Mỹ Sơn Temple Complex , Vietnam ~~ Champa, the holy land of Shiva

~~ Mỹ Sơn Temple Complex , Vietnam ~~
-: Champa, the holy land of Shiva :-

[A large majority of its architecture was destroyed by US carpet bombing during a single week of the Vietnam War.]

The Mỹ Sơn temple complex is regarded one of the foremost Hindu temple complexes in Southeast Asia and is the foremost heritage site of this nature in Vietnam. It is often compared with other historical temple complexes in Southeast Asia, such as Borobudur of Java in Indonesia, Angkor Wat of Cambodia, Bagan of Myanmar and Ayutthaya of Thailand. As of 1999, Mỹ Sơn has been recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

Mỹ Sơn is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples constructed between the 4th and the 14th century AD by the kings of Champa (Chiêm Thành in Vietnamese).The temples are dedicated to the worship of the god Shiva. Mỹ Sơn is located near the village of Duy Phú, in the administrative district of Duy Xuyên in Quảng Nam Province in Central Vietnam. The temples are in a valley roughly two kilometres wide that is surrounded by two mountain ranges. From the 4th to the 14th century AD, the valley at Mỹ Sơn was a site of religious ceremony for kings of the ruling dynasties of Champa, as well as a burial place for Cham royalty and national heroes. It was closely associated with the nearby Cham cities of Indrapura (Đồng Dương) and Simhapura (Trà Kiệu). At one time, the site encompassed over 70 temples as well as numerous stele bearing historically important inscriptions in Sanskrit and Cham.

The over 70 temples and tombs extant at Mỹ Sơn have been dated to the period between the 4th century and the 14th century AD.
The earliest historical events documented by the evidence recovered at Mỹ Sơn relate to the era of King Bhadravarman I (Phạm Hồ Đạt in Vietnamese), who ruled from 380 - 413 A.D. At Mỹ Sơn, Bhadravarman built a hall to worship the god Shiva under the form of the Linga and under the name "Bhadresvara,".

King Bhadravarman caused a stele to be erected at Mỹ Sơn the inscription on which recorded his foundation. The stele indicates that the king dedicated the entire valley of Mỹ Sơn to Bhadresvara. The text ends with a plea from Bhadravarman to his successors: "Out of compassion for me don't destroy my gifts." Drawing upon the doctrines of samsara (that one will be reborn after death) and karma (that the goodness or badness of one's acts in this life will determine the conditions under which one is reborn), he added, "If you destroy [my foundation], all your good deeds in your different births shall be mine, and all the bad deeds done by me shall be yours. If, on the contrary, you properly maintain the endowment, the merit shall belong to you alone. "Bhadravarman's successors heard his plea, it seems, for Mỹ Sơn became the religious hub of Champa for many generations.

More than two centuries after Bhadravaman's foundation, the temple to Bhadresvara was destroyed by fire. In the 7th century, King Sambhuvarman (Phạm Phạn Chi in Vietnamese), who reigned from 577 - 629, rebuilt the temple, reinstalled the god under the name Sambhu-Bhadresvara, and erected a stele to document the event. The stele affirmed that Sambhu-Bhadresvara was the creator of the world and the destroyer of sin, and expressed the wish that he "cause happiness in the kingdom of Champa." The stele also applauded the king himself, claiming that he was "like a terrestrial sun illuminating the night" and that his glory rose "like the moon on an autumn evening."

One of the most important steles to be found at Mỹ Sơn is that erected by King Prakasadharma ( Po Kia Pho Pa Mo) in 657 AD. Subsequent kings renovated the older temples and constructed additional ones. For many centuries, the building of temples and shrines of varying sizes continued, and Mỹ Sơn served as the religious and cultural center of the Cham civilization in central Vietnam, as well as the burial place of kings and religious leaders. Most of the extant temples at Mỹ Sơn were built in the 10th century AD. Unfortunately, the inscriptions from this period have not survived. Cham kings continued periodically to renovate the temples at Mỹ Sơn and even to build new foundations. The latest significant Cham record at Mỹ Sơn is a pillar inscription of King Jaya Indravarman V dated 1243 A.D.

In 1937, French scholars began to restore the temples at Mỹ Sơn. In 1937 and 1938, the main temple known as "A1" and the smaller temples surrounding it were restored. Other major temples were restored between 1939 and 1943. However, many historical buildings were destroyed during the Vietnam War. United States B52 aircraft carpet-bombed the region in August 1969. The surrounding area is still rendered dangerous through the presence of unexploded land mines. The majority of the temple sites in the centre of the complex have survived to this day. However, worries persist regarding the structural soundness of the remaining temples, some of which are vulnerable to collapse. Although many statues have been removed to France or to historical museums in Vietnam, such as the Museum of Cham Sculpture in Da Nang, others can be viewed in a temporary museum that has been set up on site in two of the temples, with the funding of benefactors from Germany and Poland.