporary Vat Sisaket are largely the original paintings from around 1822-24.

Parts of the paintings have been painted over in patches with mixed artistic success, and are obviously deteriorating fast. They are considered of priceless importance as they are the only wall paintings remaining from the former Kingdom of Lane Xang.

Until 2000, the meanings of these murals were still totally unknown before Dr Catherine Raymond, Professor of Asian Art History at Northern Illinois University, USA, discovered a connection between the inscriptions, the images and a story found only on palm leaf manuscripts and still preserved in some vats such as Ong Teu, Inpaeng or Naxay. In their entirety, the Sisaket sim murals paintings illustrate a single, wonderfully intricate story - the Balasankhaya Jataka - a previous lifetime of the Buddha in the incarnation of Prince Pookharabat.

Dr Raymond said, “The original artist had been paid for decorating the temple not only inside but outside the sim as well as under the cloister. We can still seed? cor of Deva and geometric design on the beams and on the different elements under the roof.”

“But the paintings under the cloister are nearly completely gone.”

Raymond expected the participants to establish how many artists had retouched the paintings.

“We hope to know the uniqueness of Lao Mural Paintings as well as to know more about those we used to represent all these different Jataka on the Buddhist temple.”

The training course will last around one month and will be supported by the US embassy in Vientiane.

A US Embassy representative, Mr James Warren, said that he has personally witnessed the deterioration of the building over the last two years, especially the plaster on which the murals were painted, which had pulled away from the brick walls, chipping away the wall paintings.

“We are pleased to welcome Rodolfo Lujan who is the leading expert on conservation and restoration on Asian wall paintings to deliver this professional training course, for such a unique temple,” he said.

Tasks in the thirty-day initial training phase will include emergency intervention on the wall paintings themselves and on the polychrome woodwork.

The trainees will be taught to fix and consolidate detached paint and preparatory layers as well as detached gilding/paint/lacquer layers.They will also make outline drawings of the mural stories to be used as new interpretative keys.

The bat population will be evicted from the vihaan superstructure. The newly restored areas will be presented as an example for similar work undertaken in future. (Aug. 8, 2004)