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Are they huge funerary urns, ancient sarcophagi or the remains of a 2000-year-old party? Scholars have been posing these and similar questions since French archaeologist Madeleine Colani first arrived in Xieng Khouang province in the 1930s to investigate the enigmatic Plain of Jars.

Located about ten kilometres southeast of Phonsavan, this windy plain in northern Loas is littered with more than 300 enormous clay jars. Sizes vary, but most of the huge receptacles are approximately 1 to 2.5 metres high, with a diameter of about 1 metre and weigh between ½ and 1 ton. The largest measures 3.25 metres in height and is estimated to weigh almost 6 tons. Colani determined that the jars are probably 2000 years old, although continued investigation has led some scholars to date the jars to a more ancient civilization, possibly as far back as the 5th or the 10th century BC.

The function and purpose of these massive vessels remains a mystery. Local legend has it that the 6th century warrior King Khun Chuang had the jars constructed to store copious amounts of lau-lao (rice whiskey) to help lubricate his weary but jubilant troops in celebration of their victory over the chieftain Chao Angka. A slightly more plausible scenario suggests the jars acted funerary urns - the larger for the nobility and the smaller for commoners. However likely this suggestion may seem, there is little physical evidence to support it.

A second mystery is how the jars managed to find their way onto the plain. The extremely heavy vessels are made from non-indigenous limestone; they were somehow, and for some reason, transported to the area by an unknown race.

Centuries of battles and wars have damaged or destroyed many of the jars on the plain. A large portion of this damage was inflicted by American bombing during the Vietnam War.

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