The captain leaned heavily into his pole, nudging the boat’s
nose off the sandy bank. As the boat swung into the swift
current of the Mekong, he scrambled back behind the wheel, the
engine roared, and we resumed our downstream journey toward
Luang Prabang, Laos. After a few minutes, we motored through a
section of river where the channel was flanked on both sides by
knifelike boulders and outcrops. “That looks like a dragon’s
back,” I said, pointing to an arching curve of rocky plates. Our
guide, Peng, laughed and said, “People say there is a dragon in
the river.” “The Naga?” I asked. While wandering a riverside
town the night before we started the trip, I’d seen statues of
these Naga serpent dragons flanking the entrance of a Buddhist
temple. “Yes. When someone drowns while fishing or boating, the
people say that the Naga took them.” But the Naga is also
beneficial and is considered the divine protector of Luang
Prabang and, by extension, all of Laos. Each year, just before
the rainy season, the city holds t