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Museums and galleries in Vientiane

6 museums and galleries in Vientiane, from the big collections to small independent spaces.

Ranked with the travel guide's picks and well-known places first.

Museums and galleries in Vientiane

  1. See

    Hophakaew Museum

    Ho Phra Keo

    A stunning, elegant, and majestic structure, King Setthathirat's former royal temple, which housed the magical Emerald Buddha (pha kaew) after it was taken from Lanna (Chiang Mai). The Siamese took it back in 1779, and is now housed in Bangkok's Wat Phra Kaew. Later the Thais returned in 1828 to raze the temple. The present structure is a 1942 reconstruction of dubious provenance. Today, the temple no longer operates and the interior has been turned into a small jumbled museum housing Buddha images. Look for the beautiful tall, lithe, long-armed Buddha in the hands-down "calling for rain" pose.

    10,000 kip

  2. See

    Kaysone Phomvihane Museum

    A quiet museum celebrating Laotian war hero and prime minister Kaysone Phomvihane. Exhibits on the history of Laos from ancient times to the present, but the main focus is on the life of Kaysone Phomvihane. The exhibits are presented in rough chronological order, but somewhat disjointedly without a sense of narrative, so they're hard to follow if you're not already familiar with the broad strokes. Interesting for history buffs, though.

    Tue-Sun 08:00-12:00, 13:00-16:005,000 kip

  3. See

    Lao National Museum

    Lao Revolutionary Museum ພິພິຕະພັນແຫ່ງຊາດ

    Formerly the Lao Revolutionary Museum. There are 5 exhibition rooms. Impressive architecture of the new museum from the outside, along with artifacts of the country’s prehistoric, wartime, political, and ethnic identity.

    30,000 Kip for foreigners, 5,000 Kip for Lao nationals

  4. See

    Lao Textile Museum

    A beautiful semi-open-air museum of Lao textiles, clothing, weaving, and dyeing. Watch weavers at work, see samples of traditional Lao clothing, view the process of making indigo and samples of dyed thread, and taste color-changing butterfly-pea flower tea and fresh fruit from the courtyard (included in the ticket price). The gift shop has a lovely selection of silk, cotton, and mulberry paper products.

    09:00-16:00 daily30,000 kip

  5. See

    Wat Si Saket

    Sisaket Museum

    With very contemplative ambience, probably the oldest standing temple in Vientiane and among the most atmospheric. Built in 1818 by Chao Anou in the Bangkok-style and hence left unsacked when much of Vientiane was razed in a Siamese raid in 1828. Within the cloister walls are hundreds of niches housing Buddha images large and small, made of wood, stone, silver and bronze. In the centre of the courtyard is a five-tier-roofed sim (ordination hall) housing yet more Buddha niches and beautiful, but fading murals of the Buddha's past lives.

    5,000 kip

  6. Drink

    Gallery Risto Cafe & Restaurant

    Excellent live blues music nightly from 21:45

Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to Vientiane (CC BY-SA 4.0).