Excursion Hoi An - Danang - Michon from Nha Trang with the Russian Information Center (day one). Vietnam. Temple complex Michonne

Vietnam has preserved to this day many architectural wonders belonging to different eras, the remains of bygone cultures. And one of them is the bizarre temples scattered across the Quang Nam Plain, united in a complex known as the ruins of Michon near Da Nang.

The mysterious Cham civilization

What do we know about the secrets left to us by the mysterious Cham civilization (they called themselves “Cham”)? This people founded an entire empire that appeared in the central part of modern Vietnam back in the second century. The state of Tyampa, created from small principalities, existed almost until the beginning of the eighteenth century.

From the seventh to the tenth centuries, the Cham civilization experienced rapid growth. It was a “golden age” for art and architecture, crafts developed, and the Cham language was formed.

The Cham culture was directed in a religious direction. Their creations, which were influenced by the art of India, were created in honor of persons from the Hindu pantheon and were maintained within strict canonical boundaries. Information has also reached our time about a strange attitude towards the notorious copyright. Oddly enough, all the glory and rights belonged not to the performer of the masterpiece, but to the person who paid money for it.

Centuries of wars did not spare the art of the Cham, we can only imagine what their canvases, carpets and painted vases were like. Alas, even their amazing temples, decorated with intricate patterns and inscriptions, have reached us in very poor condition.

The decline of the Cham civilization had a detrimental effect on the temples that filled the Quang Nam Plain. Religious life and the flow of pilgrims had completely ceased by the sixteenth century. Once sacred place began to fall into desolation, and, as if to confirm the proverb, farmers began to settle near Michonne. New settlers built houses using materials from decaying churches for their needs.

Time passed, these lands were deserted. Nature took its toll, the temples of Michon gradually became part of the jungle, disappearing from human eyes for a long time. The cultural heritage of the Tjampa Empire has become an architectural ghost.

The sleeping fairy-tale princess needed a prince's kiss to wake up and return to people. And, ironically, a French priest came to the Michon temples. It was the end of the nineteenth century, and Jean Bruyère and the military men accompanying him were the first to see what beauty the jungles of Vietnam were hiding from humanity.

New life for Michonne temples

Colonial authorities showed great interest in the legacy of the Tyampa Empire. From the end of the nineteenth century until the mid-forties of the last century, the temple complex was studied. Expeditions led by French scientists were sent to the surviving temples and ruins.

Successful research into Cham architecture was interrupted by wars. Years of battles brought more destruction to the temple complex than centuries of oblivion in the arms of the Vietnamese jungle.

What the buildings looked like before can only be seen in ancient stereo photographs and drawings by Henri Parmagnier. It took scientists from international Polish-Vietnamese expeditions five years to study and compile a detailed report on the condition of ancient temples. Enthusiasts cleared the area of jungle and debris and carried out work to restore more or less surviving buildings. For this purpose, a technique was developed that makes it possible to effectively strengthen the masonry with Portland cement.

In the mid-nineties, the temple complex was made accessible to tourists, and at the very end of the century, Michon was officially recognized as the architectural pearl of Vietnam and was included in the UNESCO lists.

Temples at the bottom of the lake

So how did an entire city of temples come about? For eight centuries, Michonne was one of the imperial capitals. Scientists have calculated that in small space The Chama valleys erected about seventy temples.

The crowned lady Bhadravarman I specifically looked for an atmospheric and secluded place to build a Hindu temple. It was found in the center of a very small round valley near the village of Mitho. Smooth surface was once the bottom of a lake, in our time from water arteries There was only one stream left, skirting the temple buildings and ruins.

Temples in honor of Shiva and Vishnu, as well as tombs for the monarchs of Tyampa, were built from special bricks; for strength, a binding composition of sugar and honey was added to them. Temple complex quickly became the spiritual seat of the kingdom. Monarchs were buried here and festive ceremonies were held in honor of the highest gods.

Tourists can go inside the surviving temples and towers and go down to the royal crypts. Authentic decorations, tiles and sculptures have been preserved here. Statues of gods and stones with incomprehensible inscriptions are scattered throughout the complex.

The journey from Da Nang to the temple complex takes about two hours. You can get there by taking a tour bus with a group of tourists, purchasing a tour in advance, or ordering a taxi. In the latter case, it is advisable to book a taxi for the entire duration of your walk around Michonne. Otherwise, the taxi driver will simply leave, and then you will have to solve the problem of getting back.

The temple complex, with its ruins, is not a park, you will need good shoes, which reliably protects your feet from broken stones, plus there are a lot of insects here. In the hot months, you need to take care of water and protection from the sun, there is shade here, of course, but you won’t constantly hide in the shadow of one building.

The tourist infrastructure is still developing; the attraction is still being prepared for visitors. But you can already take a ride around the territory of Michonne in a free electric taxi, it starts from the nearest parking lot. However, due to poor clearing, open cars are driven around a limited area.

