The temple-towers of ancient Champa for the most part are religious buildings used for the practice of Hinduism and Buddhism. They were built with fired bricks, and stand in various parts of the coastal plain region of central Vietnam, in the area that extends from Ngang pass (Quảng Bình) in the north as far south as the province of Bình Thuận; there are also a few temples in the Tây Nguyên highland region.
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| Khu tháp Mỹ Sơn |
Other structures - including accommodation for the Brahmanist/Hinduist priests, houses of rest, defensive structures and service buildings - were built of wood and, as a result, no vestiges of them remain. These religious buildings represent the best available evidence for research into the economy, society, philosophy and arts of the civilisation of Champa, through all the centuries of its existence. At the present time, according to my reckoning, there remain a total of no more than twenty-four groups of temple-towers still standing, all of them located in the region between Quảng Bình and Bình Thuận provinces. They are as follows: Quảng Trị: Hà Trung (1 tower); Thừa Thiên - Huế: Liễu Cốc (2 towers), Mỹ Khánh (1 tower), Linh Thái (1 tower); Quảng Nam: Mỹ Sơn (68 towers), Đồng Dương (1 tower), Bằng An (1 tower), Chiên Đàn (3 towers), Tháp Lạng (2 towers), Khương Mỹ (3 towers); Bình Định: Thốc Lốc/Phú Lốc (1 tower), Cánh Tiên (1 tower), Bánh Ít/Tháp Bạc (4 towers), Thủ Thiện (1 tower), Dương Long (3 towers), Hưng Thạnh/Tháp Đôi (2 towers), Hòn Chuông/Bà Chằng (1 tower); Phú Yên: Tháp Nhạn (1 tower); Khánh Hoà: Pô Nagar Nha Trang (5 towers); Ninh Thuận: Hoà Lai (2 towers); Pô Klaung Garai (3 towers), Pô Ramê (2 towers); Bình Thuận: Pô Đam/Pô Tằm (5 towers), Phú Hài (3 towers); Đắc Lắc: Yang Prong (1 tower).
The great expense involved in the construction of these places of worship meant that almost all of them relied on the support of the royal family for their construction and functioning. The king also donated land to fund the practice of worship, as we know from an inscription of King Bhadravarman, who is known in Vietnamese historical records as Phạm Hồ Đạt, in Chinese historical records as Fan Hu-Da, and reigned from 380-413 CE. This king sponsored the construction of the fi rst temple for the worship of the god Bhadreśvara (Śiva) at Mỹ Sơn at the end of the fourth century or the beginning of the fifth century. Groups of temples were also built and repaired by dignitaries of the court, as an inscription at Pô Nagar Nha Trang informs us: at the beginning of the ninth century, Senāpati Par, a commander-in-chief of the army, made a religious donation by building a maṇḍapa for the religious complex there. The beauty of the temple-towers may be seen in a wide range of unique architectural styles and decorative motifs; it benefited too from a technological tradition of building in brick that, through a process of constant improvement over a period of many centuries, achieved a form of perfection. Indeed, the techniques used in the construction of the Cham brick temple-towers has been described by historians of arts and architecture as the most highly perfected in Southeast Asia, and gave rise to many impressive architectural edifices, especially those built between the late ninth and thirteenth centuries.
Temples in Cham Architecture
Cham architectural concepts were influenced by the Indian artistic tradition. Temples in Champa thus consisted of a religious complex including a main temple - known in Cham as a kalan — with several smaller shrines, auxiliary buildings and low surrounding walls. The kalan symbolises the sacred mountain of Meru, the cosmological axis and centre of the universe. The smaller shrines and low walls symbolise the heavenly bodies and oceans which surround the mountain of Meru. The main temple or kalan, was the most important edifice in the temple-tower ensemble. Representations of the Hinduist or Buddhist gods were worshipped in the kalan. Alternatively, a yoni-liṅga was set in the temple’s sanctum. According to the beliefs of Hinduism, the kalan was the god’s very place of residence. The body of the temple was conceived as a cave, and its roof was given the shape of a mountain peak (or śikhara), both being ideal places for the residence of divinities. The exterior walls of the temple were intricately carved down to the finest detail, but the interior walls remained entirely undecorated: inside the temple, there was nothing but a simple altar.
Almost all the kalan were built to face east, which is the direction of the gods and of the rising sun, where cosmological movement begins. Only at Mỹ Sơn, where the topography of the site’s narrow valley was used to symbolise a maṇḍala (a sacred geometric diagram in a square or a circle), there are kalans which face either east or west. One kalan was even built with two great doors facing east and west respectively: this is the Mỹ Sơn A1 temple-tower. In addition, a single group of towers was built on a mountain ridge with its kalan facing south, where there were extensive fields stretching towards the sea: this is the Pô Đam/Pô Tằm group, in the southern part of Champa.
