Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [196]
Excavations at My Son have revealed that Cham kings were buried here as early as the fourth century, indicating that the site was established by the rulers of the early Champa capital of Simhapura, sited some 30km back towards the highway, at present-day Tra Kieu. ((See "The kingdom of Champa") for more on the Kingdom of Champa.) The stone towers and sanctuaries whose remnants you see today were erected between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, with successive dynasties adding more temples to this holy place, until in its prime it comprised some seventy buildings. The area was considered the domain of gods and god-kings, and living on site would have been an attendant population of priests, dancers and servants.
French archaeologists discovered the ruins in the late nineteenth century, when the Chams’ fine masonry skills were still evident – instead of mortar, they used a resin mixed with ground brick and mollusc shells, which left only hairline cracks between brick courses. After the Viet Cong based themselves here in the 1960s, many unique buildings were pounded to oblivion by American B52s, most notably the once magnificent A1 tower. Craters around the site and masonry pocked with shell and bullet holes testify to this tragic period in My Son’s history.
The central provinces | Hoi An and around | My Son |
Practicalities
Most people visit on a guided tour from Hoi An ((see "Around Hoi An") for agencies; approx $10 per person); a popular variation is to return part of the way by boat, stopping at a couple of craft villages along the way ($15). It’s also possible to rent a motorbike or taxi ($35) or motorbike in Hoi An and travel to My Son independently; the road to the site strikes west from Highway 1 at Duy Xuyen (there are sporadic signs for My Son). If you do this, it pays to get there early (before 9am) to avoid the worst of the crowds and the heat.
While we’ve outlined a handful of the site’s particularly noteworthy edifices below, you’ll get most out of My Son simply by wandering at your leisure – but don’t stray far from the towers and marked paths, as unexploded mines may still be in the ground. The groups of buildings labelled B, C and D most warrant your attention: viewing these, it’s possible, with a little stirring of the imagination, to visualize how a functioning temple complex would have appeared in My Son’s heyday.
The central provinces | Hoi An and around | My Son |
Group B
Archeologists regard Group B as the spiritual epicentre of My Son. Of the central kalan (sanctuary), B1, only the base remains, along with a lingam discovered under the foundations a few years ago; but stone epitaphs found nearby reveal that it was dedicated to the god-king Bhadresvara, a hybrid of Shiva and fourth-century King Bhadravarman, and erected in the eleventh century, under King Harivarman IV, on the site of an earlier, wooden temple. Fortunately, other elements of Group B have fared rather better, particularly B5, the impressive repository room, boasting a bowed, boat-shaped roof still in reasonably good condition. Votive offerings and other ritual paraphernalia would have been stored in B5’s chimney-shaped interior, while its outer walls support ornate columns and statues of deities. The carving on the southern facade is particularly well preserved; on the west look out for a fine bas-relief depicting two elephants with their trunks entwined around a coconut tree. The carving of Vishnu sitting below the thirteen heads of the snake-god Naga that adorned the roof of B6 was an early casualty of war, but the oval receptacle for the holy water used in purification rituals and statue-washing ceremonies is still intact inside. The two smaller temples flanking B1’s south side, B3 and B4, would have been dedicated to Skanda and Ganesha, the children of Shiva,