Xuan Thuy

The Cham towers were originally temples to the deities of Hinduism - Brahma, Vishnu, Siva and the goddess Shakti... Brahma, Vishnu, Siva are the divine triad of the same nature - the Divinity. Brahma is the Creator, high above all creatures ; he is the Almighty, the -great Father of all things' (the Vedas). In human representations, this deity has four heads and four arms, his red skin symbolizes the holy principle of creation. In each hand, he holds one of the four Veda books; or in one hand are the Vedas and in the other a staff; in the third one he carries a bow and in the last one, a jar of the divine water. He is much often represented as flying on the Swan Hamsa, the knowledge embodied. His four heads turn in the four directions, signifying Complete Comprehension. Siva, or Shiva, is the god of destruction ; his white skin represents the purity of all colours ; his head with three faces symbolizes the sun, the moon and the fire of the world, meaning that, as a venerable deity, he can see things of the past, the present and the future. With the Ganges -carved above his head, he is understood as possessing all means of liberation ; the tiger's skin rug he is sitting on signifies his strong ruling over Nature; his four arms indicate the four directions, his omnipotent power. In one of his hands is a three-pronged fork representing creation, preservation and destruction. Another one holds an axe representing power, absolute force invested ; the third one gives the sign of guarding off fear ; and the last one gives grace. So he is not simply understood as having only destructive forces. In this sense, Siva is also a god of mercy. In the Hindu philosophy destruction is only a stage leading to creation, as rises and falls are regular occurrences in the universe - no life knows not its end, and the end is conductive to a new life. So the god Siva, acting -as the principle of creation, is also the source of Life. He is called Mahadeva, the highest and only God. He assimilates himself with Time, the principle of creation and destruction without end. The other responsibility of his is preservation. So, he has the same roles as played by the Supreme God,

Believers in Siva represent him as a bisexual god embodied . in the image of a Linga placed on an loni (male upon female). "He then divided himself in two halves, one male and the other female, who, by copulation, created the world." Siva is the oldest and most venerated of all the gods of Hinduism. The Cham people in Vietnam are his followers. Seated between the other two deities is Vishnu, the god of protection, always ready to protect humans. Therefore he is worshipped with both veneration and affection as God of all gods, that leads humans to Enlightenment and Truths. Images of his incarnations are varied in forms (His ninth incarnation, for instance, is the Buddha, who came to this world to emancipate human beings through comprehension of the Four Divine Truths and the Eight fold Paths). Vishnu has been commonly represented as a god resting on the snake Shesha, floating on the sea Amanta, which means the Infinity, or as a Vishnu standing with his four hands holding four sacred animals - the shell represents the five .elements of the universe; the plate that shines like the sun stands for the Mind; the bow for the universe-in-motion, and the mallet for the Origin of the Intellectual power.

Besides the above triad, there are many other deities, among these are the goddess Shakti, the principle of creation, the goddess Sarasvati, the Intellect personified, and Ganesha, Siva's son, the goddess of mercy, and the goddess Belur, and the god of the sun Surya.

The Cham towers in Vietnam had been built on the slopes or hill crests, places most suitable for the worship of gods on one side of National Road 1, from the province of Quang Binh to Binh Thuan. The terrain chosen was high enough to command the entire view of the surrounding area. These towers were built under the Charn dynasties, all through from the beginning of the Christian era to the 15th century. In those days, the Cham were not assimilated with the Viet communities yet. However, they did have some relationship and exchanges of some kinds with the Vietnamese, the Indian and the Cambodian peoples and cultures. The Cham towers had been in their heyday earlier than the Shithara, temples of stone in India (the Lakshmana, forinstance) and those ones in Cambodia (the Angkor Wat). From the historical remains, especially with the discovery of old stone-slabs at Vo Canh hamlet, which are the oldest ones in Southeast Asia, most historians have come to the conclusion that the Cham civilization appeared at the beginning of the first or the second century and grew into splendor from the seventh or eighth century.

