Dan Sai: a white stupa where no one wears red

Phra That Si Song Rak, a white stupa, stands on the bank of the Man River outside the town of Dan Sai in Loei. King Maha Chakkraphat of Ayutthaya and King Setthathirath of Lan Xang agreed not to invade each other's territory, and work on the stupa began on their shared border in 1560; it was finished in 1563. About 20 metres tall, it is white-plastered brick in the Lan Xang style, a square base with indented corners rising to a lotus-bud spire. Red is taken as the colour of blood and war, at odds with the treaty the stupa marks, so visitors do not wear red or bring red flowers or other red items into the grounds.

The original stone inscription urged later generations never to seize each other's land. When the French annexed Dan Sai they took it to Vientiane, where it later broke; the fragments are kept at the Haw Phra Kaew museum, and the stone beside the stupa is a replica.

Dan Sai district covers about 1,732 square kilometres of western Loei, with Laos's Xaignabouli province across the border to the north. Much of it lies inside Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park. The Pa Sak River rises in the mountains in the east of the district, and at its southern end is Phu Thap Buek, the highest peak of the Phetchabun Range. The town itself is small, with the Man River running past it.

On a hill about a kilometre outside town stands Wat Neramit Wipatsana. Its ordination hall and pagoda are built of laterite, a porous, reddish-brown stone, and so is the memorial hall behind them. The main image inside copies Phra Phuttha Chinnarat in Phitsanulok, and local Dan Sai artists painted the murals on the walls. The founding abbot, Luang Pho Maha Phan, was born in Surin; work on the great hall began in 1986, and since his death in 1997 his body and a wax figure of him have been kept in the memorial hall.

In the middle of town, Wat Phon Chai is the centre of the yearly Phi Ta Khon festival. A small museum on the temple grounds shows the masks year-round, each carved from the base of a coconut palm frond and given a long, upturned nose.