Name: Tham Piew
Location: Muang Kham, Xiangkhouang, Laos
Description: Historic Cave (November 1968)
Date Visited: 6th March 2014

At Tham Piew, curious stone stacks appear all over the cave floor. They are topped by spent incense sticks and candles, in clear respect for the dead. The cave system extends for hundreds of metres underground. In the visitor centre nearby is an artist’s impression of what this cave looked like during the Indo China War. There is a second picture which records the aftermath of a most tragic event that took place there in November 1968.
Tham Piew Cave had been used by local inhabitants as shelter from the incessant carpet bombing in Xieng Khouang Province. It had medical facilities, kitchens and sleeping quarters. There is no record of military personnel using the cave but that is to be expected. But what the records do show is that after ariel reconnaisance on 28 November, an air strike took place at 13:30 p.m. by a single jet. It fired four missiles directed at the cave entrance. The first three missed but the fourth scored a direct hit killing 374 innocent lives. Today inside the cave there are interesting geological features but blackened and charred rock surfaces remain as testimony to this tragic event as do the mass grave markers that cling to the rugged hillside.

Website: https://evendo.com/locations/laos/phou-bia/attraction/vietnamese-war-monument