Word: prabang
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...summer monsoon broke over leafy Luang Prabang in a deluge. Huddled in steaming rubber capes, the French Union troops waited for the expected Viet Minh Communist attack. It did not come. The valleys beneath the great frowning mountains ran rivers of mud, but no Communist soldier waded them, nor was there one to be seen anywhere. Laotians, worshiping in the temple of the celebrated Golden Buddha, had predicted that the Communists would never capture the sacred city of Luang Prabang. Had their predictions proved true...
Advancing in five columns, Viet Mink Communists were in sight of the ancient Laotian capital of Luang Prabang last week. Flying in with French reinforcements, TIME Correspondent John Dowling reported: THE plane, loaded with Legionnaires, JL jeeps, artillery, barbed wire, ammunition, slips smoothly into the grass airstrip. We step out and the hills and mountains enclose us in their green embrace. To the west, rising from the jungle, is a hill surmounted by a white, bell-shaped stupa (shrine) whose glistening, golden spire points needlelike at a soft blue sky. To the east and south tower the forest-clad mountains...
...capital. Like his Thai people, the King is a fatalist. In the temples his people lay offerings and burn incense before tranquil, smiling images of Buddha, confident that whatever comes, it will inevitably change, as the mystic circle of life completes itself. It is exactly 500 years since Luang Prabang was last invaded...
...temple opposite King Sisavang Vong's palace sits the most celebrated Buddha of all: the golden Luang Prabang, at least 1,100 years old, from which the town takes its name and its religious and political significance. The expression on this graven, gilded 'image is one of silent, secretive, comforting contemplation. People come thousands of miles to worship before it. Black-haired Thai maidens pray that the enemy will be defeated, and this week the chief bonze assured them that the enemy would be. The battle that is in preparation will, in effect, be fought for possession...
...weather is holding, and General Raoul Salan has airlifted a formidable last-minute defense force into Luang Prabang. While they dig in for a long siege, patrols fend off the Communist vanguard...