Despite the lack of fame and popularity of the historical complex, there is a large influx of tourists here. Mostly, excursion buses begin to arrive at the temples in the afternoon; therefore, in the afternoon, the territory of the reserve can be oversaturated with tourists moving from one building to another.

To fully enjoy the silence and architectural heritage of the ancient Cham, it is better to come to Michonne as early as possible. This place is imbued with some special energy ancient culture and the surrounding jungle, and it is better to wander alone.

Dance shows are often held in front of the entrance to the temple complex. Beauties in national costumes portray apsara maidens, and you can also see the dances of the Champa people.

On the Internet you can find very conflicting reviews about the ruins of Michon in Da Nang. Some tourists admire the ancient temples, sculptures and other creations of the ancient Cham civilization they saw. Plus, they note the general historical and energetic background of the city lost in the jungle. Others see Michonne only as ruins and debris left over from the bombing.

Nevertheless, this unique place– a piece of ancient Asian culture and Cham civilization – is worth a visit during your holiday in Vietnam.

Michon (M?S?n) is an impressive temple complex, or rather its picturesque ruins, in the center of Vietnam. Michon is one of the few landmarks remaining from the Champa Empire, the temple was a spiritual and cultural center from the 4th to the 12th centuries.

Each building in the Michon complex, despite its disastrous, dilapidated state, preserves remnants of its former grandeur and beauty. Graceful architecture, complex patterns on walls and ceilings, columns and stepped elevations - the temples look even more impressive and beautiful because they are located in the wild jungle. The combination of rough processed stone with untouched wildlife has always been strangely harmonious.

Interesting Facts

In 1999, the Michonne Temple was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Since the Champa culture was influenced by India, Michonne is designed in architectural style characteristic of this country.
The sanctuary originally consisted of 70 buildings, but today only 25 have survived.
French historians call Michonne the “Valley of the Royal Dynasty” because most of the towers were built in honor of the Cham kings.
Each tower is symbolic: its base is the world of people, the tower is the world of spirits, and the lotus-shaped top part– the connection between these two worlds.

How to get there

The ruins are located in the heart of Vietnam, so getting to them will not be so easy.

An Hoa domestic airport is located not far from the temple complex. You can fly from any resort for 30-40 minutes to Duy Xuyen District, Quang Nam Province and then take a taxi or rent a motorbike to the attraction. The journey will only take about 10 minutes.
Also, you can get there by rented vehicle from nearby seaside towns.
Most often, tourists visit Michon not on their own, but as part of a group excursion. This is much more convenient, because you will be taken in a comfortable bus to the ruins, and the guide will tell you many interesting things. historical facts. But in Lately More and more travelers prefer to get to know the country on their own and apart from tourist groups.

Contacts

Address: Duy Ph?, Duy Xuy?n, Qu?ng Nam, Vietnam

White dunes - unique sands in tropical Vietnam The White Dunes are one of Vietnam's incredible natural attractions. They are endless desert plains covered with milky white and soft yellow fine and clean sand.

After several trips to Vietnam, I got the impression that the country has nothing to offer tourists as historical attractions. Everything was destroyed either during the transition to communism or by American bombing. The Hue Citadel and the tombs of the emperors, of course, make an impression, but this is in no way a heritage of antiquity, and the capitals of Vietnam are generally completely devoid of any artifacts of distant history.

Still, there are such places in Vietnam, although they belong to a culture that has nothing to do with the Vietnamese, but with ancient people Champa (Champa), who ruled central and southern Vietnam in the 5th-16th centuries AD. Champa, like Bali, was a fragment of an ancient influential culture professing Hinduism that inhabited most of Southeast Asia in the early to mid-1st millennium,

One of the monuments of this lost empire is Michon (or My Son - My Son Sanctuary), located near Da Nang and Hoi An. Michonne began to be built in the 4th century AD. and continued to build and renovate until the 14th century until this entire territory came under the control of the Vietnamese, after which Michonne was abandoned, forgotten and practically destroyed by American bombing. These temples, oddly enough for these places, were built by followers of Hinduism and dedicated to Shiva.

It is quite difficult to get to Michon by public transport, many do not hesitate to go to Michon in the best Vietnamese traditions on a motorbike, but from Da Nang it will be too tiring, there is nothing particularly picturesque on the road to Michon, so we limited ourselves to a taxi through the hoianprivatecar service.

Michon is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and everything here is organized very civilly with parking, an electric car from it to the temples, a museum and, of course, an entrance fee - 150 thousand VND.

