by Jim Goodman
Chăm temple ruims at Mỹ Sơn |
Quảng Nam
province lies roughly in the center of Vietnam, adjacent to Đà Nẵng
and south of the Hải Văn Pass. In ancient times Đèo Hải Văn marked the boundary of
the extent of Chinese influence.
Quảng
Nam did not become part of a Vietnamese state until the late 15th
century. Before that it was home
to an Austronesian people known as the Chăm, who established several
independent states along the coast of central Vietnam. Quảng Nam was the site of two Chăm
capitals. The first was Sinhapura,
at what is now Trà Kiêu, on the Thu Bồn River southeast of Đà Nãng,
established after 446 in the wake of a Chinese invasion that looted and
destroyed the previous capital near Huế. The second was Indrapura, now the village of Đồng
Dương,
founded in 875 and vanquished in 1044.
While very little remains of
Sinhapura other than a bit of its walls, or of Indrapura besides a small
remnant of its main temple, vestiges of Chăm monuments remain at four sites in
the province. The most famous is Mỹ
Sơn, a World Heritage Site since 1999, a Chăm royal sanctuary a little west of
Trà Kiêu, founded in the late 4th century and containing the ruins
of religious monuments erected up to the 14th century. Other towers, at Khương Mỹ, Chiên Đan
and Bằng An, date from the 10th and 11th centuries, the
last period of the state of Amaravati.
Tháp BằngAn |
The Vietnamese state the
Chinese conquered in the 2nd century BCE only included about the northern third
of what is today Vietnam. The
Chinese claimed jurisdiction all the way down to the Hải Văn Pass,
but the territory south of Nghẹ An was very lightly populated,
mainly by non-Vietnamese people, and only nominally administered. It was also subject to periodic revolts
and in 192 CE the southernmost district of Tượng Lâm, corresponding to today’s Quảng
Trị and Thưa Thiên Huế provinces, declared its independence as a state the Chinese
called Lin-yi.
Over the next several
centuries it would expand north, contract now and then, be known from the 8th
century as Huan-wang, and by the time of Vietnamese independence in 938, be
identified as Champa. The new
state distinguished itself by modeling its government and society on Indian
models rather than Chinese.
Central Vietnam is very narrow compared to the Deltas of the north and
the south, so agriculture could not be a state’s major economic input. The Chăm were also seafarers. Regular contact with proto-Khmer in the
federation of ports known as Funan led them to adopt the Indian civilization
then spreading in Cambodia and southwest Vietnam.
Chăm warriors, Tháp Chiên Đàn |
Mỹ Sưn stele of Chăm life |
The shapes of the buildings,
exterior designs, sculptures and motifs reflected heavy Khmer influence. The revered deities were mostly
Hindu—Shiva primarily, but also Vishnu, Laxmi, Surya, Indra, Krishna, etc. In sculpting these gods Chăm artisans
followed the Khmer styles, themselves derived from Indian models with precise,
written instructions on what a particular deity was supposed to look like. The rules allowed for a bit of
stylistic variation, which made Chăm sculptures slightly different from Khmer,
especially in the depiction of real and mythical animals. Examples of this are the monkeys in a
Khương
Mỹ frieze, elephants at the base of one of the Chiên Đàn towers and the
mythical beasts at Bằng An.
elephants at Tháp Chiên Đàn |
While most Chăm kings
identified themselves as Hindu, the founder of Amaravati in 875 was a Mahayana
Buddhist, as were his immediate successors. While the state religion subsequently reverted to Hinduism,
for a brief period Buddhist themes dominated Chăm art. Surviving sculptures, such as the
bronze Tara and the reliefs and Buddha images from Đồng Dương in the Đà Nãng
Chăm Museum, exhibit a high quality of technique.
Whether officially Hindu or
officially Buddhist, the Chăm state of Linyi-Huanwang-Amaravati never had
friendly relations with its northern neighbors. The original state expanded north into contemporary Quảng
Binh and periodically raided the southern districts of Chinese-occupied
northern Vietnam. This continued
Avalokitesvar, Quảng Binh, 10th c. |
after the Vietnamese won back their independence in 938. The Vietnamese retaliated in a major
way in 982, capturing Indrapura, but eventually the Chăm recovered and resumed
raids. In 1044 King Lý Thái Tông
led an expedition that destroyed Indrapura. His forces also captured all the Chăm Court’s entertainers
and dancers and took them back to their capital Thămg Long (today’s
Hanoi). Chăm dancers then became
part of the Lý Court’s entertainment.
Amaravati ceased to exit as a
state, but the Vietnamese only annexed the area north of Đèo Hải Văn. Control of Quảng Nam passed to the nearest
Chăm state south—Vijaya. Its kings
continued to erect monuments in Mỹ Sơn now and then, until the Vietnamese
conquered Vijaya in 1470 and annexed its territory from Quảng Nam to Phú
Yên. They did not attack the Chăm
monuments, unlike the Khmer in earlier wars with Viyaya, but without state
power behind them anymore these fell into neglect and decay.
The Chăm people practically
vanished from this part of Chăm territory. Many fled south or west, while those who stayed behind
submerged themselves into the growing Vietnamese population, hiding or
abandoning their ethnic identity.
The monuments their ancestors left behind remained basically ignored
until their discovery by French archaeologists at the end of the 19th
century. To them it was the
discovery of a “lost” and unknown civilization and excavating and cataloguing the
monuments, assembling and translating the stone inscriptions, particularly at
sites like Mỹ Sơn, soon commenced.
