Story: Ha Xuyen Khe
Photos: Nguyen Sanh Quoc Huy
Explore the spiritual and architectural legacy of the ancient Champa Kingdom in the My Son Sanctuary.
When early morning mist lingers over the valley, and the first light gently touches ancient brick walls, My Son Sanctuary appears like a fragmented memory. Here, every stretch of earth, every stone seems to carry the imprint of time. Amid the solemn temple towers, the breath of a once-flourishing civilization still lingers.
A sanctuary of the gods
The road to My Son opens into a secluded valley, encircled by layers of mountains. Within this quiet embrace, the sanctuary reveals itself – deep, contemplative, and enigmatic. For nearly nine centuries, from the 4th to the 13th century, this was one of the ancient Champa Kingdom’s key spiritual centers.
Today, My Son remains one of Southeast Asia’s most distinctive architectural and religious sites, where dozens of temple towers, enclosing walls, and artifacts lie amid lush greenery.
Compared with monumental sites like Angkor Wat, My Son may seem modest in scale. Yet it is precisely this restraint that highlights the philosophical depth and refined engineering of the Cham people, who arranged their temple clusters according to a strict ritual structure: the main sanctuary tower (Kalan) stands at the center, its entrance facing east – the sacred direction of the gods. In front rises the gateway tower (Gopura), followed by the Mandapa, where ceremonies and sacred dances once took place.
Walking through My Son is also a journey into Cham sculpture. Thousands of sandstone, terracotta, and ceramic artifacts are displayed among the temple ruins and within the My Son Museum. Particularly notable is the A10 altar – one of Vietnam’s National Treasures originating from My Son – remarkably well preserved and housed within the A10 temple space, which retains a sacred atmosphere.
The harmony between nature and belief makes My Son more than a human-made structure; it is part of the cosmic order within the Cham worldview. Reliefs of deities, dancers, mythical creatures, and intricate motifs carved on ancient brick surfaces reveal a civilization that did not stand apart from nature but lived within it. Today’s Cham dances are not reenactments but continuations of an unbroken cultural current.
My Son at night – A legend awakens
By day, the sanctuary resembles an open-air museum of Cham memory; by night, it turns mystical. Light withdraws from ancient brick walls, the surrounding mountains close in, and the valley returns to its primordial rhythm. In darkness, the towers are no longer objects for visual admiration but spaces to be felt through intuition and emotion.
Nightfall drapes the temples like a ceremonial veil. Wind moving through tower openings creates low, steady tones reminiscent of distant chants. The thousand-year-old structures emerge in softened light – half real, half imagined – as though whispering stories of a civilization long past yet never truly gone.
Evening experiences bring a new dimension to the heritage site. Cultural performances such as My Son Legendary Night partially recreate the ritual life and spiritual world of the ancient Cham. Apsara dancers appear vivid and graceful, as if stepping out of a dream. In those moments, architecture, music, movement, and light converge, allowing the sanctuary to breathe again – ancient yet contemporary.
In such a space, one realizes that My Son is not merely a UNESCO-recognized heritage site, but a profound meeting point with cultural memory, where art holds the power to preserve the spirit of a civilization.
