The Plain of Jars, Laos

Somewhere in the mountains of northern Laos, far from any village or trace of modern life, stretches the Plain of Jars—an immense landscape littered with thousands of megalithic stone containers. A few stand over ten feet tall and weigh up to thirty tons apiece. To local people the site is cursed, a place you enter only with the gravest need. They explain its origin with legends of giants. One tale says the heroic Khun Cheung, after defeating an evil giant-king, ordered the jars made to hold vast stores of rice wine for a celebration. According to the story, the jars weren’t carved but molded from a magic mix of clay, sand, sugar, and animal blood, then fired inside a colossal cave kiln.

Romantic as that sounds, skeptical researchers kept digging and eventually discovered that the jars were actually ancient tombs. Their use was tied to beliefs about the soul’s journey after death. People once thought the soul lingered with the body for a time. First the dead were placed in a temporary container; later, once only bones were left, the remains were transferred into a giant stone jar, symbolizing the soul’s final release and passage to the next world.

That dread of restless spirits is alive even now. Local animists believe the land is home to spirits called Phi, and the Plain is where the wildest, most vengeful among them dwell. Strict rules apply: children mustn’t play near the stones, and no one may shout or cut trees in the neighboring forest.

From 100 Cursed Places · Fern Flower Press