This pagoda was built for Anouvong (1805-28), the last king of Vientiane, whose palace is located opposite it. The galleries around the cloister, the walls of which contain hundreds of niches, are home to over 6 000 Buddhas from the 16C-19C and include several superb standing Buddhas considered among the masterpieces of Lao statuary. The inside of the sanctuary is painted with some remarkable Buddhist frescoes created between 1824 and 1860.