The Po Nagar in Nha Trang was the national Temple of the Cham kingdom, built and renovated through periods, from the eighth to the twelfth centuries. Earlier, from the beginning of the Christian era to the fifth century, there had probably been towers built by the Southern Cham dynasties. According to H. Parmentier, in A.D.774 the Javanese came and harried the capital of Kauthara, tearing down all of those towers. Ten years later, i.e. in 784, King Tri Satyavarman of the Panduranga kingdom (ruled by six successive kings) had those towers rebuilt after having successfully driven the aggressors out of his country. The towers were thoroughly repaired in the twelfth century by King Java Indravarman Ill. In Hindu concepts of architecture, the central position was the most honoured and must be used for the building of the temple to the supreme deity. For this reason, the oldest of these towers was the central one, about 18m high, its uppermost part narrowing gently upwards in the shape of a lotus bud that seemed to be soaring up. It was built to worship the god Siva, with the sacred image of a Linga (symbol of the male) placed upon the loni (symbol of the female). The biggest and also the most splendid tower (commonly 'Called the main tower) had four stages that gradually narrowed upwards to its top which was a stone Linga. The tower was 22.8m high, rebuilt for the second time in A.D.817 by King Harivarman I as a temple to the Divine Lady Po Yan Ino Nagar Kau Thara, or the goddess Lima, Siva's wife. Of these towers, only three remain - the temple to the god of war Karhykeya, which is West Tower, and the Temple to the god of mercy Ganesha, human-bodied and elephant-headed, which is South Tower. These two gods are both Siva and Uma's children. Perhaps West Tower is the most eloquent evidence of the renovations made in the twelfth century by King Indravarman's order. This kalan (tower) has its roofs curved upwards in the shape of a royal boat, which bears much resemblance to the abode-on-stilts of the ancient Viets in the North.

It is orally transmitted among the Cham people that this assemblage of towers consisted of six towers, of which North Tower was the Temple to the Divine Lady Po Nagar; Central Tower was to a Chinese prince; Northwest Tower to Princess Quy; South Tower to her foster father; West Tower to her son, Prince Tri (this one was destroyed); Southwest Tower was to the Divine Lady's foster mother (ruined). Besides these towers, there was another one built to worship a pasha by the name of Serapati Pangbo, who conducted the construction of the assemblage.

Nowadays, on this large foundation of brick 15m wide, 20m long, extending east-west, there still remain four rows of colossal pillars of baked brick including eight big ones and two smaller ones. The big ones are 5.2m high and the smaller ones 2.2m. According to historians, this probably used to be a gate with a storey, or a mandara, which was a quest-house used for meetings and dancing performances on festival days; or perhaps it was a place for believers to make necessary preparations for offerings to the deities.

Now it should be of great interest to get some information about the Main Tower, which is the most beautiful and typical of the whole assemblage. This is the most ambitious of the Cham architecture and could be considered near to perfect. It was built under King Harivarman and the construction started in A.D.817. It consisted of the main body and three stages piled one upon another, all being the same in design and narrowing gradually upwards as if they were soaring high. It had only one porch that faced east, the others were imitation ones lying deep in the walls and facing west, north and south, with elaborate-designed carvings. In Cham cosmology, the East was the direction taken by the deities or gods. Therefore it was venerated and could only be used for their worship; the West was the world of the dead and it was used for the worship of the kings. The Tower was built on a flat area measured 9.8m in length and 96 M2 . The interior side of each wall was. 6m in length, so the interior area of the Tower was 36 M2 and the base of the walls was 1.9rn thick. This is definitely among the reasons that account for its enduring stability through long ages in spite of the natural destructive forces. The interior walls were built in such a way that the space they enclosed got narrower and narrower all the way up, and one would have the feeling of finding himself in a huge cage topped with a high dome. Owing to the strong baked bricks and the special glue of high quality used, and mainly to the thick walls with a large section, the weight of the whole structure was reasonably distributed on a standard section (kg/cm²). In addition, the height of the int6rior space was so designed as to be three times as big as the interior width and twice as wide as the exterior wall side; as a result, the top of the dome rose to a height of 18-20m, with its gentle curves. And as the exterior of the stages gradually narrowed itself in correspondence to the height of the whole structure, the weight of the tower was reduced to a minimum. This is most inventive in the tactful skill of handicraft building obtained through long years' building experience, which is distinctive of the ancient Cham architecture.