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| Khu tháp Mỹ Sơn |
The sanctum (garbhagṛha) of the kalan was a narrow, confi ned space. This was the most sacred part of the temple where, at the very centre of the sanctum, the representation of the god or a yoni-liṅga was set on a square pedestal. The object of worship was placed on a yoni base, the channel (snāna-droṇī) of which was oriented to the north: this base was used to drain off the holy water used during the ceremony of bathing the icon. During ceremonies, the liṅga was concealed inside a covering sheath (kośa) made of metal alloy - gold/silver - onto which an image of the head of Śiva (mukhaliṅga) was attached. Several such metal-alloy heads of Śiva have been discovered in recent years: they are masterpieces of Champa artistic creation.10 A mukhaliṅga made of sandstone is still worshipped today at the sanctum of the Pô Klaung Garai temple. During ceremonies, stone objects of Śiva worship in the sanctum were also adorned with precious metals: a set of decorative dress made of gold - including a crown, earrings, a necklace, and chest, arm- and leg-adornments - was found at Mỹ Sơn in the small C7 temple, situated beside the main C1 temple where Śiva was worshipped in a standing position; this is a good example of this practice.
The sanctum also contains a square trench directly below the altar, for the draining of the holy water used during ceremonies. Examples exist in the Mỹ Sơn B1 and Mỹ Sơn F1 kalans. In some temples, a water-spout was made for the holy water to be drained (called a soma-sūtra), as may be found in the Pô Nagar Nha Trang kalan, the Mỹ Sơn A1 kalan, Mỹ Sơn C7, Chiên Đàn. Regarding the altar, a narrow space around it allowed passage in a clockwise direction during ceremonies (pradakṣiṇa-patha). Alternatively, in Buddhist temples such as the Buddhist foundation at Đồng Dương, the altar was set against the sanctum’s western wall, in front of which the faithful performed their rituals. A canopy was usually placed in the sanctum. Made of wood, and supported on four posts, it completely concealed the altar. Such canopies may still be seen in the Pô Klaung Garai and Pô Rame kalans; elsewhere, there remain only its four square stone bases, as in the Mỹ Sơn C7 tower. Today, Cham people call this wooden canopy janùk. The sanctum is a closed space, very dark and without windows; on three of the walls, as a result, there are small triangular niches where lamps (or ceremonial objects?) were set. Its interior walls were sometimes built unevenly - closing in here, opening out there - to give the impression of a cave, the preferred habitat of the god; remains of this uneven walling may be seen in the kalans at Khương Mỹ, Chiên Đàn, Bằng An, Bình Lâm, Thốc Lốc, Cánh Tiên, Dương Long and Hưng Thạnh.
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| Twin Tower Hung Thanh |
The sanctum opened through a doorway, consisting of a stone door-frame and a set of thick doors made of ironwood. Today, such wooden doors may still be seen in the Pô Nagar Nha Trang, Pô Klaung Garai and Pô Ramê kalans. At other sites, the doors have been lost, and all that remains are the round holes in the stone doorframe on which the hinges turned, as at the Mỹ Sơn C1, Dương Long and Hưng Thạnh temples.
A long narrow vestibule connects the sanctum with the temple’s main door. Here, a pair of nandi sacred bulls was placed, lying in atten-dance on the sanctum, as may be seen today in the Pô Klaung Garai and Pô Ramê kalans. This gloomy vestibule leading into the sanctum symbolised the passageway into the cave, a transition from light into darkness, into the divinity’s place of residence. In other words, it was through the confined space of the vestibule that the faithful were led from their world of complexity into a place of simplicity. Thus was facilitated the purification of the self, before it was joined with the divinity during the ceremony.
Two elaborately carved sandstone doorposts were placed at the vestibule’s entrance. These posts bear round, octagonal or quadrilateral shapes, carved with intricate motifs, which varied according to the artistic period and prevailing style. The different royal courts of Champa traditionally engraved inscriptions on these doorposts, as may still be seen at Mỹ Sơn, Pô Nagar Nha Trang, Pô Klaung Garai and Hà Trung.
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| Pô Klaung Garai |
Stone steps lead up to the entrance, and on either side of these there is a wall, the exterior side of which is decorated with different shapes. A half-moon shaped flagstone - or moonstone - is always set below the steps, carved with lotus petals.
Above the doorposts, a lintel is decorated with further motifs. Above the lintel, an oval tympanum made of sandstone bears a representa-tion of the god worshiped in the kalan. Almost all the extant tympana are complete works of sculpture of great artistic value; one of the preferred themes for representation on tympana was the image of Śiva performing his cosmic dance named Tāṇḍava. The image of Śiva in his destructive form was set on the main door to help maintain the temple’s purity, to ward corporeal and incorporeal defilement away from the sacred place.
