Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [225]
Dong Khanh’s Mausoleum is only 500m from Tu Duc’s. Follow the road round to the southeast or take a short cut over the hill by the footpath from between the refreshment stalls, forking left twice before you see Dong Khanh’s tomb on your right and the temple straight ahead behind some trees.
The central provinces - Part 2 | Around Hué | The Royal Mausoleums |
The Mausoleum of Thieu Tri
Emperor Thieu Tri was the son of Minh Mang and shared his father’s aversion to foreign influences – it’s said he destroyed anything Western he found in the Imperial palaces – and his taste in architecture. His mausoleum follows the same basic pattern as Minh Mang’s though without the attractive walled gardens, and is split into two sections placed side by side. As it’s also smaller it took less than a year to build (1847–48), but its most distinctive feature is that it faces northwest, a traditionally inauspicious direction, and many people believed that this was the reason the country fell under the French yoke a few years later. Although the salutation courtyard, stele-house and tomb are suffering from serious neglect, the temple itself is in reasonable shape. It contains numerous poems, in mother-of-pearl or painted on glass, since Thieu Tri was a prolific poet who would pen a stanza or two at a moment’s notice.
To get here from Hué follow the road towards Khai Dinh’s Mausoleum, but after Cau Lim Bridge branch right beside a faded sign saying “Lang Thieu Tri” opposite the Social Welfare School. The mausoleum is 6km from the centre of Hué.
The central provinces - Part 2 | Around Hué | The Royal Mausoleums |
The Mausoleum of Duc Duc
Three emperors are buried at the Mausoleum of Duc Duc which, although it’s the closest to Hué, is rarely visited. Duc Duc and his wife are buried in a walled compound, while emperors Thanh Thai and Duy Tan are interred in a separate row of graves behind the main temple, built in 1899. Duc Duc was forced to resign by his senior courtiers after a mere three days as emperor in 1883 and died a year later in prison, while his son, Thanh Thai, was also removed in 1907 after a suspected anti-French conspiracy. The French then put Thanh Thai’s 8-year-old son, Duy Tan, on the throne, but he fled the palace nine years later amid another revolutionary plot, and was eventually exiled with his father to the French territory of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Duy Tan died in a World War II plane crash in 1945, fighting on the side of the Allies, but Thanh Thai was allowed back to Vietnam in 1947 and died in Saigon in the 1950s. Descendants of the Imperial family, two French-speaking nephews of Bao Dai, still live in the temple buildings and possess a historic collection of family photos including some of the funeral of Thanh Thai.
Find the mausoleum down Duong Duy Tan (opposite 74 Tran Phu), 100m along on the right; someone will show you around for a small donation.
The central provinces - Part 2 | Around Hué |
South of the centre
Aside from the mausoleums there are a number of other regal sights worth seeing south of the city; all are easily accessible by bike or xe om. Just 3km from central Hué – at the end of Dien Bien Phu – is Nam Giao, once the site of Imperial rites, while the splendid Tu Hieu Pagoda is buried in the pine forests northeast of Tu Duc’s Mausoleum. Directly west of the train station is the Royal Arena, once the site of