All monuments are clearly marked in English. The area is not that big, but you will have to walk around. It took us 2.5 hours to climb around the ruins.
Even during the first attempt to restore Michonne by the French, the ruins of the temples were divided into groups according to their location: the most studied and preserved groups A, A", B, C, D, E, F, and G and the groups H, K, and still swallowed up by the jungle L. If you follow the signs on the plan, the trail forms a complete circle, but we noticed that locals go directly to the best preserved BCD groups.

We followed the signs through a neatly planted alley. The nature here was reminiscent of Laotian Phonsavan.

There is practically nothing left of the temple, marked on the diagram with the letter K, and we didn’t notice temple N at all, so this long part of the trail is not of particular interest.

The northern end of the trail is where most of the surviving groups of ruins are concentrated.

Groups F and E are few in number and very poorly preserved.

At the head of any group was the main temple, the remaining buildings had auxiliary significance. So apparently the restoration is going on.

There is something to restore. In total, the French found and described 71 churches; during the carpet bombing of the Vietnam War, 50 of them were almost completely destroyed. Bomb craters are especially noticeable around the temples of groups F and E.

On the foundation stones there are traces of either bullets or shrapnel.

The Chams were culturally dependent on Indian culture and religion, which penetrated them along with trade flows from Siam and Cambodia. Michon in architectural style is related to the pre-Angkor Khmer monuments (Rolous Group, Bakong), Hindu monuments on the Javanese Dieng Plateau, Myanmar Bagan.

For example, almost exactly the same cow caught our attention in Siem Reap when examining the Preah Ko temple in the Roluos group.

The only sculpture we saw in Michonne.
Surviving foundation stones serve as one of the main sources of information about Michonne for scientists.

Group G was built in the 12th century, which may be why it looks better preserved. This group of temples was built on a hill, which scientists consider to be borrowed from Khmer architecture.

The temple looks great on a cleared hill against the backdrop of green hills and has probably already undergone some kind of restoration.

The main temple is decorated with bas-reliefs.

And from every corner it is guarded by Garuda, which can often be found in the architecture of the Javanese version of Hinduism.

In the morning, traditional Cham dances are held in Michonne. I don’t know what value they represent from a cultural point of view, but they look very organic in the decoration of the temple.

The Chams, even ethnically, are very far from the Vietnamese and represent a branch of the Austronesian ethnic group, even their language belongs to a different group and is more similar to the indigenous Javanese or Malay.
After the fall of the Champa Empire, the Chams moved to Cambodia, a large population continues to live in Vietnam, due to the will of time, the Chams now profess Islam, but traditional Hindu rituals still live from generation to generation.

The ruins of Michon are a real city-museum of the state of Champa. The ruins of Michonne were listed by UNESCO in 1999 historical heritage. In the vicinity of Da Nang, tourists will be able to see the ruins of 17 towers and temples from the 13th and 14th centuries, which are often compared to the ancient capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya, and the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia, despite their more modest scale.

History of the Michonne complex

What is now the ruins of Michonne was dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva when built and was used until the 14th century. The history of this place was extremely rich: all significant religious rites and ceremonies took place here, in which people took part outstanding people of that time and the monarchs of the Cham kingdom. At that time, there were up to seven dozen different religious buildings and temples. During the bloody Vietnam War, the ruins of Michon were practically wiped off the face of the earth, however, despite this, for believers this place continues to be a revered shrine, and for tourists it is one of the main attractions of this part of Vietnam.

Ruins of Michonne today

The Michon complex near Da Nang today occupies a fairly large area. At the entrance, in the building where tickets are sold, there is a museum dedicated to the history of Michonne. Here visitors can look at several exhibits, maps, documents and descriptions on English language. Before heading to the Michonne ruins, it is worth visiting the museum to get an idea of this ancient complex. It is convenient to move around the complex using the map printed on back side entrance tickets. All temples and buildings are marked with Latin letters alphabet A,B,C,D and so on, but only some of them are accessible to visit. The most popular are the ruins marked on the map with the letters B, C, D, and group A is just piles of stones and hills overgrown with grass. As of 2013, temples E and F are under restoration, G is closed, and there is simply no access to L. All groups of objects are located at a distance of no more than one hundred meters from each other, so inspection and photographs will not take more than an hour. Also on the territory of the ruins of Michon today there is a cultural center where tourists can watch a traditional Cham show with songs and dances. It is shown daily at 09-30, 10-30 and 14-30. Cultural Center is located on the way from the entrance to the ruins themselves, so it is impossible not to notice it.

Helpful information

Opening hours: the ruins of Michon are open to the public daily from 06-30 to 16-00
Cost of visit: the entrance fee for visiting the complex is 100,000 Vietnamese dong (about $5). A one-day excursion from Da Nang will cost 180,000 dong (about $9) including the entrance fee to the complex. Parking near the complex costs 2,000 dong ($0.1).
How to get there: tourists usually go to Michonne as part of an excursion group, but you can get here on your own by taking a taxi for the whole day (about $20) or renting a motorcycle (about $6 per day). Michon is 80 kilometers from Da Nang, and there are signs along the way. The exit from the highway to the ruins is also marked by a large and visible signpost.