Sandstone decorative features, such as doorposts, tympana and lintels, tended to be painted red to match the colour of the temple’s bricks; vestiges of this red paint are still preserved on doorposts at Mỹ Sơn.
The kalan was built according to a fairly basic model. It had a square body,14 and its roof rose to a summit through three tiers, culminating in a pinnacle-piece made of sandstone. Comparison with other Southeast Asian artistic styles shows that this structure was characteristic of Cham art.
Seen in the terms of the architectural concepts of Hinduism, the Champa kalan is composed of three distinct parts :
- The temple foundations, symbolising the world;
- The temple body, symbolising the spiritual world of the worshippers, the place where the faithful purify themselves to come into contact with their ancestors and join themselves to the gods, or sublimate their consciousness;
- The temple roof, symbolising the world of the gods, the place where the gods live and assemble.
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| Wooden canopy inside the temple, a reconstruction of Mỹ Sơn E1 altar temple |
The temple foundations were carved with a variety of images. These included representations of leaves and fl owers; animals such as elephants and lions; divine protectors standing in small archways decorated with kāla-makara; scenes from legends; heavenly dancing girls (apsaras) and musicians (gandharavas). Foundations built from the tenth century were often made of a combination of brick and sandstone, as may be seen at the Mỹ Sơn B1 kalan, or overlaid with sandstone, as at Khương Mỹ, Chiên Đàn and Bánh Ít/Tháp Bạc. The carved images around the foundations generally represent various scenes of the heavenly world, the divinity’s home.
The temple body is decorated with rows of pilasters and inter-pilasters. There are usually five pilasters carved in bas-relief into the exterior walls of the temple, with the main one in the centre concealed by a false door. The kalan false door was a work of great intricacy which, set off against the highly original arcature (toraṇa) - a wall-arcade with sophisticated carving - contributed greatly to the artistic value of Cham temple-towers. In the false door, the figure of the divine protector of the world (lokapāla) was represented standing in attendance with folded hands on his chest, holding a lotus flower. Over each of the three false doors, a tympanum made of brick or stone generally bore images of the goddess Lakṣmī, wife of the god Viṣnu, being the goddess of beauty, wealth and affl uence; the temple relied on her help to maintain its prosperity.
The bases of the tower adjoin the foundations, and at this point each short pilaster was decorated with the multi-layer shape of the boddhi tree’s leaf; or with small arcatures carved with flowers and leaves.
The cornice which accomplished the transition from the wall to the roof was built to mouldings and intricately carved with friezes of fl owers and leaves. At each corner, the cornice was decorated with heavenly apsaras, sea monsters (makara), or stylised sacred flames which showed considerable variation from one period of artistic style to the next. At each of the four corners, there are four miniature corner-towers on the roof each representing a small elaborately decorated temple.
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| The structural technology of a Cham temple tower |
The constant recurrence of complex decorative motifs on both large and small elements of Cham temples may be interpreted, in the light of Hinduist philosophy, as a representation of the eternal cycle of time and the cosmological eras, as well as the endless rebirth of humans into life. It was precisely here, inside the temples, that the faithful expressed their sincere yearnings for the supreme release, thanks to the intervention of the divinity.
The temple roof is made up of three tiers, a pinnacle-piece and a crown; it tapers as it rises, symbolising a mountain. Each layer was built to represent a small temple with a complete range of temple features, including pilasters, false doors, temple foot, cornices and so on. The pinnacle was decorated with images and statues of the 33 gods of Hin-duism, such as the sacred goose haṃsa, the sacred bird garuḍa, the sacred bull nandin, elephants and lions.
Four miniature corner-towers were placed on each corner cornice of each of the roof’s three tiers, and each of the tiers symbolised a stratum of the heavens, of the divinity’s place of residence.
The pinnacle-piece was placed on top of the third tier: this is a large piece of octagonal, quadrilateral or triangular shaped stone carved with the mask of Kāla - the god of time - or images of the sacred serpent nāga and the sacred bull nandi. These pieces survive at Mỹ Sơn, Chiên Đàn and Pô Klaung Garai. As in the śikhara-style temples of northern India, the pinnacle-pieces are called āmalaka.
The temple crown is a four-sided pointed block of stone placed on the pinnacle-piece; its lower section was decorated with lotus petals, symbolising the sacred mountain of Kailash, where the god Śiva lives; it was usually covered with precious metals to enhance the beauty and dazzling impressiveness of the temple. Being the temple’s highest point, the crown is shaped like a lotus fl ower (padma) to symbolise the supreme release and the transcendence of time and space; its pillar (yūpa) symbolises the virtue of the king and royal family. This is the point where the temple diffuses its mystical energy into the cosmos, carrying with it the uplifted consciousness of the faithful. The crown is also the very axis of the cosmos, the place where the individual ego (ātman) merge into the super ego of the cosmos (Brahman).
