Since the wall behind the altar there was already painted/sculpted (partly in bas relief), the new main image hall at Vat Oub Mong had only three available walls for the replicant murals, compared to the four walls fully occupied by the archival PLPL mural set in the smaller demolished image hall. There, the battle lineup was shown in the first (lowermost) tier behind the altar, with Ravan’s armies shown in a discontiguous panel on the south wall. On all four walls of the old image hall, the third (uppermost) tier in the old image hall was devoted to a repetetive motif comprised of nearly identical painted Buddhas, alternating with thevas and vases of flowers; all interwoven with garlands. The replicant series comprised two story line tiers only on the north and south walls, but on the east wall over the entry portals, an elevated (well above the general second tier level) upper tier was created that included the combined armies of PLPL and their allies on the viewer’s right, and the combined armies of Ravan and his allies on the viewer’s left; separated by the panel “Phi Sua Nam, the ally of Ravan”
August 2010 (photography)
digital photograph
Panel 25 locator, new image hall interior, Vat Oub Mong, Vientiane
Complete archival temple interior murals of Phralak-Phralam, the Lao Ramayana
Mr. Chaeunphone, lead artist; Lao PDR Faculty of Fine Arts, Vientiane
2001-2006 (building construction)
May-July 2010 (cartooning and colorization)