No visitor to the Laotian capital Vientiane should leave without visiting Pha That Luang, the 45 metre tall golden stupa four miles from the city centre.

Only half the height of Rangoon's early medieval Shwedagon Pagoda, That Luang is also much younger, being a modern reconstruction of the heavily damaged original. That was ordered by King Saysetthathirath in 1566 to mark the establishment of Vientiane as the Lao capital, and was said to contain the breastbone of the Lord Buddha.

Reconstruction or not, this triple-layered symbolic mountain, gleaming gold and surrounded by a battlement of mini-stupas is a striking and distinctive icon of Laos's ancient nationhood and Buddhist piety. It has been impressing Western travellers for over 370 years.

Pha That Luang stands out all the more because landlocked Laos (population 6.7m) lacks a critical mass of relics of its ancient eminence. With no legacy akin to that of the brick and stone-crazy kings who ordered Angkor, Pagan and Ayuttaya, it's easy to assume that Laos was always a backwater, whose mellow agrarian culture never rose to great heights.