Generally viewed, a kalan, i.e. a Cham tower, had two distinctive spaces. First, just behind the porch is the hall, cylinder-shaped, with an arch like dome framed by smooth curves which are elegant in style and form. It provides the only way to the interior space, which is the place of worshipping. Here, in the middle, is the small shrine placed on a stone platform, surrounded by a pathway used for the running-round ceremonies. Seated on the platform is the statue of the Divine Lady, Mother of Kauthara, the embodiment of the goddess Ma, Sieve's wife. This is a sculptural work of -granite carved out of an original stone block, This master-piece was finished in A.D.965. From the archives of the ancient Cham history, it is known that in A.D.917 on King Indravarman III's order, a golden statue of this goddess had been moulded; unfortunately, it was then stolen by the Khmer. The statue, 1.6m high, is among the most splendid works of art that have ever been built by the Cham people and remained to this day. The most deplorable thing about its present form is that the head of the statue is a false one, having no correlation to the body.

In creating this incomparable work of sculpture, the artist must have aimed at designing the image of a Cham mother, not the goddess. It is a woman with her breasts hanging and her abdomen lined with three wrinkles, purposefully testifying to her experienced motherhood. With her eight arms spread out fanlike and her two arms resting on her knees in a sitting posture, the statue is a living symbol of peace, comfort and grace to humans. In her hands are the precious things that Ma would take as depicted in the myth – a lotus, an elephant's tusk, a bow, s shell, a dagger. The statue is strongly expressive of the prosperity and wealth enjoyed by the ancient tribe with the image of

their country's mother, a woman strongly built and full of vitality who gained such an affectionate popularity among the human ' s. The statue is placed on a pedestal carved into a lotus, its back against images of fig leaves with elaborate carvings of gentle style, all in perfect harmony; this greatly enhances the majestic beauty of the statue. The protruding part of the carvings is an animal's head with its hair failing on either side, spreading over the other two animals' heads, which are Ala and Maker, of Indian legends. The other side of this image is adorned with ornamental lacing with curved lines making another Maker more outstanding.

The platform of the statue was built from several layers of granite; these were so artfully cut and well fitted that they seem to be of one block.

The only source of light coming to the space of worship is from the main porch and through the archlike hall. As a result of all-year-round worshipping ceremonies and incense burnt in great quantities, the space is always in dim light, all bathed in a sacred mystery.

In the front hall, above the door frame and on the interior side of the arch was fixed an image with carvings in stone, depicting a young woman with one of her legs rested on the bull Nandin, her four arms swirling to the tunes of a flute and the sound of cymbals played by two musicians. This is Siva's feminine self embodied, represented in gently waving lines; the whole picture depicts the exciting scene of a flower-offering ceremony in -the Mother's honour held by the Kaut tribe, and it is quite in conformity to the image worshipped in the tower.

The corners of the tower's stages were decorated with the ends of the eaves in leaf-like shapes and the busts of the heavenly maids with their hands clasped in veneration and eyes turned to the sky, about them are images of bulls and flying swans ... out of Hindu legends.

The whole tower, except for the two pillars in the front hall and the edges of the porch which are of stone, for decoration rather than for support, were of baked bricks. The size of each piece is measured 20 x 17 x 5cm. Carvings and ornamental designs were added only when the construction of the tower had been finished. Up to the present, even though scientific methods of testing and analysing have been employed, we have not been able to determine what kind of material was used to glue these bricks together - they had been exceedingly properly fixed together with no traces left ; and this enabled the tower to stand weathering. And those bricks cannot be plucked out without causing damages. In the opinion of many authorities on the ancient Cham architecture, this kind of glue was manufactured from sugar cane's molasses, which had been commonly used in building from the pre-history in Central Vietnam. It was mixed with some very small amount of fine-grained sand. Sugar cane's molasses, a kind of glue, are long-enduring, as firm as stone when dry, not easily destroyed by natural forces. It is also believed that in ancient times, this special glue had been used for the preservation of the mummies.

