ASIA TRAVEL BLOG

People may be amazed when seeing a little girl in a red neckerchief, Phung Thi Trinh, leading a group of foreign tourists through the ruins of the Cham religious site of My Son, a World Cultural Heritage Site in Duy Xuyen District, in the central province of Quang Nam.
The 15-year-old student is confident, professional and dynamic when greeting groups of tourists.

“I’m delighted to lead you on your visit to My Son. I would like to introduce the value and unique character of this world cultural heritage site,” the young tour guide says.

This year, tourists from both home and abroad have visited My Son to attend the festivities to mark a decade of UNESCO recognition of the site as a world cultural heritage.

My Son is within a valley in Quang Nam, around 69km southwest of Da Nang city. From the 4th to 15th centuries, it was an imperial city built by King Bhadravarman, and the centre for spirituality and worship during the reign of the Kingdom of Champa. This is graphically illustrated by the remains of a series of impressive tower-temples located at My Son.

Although time and the war have destroyed most of the towers, the remaining sculptural and architectural remnants still reflect the style and history of the art of the Cham people. Their masterpieces mark a glorious period for the architecture and culture of the Cham, and the whole of Southeast Asia.

Exemplifying the height of Cham architectural achievement, the My Son sanctuary is a large complex of monuments originally consisting of more than 70 structures in a variety of different styles, only 25 of the structures remain today. They include temples and towers that connect to each other with complicated red brick designs. The main component of the Cham architectural design is the tower, built to reflect the divinity of the king. Bricks are main material used in the constructions.

However, scientists have yet to discover the secret of how the towers were constructed, or how the bricks were fused together or used in construction by the Cham.

According to records on stone stele found on the site, the prime foundation of the ancient My Son architectural complex worshipped Shiva Bhadresvera. In the late 16th century, a big fire destroyed the temple. Step by step, historical mysteries have been unveiled by scientists.

Significance
The other foremost absorbing element of My Son, besides its significance as a religious site, is its unique Cham-style architecture, which was greatly affected by Indian design. Each historical period has its own identity, so that each temple worshipping a god or a king of a different period has its own architectural style.

All of the Cham towers were built on a quadrate foundations and each comprises three parts: a solid tower base, representing the world of human beings; the mysterious and sacred tower body, representing the world of spirits; and the tower top built in the shape of a man offering flowers and fruits or of trees, birds and animals representing things that are close to both the spiritual world and human beings.

Although few remnants remain, those that still exist display the typical sculptural values of Cham culture. They are also vivid proof of a nationality living within Viet Nam today boasting a rich cultural tradition.

When UNESCO held a heritage conference dedicated to raising popular awareness of the site’s value, the Duy Xuyen District education department decided to open school trips from 2004, according to Vo Thien Tinh, deputy chief of the district’s Education and Training Office.

The office worked together with My Son heritage management board to compile documents to promote study of the site, while campaigning for its preservation and upgrading. The documents introduce the history, development process, decline and restoring of the My Son Site. The value of the My Son site is incorporated into the history and geography lessons of students in the region, said Vo Quang Luc, principal of Tran Cao Van School.

Until now, Trinh is not the only student acting as a tour guide in the province. Her Ngo Quyen Secondary School, is one among schools in the region training students to act as local tour guides. Dozens of Ngo Quyen students can introduce sites in English, while other students can work as tour guides for domestic visitors.

“They work as professional tour guides,” says tourist Nguyen Trung Hieu from Ha Noi. “Their lively introductions helped us get a better understanding of the significance of the site.”

The first time standing Trinh stood in front of a group of foreign tourists made nervous, but now she is used to the tours. Trinh and her friends now are happy to play their part in attracting tourists to the province and its special sites of cultural value.

ASW/VNN

Vietnam’s southwestern region is famous for its network of waterways and luxuriant orchards and today tourists travel here from all across the country.

The cultivation of the fertile lands of Southwestern Vietnam are not the result of Mother Nature. The people toiled over the creation of these lands. Historians trace the story back to Nguyen Hoang, the first Nguyen lord, who ruled Southern Vietnam from a series of cities: Ai Tu (1558-1570), Tra Bat (1570-1600), and Dinh Cat (modern-day Hue) (1600-1613).

During a power struggle in the mid-16th century he was forced to flee. He apparently sought advice from a doctoral candidate Nguyen Binh Khiem (1491-1585) on where to run. Khiem only said: “Hoanh Son nhat dai, van dai dung than”, literally meaning, “With a piece of Hoanh Son mountain, a man can settle down for his entire life.”

These words would prove to be prophetic. In 1558 the 34-year old Nguyen Hoang relocated to Thuan Hoa, which covered Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue and northern Quang Nam province. This region was then known as “the dirty and devilish land”. Trinh Kiem actually hoped to stop Nguyen Hoang from opposing his bid for power. But from then on, Hoang began to build his own realm in the south. He refused to recognise the Le Dynasty and declared himself “Good Prince” (Huu Vuong).

