My Son sanctuary belongs to Quang Nam city, about 70 km in Southwest from modern city - Da Nang, 40 km from Hoi An ancient town. It is a group of temples and towers lying in a large valley covered by the rolling mountains. This is such an extremely impressive position that tourists can not be missed when visit the Central parts of Vietnam.
Since 1999, My Son sanctuary and Hoi An ancient town were named in list of the World’s cultural heritage. Every year, this position welcomes a thousand of tourisits visit here where used to be a captical of Champa kingdom as well as the tomb of Champa king and princes.

Overview of My Son sanctuary
They always compare My Son sanctuary with the main group of temples in Southeast Asia like Borobudur ( Java, Indonesia), Pagan ( Myanma), Angkor Wat ( Cambodia) and Ayutthaya ( Thailand).
HISTORY OF CHAMPA KINGDOM
Like a number of other early Southeast Asian cultures, the Kingdom of Champa is not very well-known in the Western world. It survived from 192 to 1832 and Hinduism from India influenced the powedful country through trading activities. By late 13th century, Champa kingdom was attacked by neighbor countries like Vietnam, Chinese, and Khmer so they had to move the capital to the south of Binh Thuan province.Cham people worship three main gods: Brama- creator, Visnu – protector and Shiva – destroyer.
WHY SHOULD YOU VISIT MY SON SANCTUARY?
If you are a person who want to learn more about history and the hidden culture, My Son sanctuary is the best choice for you in order to discover. Long time ago, Hinduism is the religion of powerful class. Only priest, king and aristocrats were allowed to enter the sanctuary. Only shaman could enter the temple to pray.
Each temple has an entrance gate. Although outside of the temple is very high and fussy disposition, it is very narrow and dark inside, so this space doesn’t fit many people. It only uses for the priest to pray. Come to My Son, tourists also have a chance to view the design of Buddhist with lotus and engrave the pattern into the wall of the towers and temples.
In My Son sanctuary, tourists can view the writing alphabet of Cham people which appeared along time ago. The beginning of Cham kingdom and historical events were taken shape by this ancient language on the land tablets.


Apsara dance- perform folk dance of Cham people
Based on the sanscrit writing on the tablets, we are awared of the first temple was built from wood in the 4th century. Nevertheless, the wooden temple was totally damaged because of a fire in two centuries later. In later years, the Cham Kings continued to build more new temples and towers to worship the God, Saints and to show their power.
My Son is consist of 70 works divided into 10 groups (kalan). One Kalan has one main temple surrounded by many towers. All the temples and towers in My Son were built in a high hill and face to the East to get the most sunrise in all day. That’s the reason why in My Son, visitors feel hot at the biginning and get more light than other places.

LINGA AND JONI
In My Son sanctuary, tourists can regconize the appearance of Linga and Joni in all of sites here. Like Jesu statue in the church and Buddha statue in pagoda, Linga and Joni have an important role in Cham people religion. Linga represents Shiva, the most powerful God and Joni stands for Shiva’s Wife. On the other word, they symbolize for male and female characteristics. As Champa religion, people will scoop water into Linga- Joni statue and pray for instance if you want to have a son, just touch in Linga and to have a daughter, touch in Joni. Moreover, drinking the water from the chink of Joni, people believe that the wishes will be come true.

Useful informations

Nowaday, My Son becomes a famous tourist destination in central Viet Nam. There are many My Son tours from Hoi An operated by domestic as well as international company.
The ticket price is not too expensive (150.000VND), visitors can choose a private car or a motorbike to explore the hiddden beauties of beautiful landsape- My Son

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