Wat Manorom Luang Prabang

Winding lanes to the west lead to Wat Manorom, set amid frangipani trees just outside what were once the city walls (now invisible). This is possibly the oldest temple site in Luang Prabang and the sǐm (ordination hall) contains a sitting 6m-tall bronze Buddha originally cast in 1372. During the 1887 devastation the statue was hacked apart, but surviving elements were reconstituted in 1919; the missing limbs were replaced with concrete falsies covered in gold leaf in 1971.