The Cambodian shrine of Angkor Wat is famous all over the world and tens of thousands of tourists come to Cambodia every year to visit the most famous and largest temple complex in the world.
But not everyone knows about the existence of another temple complex, which in terms of significance in the Hindu religion is equated to the famous Angkor Wat. This is Michon, a temple complex of the Champa Empire, which is located in central Vietnam.
Unfortunately, the temples and towers of Michonne, which stood for more than 1,000 years, were mercilessly destroyed by American bombing during the Vietnam War in 1969. 50 out of 70 buildings. Almost completely.
No words...

2. The ruins of the My Son temple complex are located in the jungle of Quang Nam province, about 50 km southeast of Hoi An.
Having been forgotten under the cover of the jungle for more than 4 centuries, Michon was accidentally discovered by a group of French archaeologists in 1885.
In 1999, Michon was included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List and active research papers and work on arranging the complex for tourists to visit.

3. Between the IV and XIII centuries. In this area of Vietnam, a unique civilization developed, the spiritual foundations of which were closely connected with Hinduism.
The Chams, or chams (cham in Vietnamese, but Russian pronunciation varies) were originally Hindus, worshiped Shiva and considered themselves followers of Shaivism, but after the 10th century something changed, and their religion became more similar to Islam. All their temples and relics found indicate that the Chams were Hindus; later buildings prove the presence of Islam in their life.
Michonne was the capital of the Champa Empire from the 4th to the 12th centuries.

4. How did Michonne come about?
In the 5th century, the famous Cham king Bhadravakman I decided to find a quiet, secluded place to build a temple to praise the cult of Hindu deities. The Mytho temple complex was built in a gap between the mountains, not far from the village of the same name.

5. About 70 structures were erected - temples and towers dedicated to the gods Shiva and Vishnu, as well as royal tombs. Each tomb had steles engraved with the names, dates of life and achievements of the kings and members of the royal court who had the merit of building this temple complex.
Subsequently, Michonne also became a place of worship royal dynasties chams

6. The most famous tower, 24 meters high, was decorated with sculptures of lions and elephants. It was destroyed during the war in 1969 by American bombing. During these bombings, 50 of the 70 temples described in the first half of the 20th century by archaeologists from the French Institute of the Far East were completely or partially destroyed.

7. Michon was a religious shrine until the 13th century, then the state of Champa was completely destroyed by the modern Vietnamese, leaving only small groups that still live in the mountains of central and northern Vietnam. Accordingly, these temples were practically forgotten

8. According to some researchers, the Michon sanctuary was the spiritual center of the ancient Cham state, similar to what is now preserved in Cambodia - famous temples Angkor Wat. The local temples and towers are indeed very similar to Angkor Wat, and images of Indian gods are clearly visible in the architecture

9. There are quite a lot of images of gods, they are different, and some of them do not have faces

10. When you look closely at the figures, you get the feeling that the faces have been “removed” from the walls, replacing them with “dummies”

11. However, this applies not only to absent persons

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14. You can now get inside many tombs

15. Some of them managed to survive even after the American bombings, some were restored

16. There are no identical tombs here. Each of them is different from the next one

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18. Now all the temple buildings of Michon are almost completely destroyed, only their foundations remain. The complex consists of several groups of temples, but only one of them has clear features. The towers are clearly visible in it, and the buildings have been preserved almost in their original form.

19. During the Vietnam War, the US Air Force bombed them mercilessly because... The American command had assumptions that the headquarters of the Vietnamese partisans was located in Michonne.
Most of the surviving figures of dancers and Hindu gods were transported to the Cham Sculpture Museum in Da Nang.

20. Some figures can be seen not only in Da Nang, but also here in Michon.
Several former tombs are equipped with an exhibition of figures and sculptures found on the territory of Michonne

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24. In this architecture, many different lingas have been preserved, including the most important one, as a symbol of childbirth and worship of the god Shiva.
I’ll talk about lingams in a separate story.

25. There are very few tourists in Michonne, which made me incredibly happy as a photographer.
It doesn’t often happen these days that you can calmly take photographs in such ruins without crowds of people

26. Michonne's main tower

27. In addition to the central group of temples, some towers overgrown with vegetation can be found at some distance

28. There are 6 such groups in total.

29. Indian ornaments on the remains of temple walls

30. What is also worth noting is that despite the fact that the site is under the protection of UNESCO, you can walk everywhere. you can touch everything. No fences, fences, prohibitions, etc.

31. Some buildings show that they were restored - along with old masonry fresh brick visible

32. But natural and climatic factors in these parts will quickly do their job and after a dozen or two years the “renewals” will become completely invisible