Abstract

Author:
Noel Hidalgo Tan, translated by Han Li, Jinyu Zhang, Bo Xiao

Doi: 10.7508/jra.01.2025.94.109

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Pha Taem in Luang Prabang Province, northern Laos, is a cliff face overlooking the Ou River with over 300 red pictograms, mostly hand prints, anthropomorphs, zoomorphs, and others interpreted as ‘hunting scenes’ and ‘boats’. One local interpretation of the site is as a commemorative scene for hunting animals, which took place on the opposite river bank. Interestingly, the motifs depicted on the wall have similarities with cliff paintings at the Pak Ou Caves some 70 km downstream. The physical connection of the two sites along the same river raises the possibility of locating more rock art sites along the Mekong and the Ou River and underscores the role of rivers as lines of communication in this mountainous environment.

巴添崖壁画位于老挝琅勃拉邦省北部瓯江沿岸的崖壁上，现存红色彩绘图像300余幅，绝大部分为几何手印、拟人化图像、动物图像以及其他一些被认为是“狩猎场景”和“船只”的图像。关于该岩画点，当地人认为其描绘的是江对岸狩猎动物的纪念性场景。值得关注的是，该遗址与下游直线距离70千米的帕乌崖壁画题材高度相似。在同一条河流沿岸发现了两处遗址，这样的位置关系增加了在湄公河和瓯江沿岸找到更多岩画遗址的可能性，并揭示了河道在这种山区环境中作为交流线路的作用。

KEYWORDS
Rock art – Lao PDR – Pha Taem – Highland Southeast Asia – Cliff paintings
岩画，老挝人民民主共和国，巴添，东南亚高地，崖壁画