Today we take you to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of My Son, an unmissable piece of history in Vietnam. But if you wish to see these amazing ed-bricked towers dooming up, you need to endure a short walk through a forest region. My Son was heavily damaged during the years when combat and war raged through Vietnam but, fortunately, enough has been spared (and partially renovated) to keep it under the watchful eye of UNESCO. Various temple ruins and relics of its stature are spreading over a large field, where sometimes nature has found its way, giving it a unique feeling. In My Son, walls are adorned with the sculptures of gods, priests, animals, and scenes of mythical battles and devotion. The complex was designed as a place of worship of Lord Vishnu. At one time, the site comprised over 70 temples, tombs, and numerous samples with historically vital inscriptions in Sanskrit and Cham related to the construction of My Son have been used to tell its story to all those entering its serene feeling realm. The History behind My Son Between the 4th and 13th centuries a unique culture which owed its spiritual origins to Indian Hinduism developed on the coast of contemporary Vietnam. This is graphically illustrated by the remains of a series of impressive tower-temples located in a dramatic site that was the religious and political capital of the Champa Kingdom for most of its existence. My Son Sanctuary dates from the 4th to the 13th centuries CE. The property is located in the mountainous border Duy Xuyen District of Quang Nam Province, in central Vietnam. It is situated within an elevated geological basin surrounded by a ring of mountains, which provides the watershed for the sacred Thu Bon river. The source of the Thu Bon river is here and it flows past the monuments, out of the basin, and through the historic heartland of the Champa Kingdom, draining into the South China Sea at its mouth near the ancient port city of Hoi An. The location gives the sites its strategic significance as it is also easily defensible. The tower temples were constructed over ten centuries of continuous development in what was the heart of the ancestral homeland of the ruling Dua Clan which unified the Cham clans and established the kingdom of Champapura (Sanskrit for City of the Cham people) in 192 CE. During the 4th to 13th centuries CE this unique culture, on the coast of contemporary Vietnam, owed its spiritual origins to the Hinduism of the Indian sub-continent. Under this influence many temples were built to the Hindu divinities such as Krishna and Vishnu, but above all Shiva. Although Mahayan Buddhist penetrated the Cham culture, probably from the 4thcentury CE, and became strongly established in the north of the kingdom, Shivite Hinduism remained the established state religion. The monuments of the My Son sanctuary are the most important constructions of the My Son civilisation. The tower temples have a variety of architectural designs symbolising the greatness and purity of Mount Meru, the mythical sacred mountain home of Hindu gods at the center of the universe, now symbolically reproduced on Earth in the mountainous homeland of the Cham people. They are constructed in fired brick with stone pillars and decorated with sandstone bas-reliefs depicting scenes from Hindu mythology. Their technological sophistication is evidence of Cham engineering skills while the elaborate iconography and symbolism of the tower-temples give insight into the content and evolution of Cham religious and political thought. The My Son sanctuary is a remarkable architectural ensemble that developed over a period of ten centuries. It presents a vivid picture of spiritual and political life in an important phase of the history of South-East Asia. The monuments are unique and without equal in Southeast Asia. Article and photos by https://whc.unesco.org/ 

The post My Son Sanctuary appeared first on Asian Itinerary.