3 April Wat Meuang Wa construction October 2007

Progress in building the temple has been slow, usually relying on volunteer labor and also relying on donations from the community.

2 April - Wat Meuang Wa construction two years ago

Wat Meuang Wa at the start of the construction period, 24 February 2007. The scaffolding around the temple is made from whole young cut trees with the branches taken off.

1 April - photo from the past of Wat Meuang Wa

The first picture in Vientiane Daily Photo was a panoramic view of Wat Meuang Wa, a Buddhist temple out by the airport. Since I wrote earlier that they are now putting the finishing touches on the temple, I thought I'd post a few pictures over the next few days of the steps of renovations.

One of the earliest pictures I could find was from February 2007, when they were starting to tear the old Bodt down. In the rubble, I found this mound of concrete near the stairway into the old building - it was molded into a very rough shape of a Buddha image and painted gold. I don't remember seeing it in front of the old building and no one knew where it had come from.

From Vientiane Daily Photo

It's always strange - when you see new construction, you wonder about what had been there before.