ABSTRACT
The province's product strengths include the historic Caves at Viengxay, the mysterious Hintang Archaeological Park, ethnic minority cultures and traditions, pristine protected areas, and high quality handicrafts. It is unfruitful to compare Hintang in visitor numbers with iconic heritage sites like Angkor that are subject to veritable tourism pilgrimages. But on a different scale, Hintang is an excellent example of the use of archaeology in the rhetoric and practise of ecotourism. At Hintang, the texts and photos on the big red information board that meets the visitor at the site abound proudly with references back to the Colani mission of the early 1930s. The visitor can there read about ancient burial sites belonging to a glorious civilisation long since forgotten, leaving us with a mystery to be solved and the Phong people as obscure heirs of the Hintang tradition.
