Da Nang, Part 2

My Son (pronounced mee-sahn) Sanctuary is a set of fantastic temple ruins built during the fourth through the thirteenth centuries. The ancient Champa people were raised to be the masters of art in building brick.  While the technique remains controversial, the bricks were smoothed and laid closely and securely without mortar.  The complex also contains fine sculpture and carving on brick and stone from the images of deities, priests, dances, plants, animals, and sacrifices.

Vietnam translates as "people of the south" or "people moving south".  These were the Champa people who are the ancestors of today's Vietnamese.  For most Vietnamese today, the war is over, it's history, and they try to forget it.  Unfortunately, places like My Son fell into the way of the fighting.  During the war, the Viet Cong used this area to hide.  The Americans knew where they were hiding, but did not know (or maybe did not care) that the ancient temples were there.  They would be hard to see from the air because of dense jungle.  We bombed the shit outta the area the mostly destroyed at least one of the temples:

Notice the bomb crater, in front of the temple, is still evident in this picture:

Here are a couple of our favorite guys from the selection of carvings around the temples.  My Son has an excellent website at www.mysonsanctuary.com.vn