Haw Kham, Luang Prabang

Haw Kham, the Royal Palace Museum of Luang Prabang.

Haw Kham is the former Royal Palace of Luang Prabang. Located right at the centre of town, today it is the Royal Palace Museum. The name Haw Kham means golden hall. King Sisavang Vong built it as his official residence between 1904 and 1909, after the previous palace was destroyed in 1887 by invaders. Unlike the original structure that faces the Mekong river, the rebuilt structure faces Mount Phousi

The Royal Palace was built in a combination of Lao and French styles. The layout is cruciform on a multi-tiered platform. I visited it twice, once with fellow AsiaExplorers members, and the second time on my own, to do my photoshoot of it. Within the museum is the throne room, and other items belonging to the Laotian royal family.

The most important item at the Royal Palace Musum is the Pha Bang Buddha image. This is the Buddha statue that gave its name to Luang Prabang. This statue is only 83 cm high, but is made from almost pure gold weighing between 43 to 54 kg of gold. According to legend, the statue was made in Sri Lanka in the 1st century AD, and was presented to the Khmers of Angkor. The King of Angkor, Jayavarman Paramesvara, gave it to his son-in-law, the great warrior Chao Fa Ngum, who founded the first Laotian Kingdom of Lan Xang. The Pha Bang Buddha was housed at Wat Wisunalat between 1513 to 1707, when King Phothisalat moved the capital to Vientiane.

The Siamese seized the Pha Bang Buddha image twice, in 1779 and 1827. It was finally returned to Laos in 1867 by King Mongkut of Siam. As I wrote this (October 2006), the Pha Bang Buddha would finally have moved from within the Royal Palace Museum into the newly completed Haw Pha Bang Chapel, also within the museum grounds.

Side view of the Royal Palace Museum.

The Royal Palace Museum as seen from the top of Mount Phousi.

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

 Share your travels and/or ask a travel-related question

Join the Penang Travel Tips Facebook Group to share photos, tips and anything related to your travels, or ask travel-related questions.

Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

Discover with Timothy

Let me take you to explore and discover Penang through my series of walking tours on YouTube. You may use these videos as your virtual tour guide. At the beginning of each video, I provide the starting point coordinates which you may key into your GPS, Google Maps or Waze, to be navigated to where I start the walk, and use the video as your virtual tour guide.

Disclaimer

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.

Songs about Penang

About this website

Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.