For at least the last 500 years, kings and pilgrims have worshipped at Pak Ou's lower cave, Tham Ting. The cave is packed to the teeth with Buddhist icons. Some statues of the Buddha stand straight up with their palms out. This style means "stop arguing." The seated statues with one hand pointed down mean "to bear witness." Hundreds of statues line the stairways, rest on nooks in the cave walls, and teeter on stone shelves. This is the kind of mystical place that graces tour book covers: quiet and sacred, tucked away in the belly of a cliff.