Mỹ Sơn ruins |
Mỹ Sơn contained nearly
seventy monuments of one kind or another, some of them mere heaps of collapsed
components. Besides recording
everything that lay in place, archaeologists also had to determine which pieces
belonged to which structure and what it was supposed to look like when it was
first erected. Finally they were
able to begin the even more painstaking work of reconstruction in the
mid-1930s. The work had to cease
in 1943 because of the war situation and could not resume afterwards because of
the ensuing battle between the colonial forces and the Việt Minh.
Following the end of the war
and the separation of the country into two parts, the government in South
Vietnam did not take up restoration and reconstruction in Mỹ Sơn. The sanctuary returned to its former
condition of neglect and gradual decay.
In the 60s the armed struggle against the Saigon government intensified
and prompted the Americans to intervene.
National Liberation Front guerrillas, the Viet Cong as they became
known, established control over most of the countryside and set up bases in
remote areas everywhere, including around Mỹ Sơn.
gajasimha, half-lion, half-elephant, Tháp Bằng An |
In August 1969 American planes
carpet-bombed Quảng Nam’s Chăm heartland. The bombs practically obliterated the remains of Đồng Dương
and destroyed much of the Mỹ Sơn sanctuary, including some of the restored
works. It was one of the war’s
great cultural tragedies. Even
today there are unsafe, no-go zones in the vicinity, suspected of being
littered with unexploded ordinance and land mines. The bombing did not destroy the guerrillas, of course, and
they simply moved bases and carried on with their ultimately successful
campaign.
Fortunately, the smaller Chăm
tower sites, being near the coast, were not targeted and today look pretty much
like the original French photographs.
The smallest is Tháp Bằng An, a few km west of Hội An. A single, bullet-shaped tower with an
appended entrance section, it is the only Chăm tower on an octagonal base. Much of its external decoration, like
the friezes on the arch above the doorway and the designs along the columns,
has eroded. But in the yard stand
two large stone statues of the gajasimha—a
mythical beast half-lion and half-elephant.
Tháp Chiên Đản |
About 50 km south on Highway 1 the triple towers of Tháp Chiên Đàn lie
just west of the road. They have
lost most of their domes and vegetation is creeping up the walls, but many of
the stone relief carvings have survived around the bases—dancers, musicians,
warriors, elephants, etc. The towers rise behind a large courtyard, which must
have originally held other buildings, judging by the remains of the foundations. Off to the right stand a large gajasimha, a stone lingam and a mounted
stone slab inscription fragment. Next
to these is a small museum, housing objects found during excavations around the
towers, such as
Khương Mỹ Krishna |
segments of friezes, a carving of Durga and other sculptures.
A little further south, just
past the turn to Tam Kỳ, Tháp Khương Mỹ also comprises three towers. Vegetation has covered their upper
sections, but some of the decorative elements are still in good shape, like
vegetal patterns on the pillars, a carving of court life and a frieze of
monkeys. Khương Mỹ’s best
statues—of a multi-armed Shiva mounted on Nandi and of Krishna holding up a
mountain to protect cattle from a storm—were removed to the Đà Nẵng Chăm
Museum.
All these sites attract scant
attention. The emphasis is still
on Mỹ Sơn. That’s understandable,
considering Mỹ Sơn has such a large collection of monuments. Restoration is still going on there and
recently an entire section previously closed for reconstruction finally opened
to visitors. Mỹ Sơn is not a Chăm
equivalent of Angkor, but it was never intended to be. It was not a royal city, but a
sanctuary, where kings commissioned religious monuments to make merit, not to
impress the urban populace as at Angkor, and had their tombs built.
It’s about a half hour drive
from Hội An, a little more from Đà Nãng, in a secluded, wooded valley about ten
km west of the ancient capital Sinhapura at Trà Kiêu. Best to go early morning, before the tour buses arrive and
listen to the birds as you take the quiet walk down a long stone path to the site
of the first, and biggest, collection of ruins.
Chăm tower andCat Tooth Mountain |
external sculpture,Mỹ Sơn |
assembly hall, Mỹ Sơn |
Towers, temples, stone linga, storehouses and assembly halls
are all represented, with some of the external decorations and carvings in
fairly good condition. In
addition, one small building houses several statues, steles, stone inscriptions
and remnant temple decorations. Group
A, on the other hand, a little southeast of this site, is less well
endowed. Fewer buildings remain
standing, carvings are scarce and lots of columns and stone blocks lie on the
ground.
Leaving Group A and turning
northeast you come to Group G, a single compound east of Groups B, C and
D. Bomb damage is more evident here
than natural erosion, which is also a factor further up the same road to Groups
E and F, which lie adjacent to each other. The last site, Group G, lies all by itself past the cafes
northwest of Groups B, C and D and comprises just a part of a tower wall.
Chăm dancer, from a Chiên Đàn frieze |
A normal walk through all the sites takes about two leisurely
hours, though I found myself returning to the B-C-D site for another lingering,
appreciative look before leaving.
On the way out I discovered a small stage just before the exit and
happened to be in time for the park’s entertainment show. It began with Chăm folk dances, with
rural themes and props like water jugs, baskets and farm tools, followed by
soloists on Chăm instruments.
The rest of the program
featured ancient Chăm dances. Performers
dressed in costumes resembling those of the carved dancers on the temple
friezes. The themes were very
Hindu, too, as three girls lined up behind each other and waved their arms so
that they appeared from the front as one girl (one goddess) with six arms. All of the choreography seemed to be
inspired by Chăm temple art. It
was like a live version of the sculptures, a fitting conclusion to a morning
excursion into ancient history.
performance of ancient Chăm dances at Mỹ Sơn |
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Mỹ Sơn is one of the stops on my cultural-historical journey through Vietnam. See deltatoursvietnam.com for details
Mỹ Sơn is one of the stops on my cultural-historical journey through Vietnam. See deltatoursvietnam.com for details
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