My Son Sanctuary- A Unique Feature Of Champa Culture

Located nearly 70 kilometers from Da Nang city, in the territory of Duy Phu commune, Duy Xuyen district, Quang Nam province, My Son Sanctuary appears with an architectural complex consisting of many Champa temples and extremely unique architecture.

Being forgotten for a long time up to centuries, it was not until 1885 that this place was discovered and in 1999 it was chosen by UNESCO as a world heritage as the only evidence of an Asian civilization has disappeared. A day trip at My Son will help you better understand the brilliant Champa civilization that has been overslept.

My Son Sanctuary is located in a valley with a diameter of about 2 km, surrounded by hills and mountains. This used to be a place for worshiping as well as an area of tombs of mandarins and royal kings of ancient Champa dynasties.

Art and architecture through the temple layout here are clearly influenced by the Indian temple style. The Sanctuary includes many different towers, each of which has a main tower (called kalan) and many smaller sub-towers surrounding it.

Kalan often worshiped Linga or worshiped Shiva (supreme deity in Hindu beliefs). The towers all have are pyramids shape from low to high, symbolizing Mountain peek Meru - the residence of the gods. Currently the main temples in My Son worship a linga or Shiva god. The tower gate often turned east to receive the sunlight.

The outer wall of the tower is often decorated with S-shaped leaf-shaped patterns connected to each other. The ornament is a sculpture of Makara sandstone (mythical beast with fangs and long spout), Apsara bayadere, lion, elephant, bird of Garuda, statue of prayers.

They are closely aligned with each other and until now there has been no research work that identifies adhesives, humanoids, shapes on towers. The highlight of Cham sculpture is to show the intense vitality of people with inner emotions when they are so refreshing, calm and thoughtful.

Each historical period has its own mark with different architectural lines. My Son Holy Land not only shows the masterpiece of Champa architecture but also the culture of Southeast Asia area.

Through the cruelty of war and time, the once-magnificent temples are now only a ruin. Many archaeologists had previously tried to protect this area. For example, in 1937, French scientists restored almost all the temples here. But after the bombing in 1969, the Tower A area was almost completely destroyed - this is the main tower of this monument, the highest temple is 24m high and has 6 surrounding towers.

However, the majority of small monuments in areas B, C and D still exist although many artifacts, large statues, and altars are taken away by the French during the war. They have now donated a large number of antiques to the Vietnam Museum of History and the Museum of Cham Sculpture. Don't be surprised when you see Cham Pa artifacts at the famous Louvre museum.

My Son Sanctuary not only bears a distinctive architectural style, but it also imbues Cham culture with gentle, flexible dances. Unique with the dances to the ceremony is the sacred dance directed to the gods in the temple tower.

Visitors will see the Cham dancers often wear candles, water, flowers, betel nut and betel nut to dedicate looks alive. Or enjoy Apsara dance extremely charming charm. The flexibility and smoothness in the dance praises the beauty, the beautiful curves that the Creator has bestowed on beautiful girls who come to the heart of visitors to My Son.

In addition, there are many unique art activities such as folk performing arts, fire-breathing dance, dancing sculpture, water dance ...