According to Thai Van Kiem, author of Dat Viet Troi Nam (The Country of the Vietnamese People), a special kind of sticky oil taken from cay rai (dipterocarpus crispalatus), may have been employed to fasten the layers of bricks. These are large and tall trees that grew well along the front side of Suoi Dau village, 25km away from Nha Trang, and a short distance off National Road 1, on the right from north to south.

Nowadays certainly one must be astonished and admiringly wonder at the skill shown by the ancient Cham sculptors who could make such fine carvings on those baked bricks, and in such tremendous quantities without causing any slightest damages.

Until recently, the central tower has been much destroyed. Its exterior part looks so much like a huge pile of bricks in the shape of a rough pyramid, the carvings and ornamental designs have been erased by Time. However, its height still remains the same, with a Linga of stone on its top. In the middle of the space for worshipping only the Linga-loni set, symbol of Siva's bisexuality, stays untouched by Evil's hands. In ancient Cham cosmology, it is the symbol of power and forces invested in the kings and princes. In the primitive tribes' ways of thinking, the masculine and the feminine were sources of reproduction, fertility and prosperity. They were also the creative forces of the universe and human beings.

It is said that this Linga-loni set as a couple used to possess magical powers. It could work wonders. A married couple who were childless could bring their offerings to the Temple and pray for having a child. And these were the rituals they had to perform: washing the sacred set with the water from the well on this hill; pouring a bottle of water an the set, the water would run along the slits on the set and fall into a groove. The water was then to be taken into the shrine for the praying ceremony. These -rituals performed, both husband and wife drank the sacred water. Their prayers would soon be heard and their wish fulfilled.

The other two towers, West and South, less ambitious in design and of, smaller sizes, have also been in ruins. Many renovations have been made on these ones, particularly the upper stages have lost their original shapes and taken on forms of later architectural models. The present towers much or less bear resemblance to the ancient Vietnamese architectural styles. At present, two other Linga-loni sets can be seen in the space of worshipping in the Towers.

Let's have some review of the legends told by the Cham people of their venerated Lady, Mother of Kaut tribe, Miss Po Nagar, commonly called by the name of Muk Juk, the Black Lady. She had been incarnated from the clouds and the foams of the sea. She had a 'harem I of ninety-seven husbands, among them, Po Ian Amo was the most powerful and respected by the tribe. This state of polygamy gave birth to thirty-eight daughters, who in their turns had different incarnations. Of these young ladies only three were most venerated and worshipped by the common Cham, Po Nagar Dara and Rarai Anaili (the latter is worshipped by the Cham in Phan Thiet). The Divine Lady and Sacred Mother of the Kaut tribe was believed to be a very powerful messiah from high. She was the Creator of the Earth, and she herself gave their tribe people sandalwood and rice. The sandalwood and aloewood were symbols of her divinity. She gave rice such a good-smelling scent, encouraged her people to grow more boh trees. Since God in his heavens was very fond of the good scent of the rice and the fragrance of the sandalwood, the Lady used to send, in the sacrifice-offering ceremonies, int.) the sky a winged grain of rice as white as a cloud. It was a common practice among those who want to eat a piece of betel and enjoy. the blissful scent of the neyf harvest's rice to prepare a tray of good fruit as an offering to the Lady. Nowadays, it is an obligatory practice among those who venture far into the deep jungles in search of sandalwood to keep themselves well-cleaned, keep the fast, hold sacrifice-offering ceremonies to the deities if they wish for divine protection. It is also believed that the evil people will never be able to find the sacred wood and that they cannot find the tree even when they are standing under it, for their eyes at that moment will be blurred because the Lady has denied them her 'present of grace". It is also believed that her 'soldiers', which are the tigers, will show respect to the good-hearted people who make long expeditions searching for the sacred wood.

