Mỹ Sơn temples – an illustration of the destructive nature of war

The ancient My Son temple site

In an effort to get some history on, Jason and I visited the ancient temples of Mỹ Sơn pronounced ‘Me Sun’ which was the capital of the Champa Kingdom in Vietnam, built during the 4^th – 14^th century.

The side of the temple wall

Mỹ Sơn was a site of religious worship dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva used for kings of the ruling dynasties of Champa as well as a burial place for Cham royalty.

The library where Champa priests would study

The temples are in a valley roughly two kilometres wide that is surrounded by two mountain ranges near Danang.

A scene of dancing women

A pillar stump with a single
dancing women

The Mỹ Sơn temple complex is incredibly impressive of what ancient civilisations were capable of and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindu temple complexes in South East Asia and is often spoken of, as a smaller Angkor Wat in Cambodia, although at one time, it consisted of 70 temples and important buildings.

An altar inside the main temple
where only men were allowed..(the orignal boys club!!)

Champa Kings were cremated, their ashes placed in jars and buried beneath this.

As of 1999 Mỹ Sơn was recognised as a world heritage site by UNESCO.

Sanskrit tablet, an ancient language

Us, in explorer mode!!

Jason and I were moved, by this once mystical and grand site. To this day it is still a mystery how construction of the temples was achieved, as archaeologists cannot work out how the bricks were cemented together without cement!

One theory was that they were joined by a botanical paste that was developed after a series of exposure to high temperatures through burning. At one site you can see how they attempted to reconstruct a part of the building however it has become covered in moss, while the ancient temple walls are clear…!

Jason in statue mode!

The temples became known to the world when France colonised the country in the 1800’s. They documented its existence and took many of the statues, ornaments and even the heads of the statues of God’s for their museums back home, while placing others in museums in Vietnam.

Sadly, the temple site was targeted by the Americans during the Vietnam War who believed the Viet Cong were located there and was heavily bombed.



A bomb crater



The B-52 shells

Massive bomb craters are still clearly evident and even two B-52 shells, remain there on display. In these violent air raids, the tallest tower of the religious site was totally destroyed leaving today only a pile of bricks.



This is a model of what the
tallest temple would have looked like



This is such tragedy as the tallest temple was once so impressive and intricate in design.

We followed up this visit by visiting the Cham museum of art and sculpture in Danang where again, we were taken with how remarkable the sandstone sculptures were and expertly carved all those years ago.



Jason outside the museum. The original colonial building



The birth of God Shiva

A Champa dragon

The Hindu elephant God Ganesh

A Champa dancing woman



Me and my new friends!

At one point walking around the museum, a group of Buddhist monks found ‘little ole’ me’ to be quite an attraction and all wanted to have their photo taken with me...

It was all quite strange, kinda 'weird-ed' me out but they were so sweet, I couldn’t decline!!

Jason as a Champa warrior!!

My Son as it once was..

Me with another Hindu God 

The Hindu Kingdom of Champa used sanskrit as a sacred language and borrowed from Indian art and culture. By the 8^th century it had dominated most parts of south Vietnam. They were ambitious in conducting raids along the coast of Indochina, while still fighting off the Vietnamese in the north of the country.

This ultimately led to their downfall as they were stuck between two powerful groups, the Khmers in the south and Vietnamese in the north that led to their extinction. However their temples and art still survive today providing Vietnam with an impressive heritage.