Vientiane - Authorities in Laos have unearthed a large Buddha statue and other artefacts dating back more than 400 years from the banks of the Mekong River, a report said Monday.
The statue, made of bricks and measuring 2.4 by 2.5 metres, was found with parts of its head and limbs broken and separated.
It was discovered by a fisherman in Bokeo province near the border with Thailand and Myanmar, according to the state-run newspaper KPL News.
The statue was successfully removed from the riverbank in a three-day operation last week, Somsack Phetlengsy, a technical staffer of the provincial Information, Culture and Tourism Department, said.
More than 60 Buddha images and amulets were found nearby the site, 400 kilometres north-west of Vientiane.
Somsack said the discoveries date from the Souvannakhomkham era, a kingdom that stretched into present-day Thailand and Vietnam.
They are being kept at a Buddhist temple in the village of Homyen.