The most recent of all the stories we have had of the Divine Lady can be read from the inscriptions engraved on the stone-slab by Phan Thanh Gian, a high-ranking mandarin of the last Nguyen dynasty. 'Long, long ago, a pretty young girl about ten years old one day strayed into a field of water-melons and had fun by herself there. The field belonged to an old couple living at the foot of Dai An hill. They caught the little girl, took her home and then adopted her as their own child. One rainy day, in spite of the heavy rain and the flood which was rising, the girl stubbornly went on with her playing in the open, busy arranging piles of rocks into small mountains. Finding this scene very strange and believing it to be a bad onion, the old couple scolded her severely. It soon happened that a trunk of sandalwood was drifting along. The little girl suddenly disappeared into the trunk which continued to drift far into the sea, travelling to the north and carne ashore at a strange place. The local inhabitants, at the sight of the curious trunk which was at the moment shedding strange lights and sending its balmy scent all over the place, got extrernely excited; they shouted and tried to pull the trunk to the shore. However, to their astonishment, it was too heavy for them to carry, and the more people gathered to carry it the heavier it would become. A prince happened to pass by and noticed the exciting scene; he got down I from his horse and gave it a try. The trunk, how strange, became light in his hands. He ordered his men to carry it to the royal palace; since then lie amused himself beholding the magical trunk. Then very often oil moonlit nights, from the trunk the young girl would come down in great splendor. Stealthily she arranged things in the prince's rom in neat order. Finding these happenings so strange, the prince could not believe his eyes. Therefore he devised a scheme, by which he hid himself in a corner for several nights and then one night lie managed to catch the girl by surprise and made proposals to her. His fattier, the king, decided to cast the diviner s rods; seeing that his soil's marriage to the young girl would be a happy one, he then consented to it. The young couple enjoyed a very happy life and had two children, a boy and a girl. The wife, after quite a long time living in luxury in the royal palace, becarne grief-stricken with an abiding nostalgia which soon became unbearable to her. One day, with her two children, she decided to got away from the palace. They disappeared into the trunk and by way of the sea, sailed homewards to the south. Her foster parents were no longer on this world ; so she decided to settle there for good and come back to her life on the farm. She made renovations oil the water-melon field and Set Up an altar to her parents ; worked out worshiping rituals, taught the local people to cultivate rice plants, hunt wild beasts, catch fish with nets, take proper care of their children and treat diseases. She also had her picture engraved oil the hill rock. Then one day, on a phoenix, she flew back to the heavens. The prince, with his troops, set out in search of his wife and his children. But, alas, she was nowhere to be seen. In anger, the prince let his troops indiscriminately harry the entire area; even her statues were riot respected. Indignant at these dishonest actions, God the Almighty ordered winds, storms and sea-waves to sink their boats and made them all petrified. Nowadays standing on the Xom Bong bridge, you can see tumbling heaps of rough-strewn rocks and boulders in the river. And in those days on Yen islet, the deities made their regular appearances and worked wonders to help the local people, whose prayers were always favourably responded to.

The author of Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi (the Histories of the United Vietnam) wrote some details of the mystery related to the legend: "Since then the Divine Lady made many more appearances, in which she was seen riding a white elephant to make tours of mountains" summits; at her appearance, three thunders were heard echoing in the mountains. Sometimes she turned herself into a very long strip of silk flutteringly sailing over tile sky. At times she was seen riding a big crocodile visiting the small island Hon Yen and the hill Cu.

It must be of great interest to note the striking resemblance of this legendary story to that one of Princess Lieu Hanh the Sacred Mother, or Princess Giang Huong, in which the Laotsian influence is apparently pervading; also no less obvious is the interaction of the two religions prevailing in the North and the South at that time, as can be seen in the religious symbols, such as the twig of cherry blossoms, the field of water-melons, the branch of anemone, the trunk of sandalwood... From Viet Su (The History of the Vietnamese People), we have learnt that King Gia Long, Nguyen dynasty, had officially promoted the Divine Lady Po Nagar to a higher position of veneration with the title of honour granted - the 'Highest Saint Blessed with Protective Magical Powers".

At present, the assemblage of Cham towers is ruined in many places, this is partly due to weathering and partly because of the constant wars that have been raging in the country; most badly damaged is the front of East Tower. The remaining towers have been temporarily guarded by a network of barbed wires and repaired in places with rough layers of bricks and cement with the result that part of its architectural beauty has been sacrificed.

The Po Nagar Temple is the first historical remain to have the honour of being ranked among the National Historical Remains, to be preserved and protected by the laws in force.