Luang Prabang used to have about 65 temples, but there are only about 30 left today. Is there any way to find out the names & former locations of those temples that have disappeared?
E.g. there's a tall Buddha statue in a corner of Wat Saen, I heard that it used to be from another temple that was demolished, but I can't find out the name. The young monks there all have no idea, & unfortunately the former abbot of Wat Saen who might know passed away in 2007.
different people have different opinions on the present number of temples in LPB e.g. right now in Wat Siphouthabat there are two 'sim', one of them used to be a separate temple in the past, but now it's used as a classroom for the Wat Siphouthabat Buddhist high school...so some people will count it as one single temple, some count it as two temples.
You could find this out by looking in the original texts of Pavie's journal, when he visited Luang Prabang before the other temples were destroyed. Also I know that Maha Sila Viravong wrote some books about the history of Luangprabang's temples.
I can't describe where Wat Oup Moung is, but all I know is that it is located closed to Fa Ngum's statue.
