My Son Sanctuary

My Son temple tower is located in a valley with a diameter of about 2 km, surrounded by hills and mountains. It has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage since 1999.

My Son temple tower - World Cultural Heritage

1. History

My Son is located in Duy Phu commune, Duy Xuyen district, Quang Nam province, about 70 km southwest of Da Nang city, about 40 km from Hoi An city.

My Son temple tower is located in a valley with a diameter of about 2km, surrounded by hills, mountains, in the mountain circuit about 100m to 400m high from Dong Truong Son through My Son to Tra Kieu capital.

2. History

My Son is the Hindu holy land of the Kingdom of Champa . Every king, after his throne, went to My Son to perform a holy ceremony, offering offerings and building temples. My Son is the only point of Cham art with continuous development from the 7th to the 13th centuries. At the beginning of the 7th century, King Sambhuvarman built the temple with very sustainable and surviving materials. now to this day. The kings then repaired the old temples and built new towers to offer to their gods.

The main temples in My Son worship a set of Linga or the image of the Siva god - the protector of the Champa kings. The worshiped god of My Son, Bhadrésvara, was the king who founded the first king of Amaravati in the late 4th century in association with the Siva god, becoming the main cult of gods and kings and royal ancestors. .

In 1885, My Son relic was discovered by a group of French soldiers. In 1898 - 1899, two researchers of French Telecommunications L.Finot and L.de Lajonquière and architect and archaeologist H. Parmentier went to My Son to study the epitaph and architectural art and sculpture. Cham carving. Until the years 1903-1904 the most basic documents on inscriptions and My Son architecture art were officially announced by L.Finot.

3. Cultural value

Temple towers in My Son are divided into many clusters, built according to the same principle. The structure of each cluster consists of a main temple (Kalan), surrounded by small towers or auxiliary structures. The main temple symbolizes Mount Meru - the center of the universe, the convergence of gods and worship of the god Siva. The auxiliary temples (secondary shrines) worship gods who look after the sun. In addition, there are auxiliary buildings with tiled roofs, where pilgrims repair their ceremonies and store sacrifices. The temple of Cham people has no windows, only the sub-tower works have windows.

Temples and Cham towers built with bricks, paired with decorative sandstone patches. They are closely aligned and no research has identified adhesives today. After the tower wall was built, the sculptors began carving flowers, people, animals . on the tower. Cham sculpting techniques of Cham people rarely appear in other arts in the region.

Each temple tower in My Son has 3 main parts: tower base, tower body and tower roof.

Empire tower : according to the conception of the Champa, the base of the tower symbolizes the mundane world, often built on a square or rectangular background, with brick or slate. Around the base is decorated with motifs of pattern, animal figure, figure of prayers standing in small arches .

Tower body : also according to the concept of the Champa, the tower body represents the spiritual world, where the person washing the ceiling dust is freed to contact with the ancestors and integrate with the gods.

Roof tower : tower roof symbolizes gods, usually three floors as high as narrow. Each floor fully simulates the structure of the main door and the fake door resembles the lower floor and is decorated with idols and rides of the Hindu gods such as god birds, god geese, gods, elephants, lions. . The first and second floors in each corner often decorate small towers.

According to the researchers of ancient Cham towers, Cham art architecture in My Son converged many styles, bringing continuity from the ancient style of the 7th century to the 8th century, the style of the eighteenth century so. 9th century, Dong Duong style from the middle of the 9th century, My Son style and transition between My Son and Binh Dinh, Binh Dinh style

For a long time, people still call the temples in My Son according to rhyme A, A ', B, C, D . according to the convention of dividing and naming Henri Parmentier. He relied on the walls surrounding the temple cluster to put them in the same group with a letter. Direct observation, it was found that the numbering in each of his groups seemed to be based on the performance of each temple and tower. Starting from the main temple - the most important tower of the group, bearing number 1; gate tower number 2; The remaining towers depend on the function in the group assigned the next number. His naming method is very meaningful in researching and managing My Son heritage area for many years.

Among 225 Cham monuments discovered in Vietnam, My Son alone has about 70 temples, 32 tribes exist in one form or another. The temples here though no longer intact but still the best data to understand the development of Cham art.Cham sculpture art deeply accepts the influence of India, but in the process of developing the indigenous character more and more bold and nationalism is increasingly affirmed, creating a unique and strange attractiveness. Cham sculptures also have pictures of monks, dancers and pleasures but stand out as a characteristic of the strong vitality of people with inner emotions when they are so happy, calm and thoughtful, at python end .

In December 1999, at the 23rd session of the World Heritage Committee held in Marrakesh (Morocco), My Son Temple Temple was selected by UNESCO as one of the World Cultural Heritage Standards 2 as is a good example of cultural exchange and standard 3 as the only evidence of an disappeared Asian civilization.