Over time Vietnam slowly expanded into parts of present day southern Vietnam. It was Nguyen Hoang’s relocation that resulted in a more concerted southward exodus of Vietnamese settlers, especially by those who could not abide by the rule of the Le Kings and Trinh Lords.

This migrating population began cultivating paddy rice, planting fruit gardens and establishing a trading culture on the rivers and manmade canals in the south. In the Mekong Delta the rivers and canals are still the veins of everyday life. Floating boat-homes line the river markets. Buffaloes still swim and wallow in the canals and herds of ducks and storks still feed on the river banks.

The immense orchards are also still flourishing throughout the year. You can find rambutan, longan, oranges, mangosteen, star apples, mangos and tamarinds and a whole lot more.

Unique cultural traits

Tours down the region’s waterways and orchards are captivating for foreign tourists and even for Vietnamese people unfamiliar with the culture of the Mekong Delta. Can Tho, situated 179 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City, is in a sense the capital of Vietnam’s southwest. The city boasts a dense network of canals and rivers. All around the city is a green belt known as a “kingdom of succulent fruits and flowers.”

You can take a motorboat for an hour’s trip to Con Son, which is a separate islet in the middle of the Hau river. The islet is connected with the mainland by a ferry. All residents are farmers and many of the local population have never left the islet.

Nguyen Thi Ba is a 70-year old farmer who lives in a house surrounded by jackfruit, mangosteen and rambutan trees. “I like this simple life. I have visited the city [Can Tho] but I could not bear its lifestyle,” says Ba. “The air is quite fresh and it is not noisy here.”

In her kitchen, there is nothing modern – not even a plastic bag. Everything has been made out of rattan, wood and bamboo by Ba’s family members. “We don’t use piped water or water from dug wells. We use rain-water,” Ba says pointing at the large terra-cotta pots filled with rainwater in the corner of her yard.

At the back of her house, there is a large section of garden earmarked for chickens, ducks and pigs. The animals are – she tells me keenly – periodically vaccinated. Next to the cages is a large pond for raising fish and shrimp. Visitors can sit under the trees and fish or if that’s too taxing, take a nap in a hammock.

Ba also sells excellent xoi (steamed glutinous rice) which is wrapped in banana leaves. “The leaves keep the original flavour of the xoi and they don’t pollute the environment,” she says.

Making ends meet

“We are not rich but we have never lived in poverty because what we produce is enough to get by,” says Nguyen Thi Tu, who lives next door to Ba The islet is also home to “ban bung”, a new kind of buffet-style promotion. For just VND30,000- VND40,000 you can eat as much fruit as you like.

“We heard about this from my sister who lives in Vinh Long province,” says Tu whose farm is advertised with a simple handwritten signpost. Visitors are also permitted to wander around and pick fruit for themselves – you can even climb trees if you want. For the less accomplished climbers, you can grab a long hook and try to dislodge what you can.

Prices are cheap for local food and drinks – perhaps just a third of the price in Ho Chi Minh City. You can’t leave the farm with fruit you’ve picked during the ‘buffet”. If you want to take fruit home, you have to pay wholesale market prices, which are still extremely cheap.

“All fruit trees are grown without the use of pesticide,” Tu says. “All of our chicken and fish are also raised without industrial feed.”

TO/ASW

More than once someone has asked me, “You’ve visited the My Son Sanctuary many times, have you seen the ancient Cham tower complex has something new?” Surprised and embarrassed, I see the question is interesting, so I make a decision to visit My Son again to find something new at the complex.

One afternoon, under the influence of the question, I came to My Son, which is more thoughtful, older, more secreted and more mysterious than ever.

At the time, there was a tourist group from Japan who were enchanted to the point of being motionless and silent by the legendary space at the tower worshipping the goddess Ganesa. Passionately contemplating the towers sinking down to the darkness, they accidentally missed the moment of harmony between day and night in My Son.

This time, I recognized a newer My Son. Moreover, in the moments between sunset and night, the entire valley was swept by soft breezes and gentle light as the steps of a goddess drifting away. Another time I visited My Son at night. Under the moonlight, the towers seem to be more illusory yet more striking in the darkness. Separated towers seem to join together with groups of towers. At night, there seems to be no limit of space.

The valley looks like an installation work of art, somewhere ordered, somewhere ridiculous, somewhere modern and somewhere primitive. The moonlight makes everything look closer and more solemn.

One morning I woke up with My Son under the glistening and cozy sunlight shining on the legendary valley. The shadows of the towers stretch down and pile up on each other, covering the mossy black rocks. In the morning, My Son looks younger in its tranquility.

The My Son Sanctuary, located in the central province of Quang Nam, is famous as a complex of religious monuments of the Cham people. The Chams erected these monumental towers of baked brick and sandstone on square or rectangular foundations. The base represents the world of humans, the tower body represents the world of spirits and the tower head (typically lotus shaped) the realm between the two worlds.

The builders of My Son derived their cultural and spiritual influences almost exclusively from India in the form of the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Shiva was the central figure of worship whose images abound among what remains of the Cham monuments.

The site has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage.

SGT