The upper strata of a Cham temple include multiple details of great complexity, each of which expresses the individual genius of its parti-cular artistic style. These may be considered as unique offerings placed, in magnificent diversity, on the architectural temple-towers of South-east Asia.
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| Khu tháp Mỹ Sơn |
Spatial Structure
Cham temple-tower groups generally respect the following spatial arrangements :
The kalan is at the centre. A gate-tower (gopura) stands opposite the kalan, with its two gates aligned east-west. In front of the gate-tower, there is a maṇḍapa, a type of long house with a tiled roof, multiple windows and two main doors to the east and west: this served as a preparatory hall where the faithful quietened their minds, prayed and prepared offerings and sacred songs and dances before proceeding, purified, into the kalan for the ritual.
In Champa architecture there are three types of maṇḍapa : (1) one without enclosing walls, which relies instead on large brick or stone columns to support a tiled roof, as may be found at Pô Nagar Nha Trang, Đồng Dương; (2) one with enclosing walls pierced by multiple windows, as at Mỹ Sơn D1, D2; and (3) one using wooden pillars to support the roof, as at Pô Klaung Garai. In a temple-tower group, the maṇḍapa is found in the following combinations: (a) gopura-maṇḍapa-kalan (with a maṇḍapa without enclosing walls); (b) maṇḍapa-gopura-kalan (with a walled maṇḍapa).
In front and to the right of the kalan, a store was built for the objects of worship (kośagṛha). This is a brick structure with a boat-shaped roof and one or two rooms; the main door was always built to open to the north, in the direction of Kuvera, the god of good fortune; and two windows with sandstone bars at its eastern and western sides. This tower was also used to cook the food offered to the divinity: the Cham community in Ninh Thuận and Bình Thuận today call it the fi re-tower. This fire-tower symbolises the treasury and prosperity of the realm. It may also have been where the sacred fl ame (Agni ) was kept while rituals were performed in the temple.
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| The fire-tower of Mỹ Sơn B5, the sanctuary’s treasure house |
A low brick wall was built around the kalan, smaller shrines and subsiduary edifices. The wall was never higher than 2.5 metres; it formed a perfect square; its ends joined at the gate-tower. In Indian architecture, these low walls symbolise the ranges of mountains which surrounded the seas around the cosmological mountain of Meru, symbolised itself by the main tower in the group. Outside the wall, it was common to build stele-towers where inscriptions on stone were raised.
In a unique case at Mỹ Sơn, there are six shrines located around the kalan A1 (aligned with the two main doors of the A1 temple), where eight divinities associated with the eight directions of the heavens (aṣṭadiśpālakas) were venerated: these protected the temple from the north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest (these shrines are now known as the A2-A7 towers). Each guardian deity was represented seated on his own particular vehicle (vāhana) such as a bull, horse, rhinoceros or swan, exclusive to that deity. In Mỹ Sơn B group, seven stars (saptagrahas) were worshipped in seven shrines (B7-B13): these were the gods of the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. They protected the main B1 temple from the different directions around it.
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| My Son sanctuary |
Apart from the major complexes at Mỹ Sơn, Đồng Dương and Pô Nagar Nha Trang, and the distinct groups of towers such as Bánh Ít/ Tháp Bạc, Cánh Tiên, Pô Klaung Garai and Pô Ramê, in Champa architecture there are several groups which contain three kalan built alongside one another, as at Hoà Lai, Khương Mỹ, Chiên Đàn, Hưng Thạnh/Tháp Đôi and Dương Long. Of the 24 groups of towers extant today, there are only 5 with 3 kalan. All five were built on fl at ground or low earthy knolls.
Their construction often lasted several decades. For example, construction of the Hoà Lai group started at the end of the eighth century and was completed around the middle of the ninth; work on the Khương Mỹ group started in the early tenth century and was completed in the eleventh; the Chiên Đàn group was built from the late eleventh to the mid twelfth centuries; the Hưng Thạnh group was built in the late twelfth century; the Dương Long group was built in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and perhaps improved up to the end of the fi fteenth century (before 1471).
Although three-kalan groups were built up to the thirteenth century, construction on only two of them - Hưng Thạnh and Dương Long - commenced at the same time. This suggests that, up to the end of the twelfth century, Champa temple-tower groups were made up of a single kalan and a number of subsiduary temples; after that date, the three-kalan group model evolved out of this.
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| The ground-plan and section of Mỹ Sơn B, C and D Groups |
This development is demonstrated by the temples built before the appearance of the three-kalan group model, whereby smaller temples were usually constructed beside a single main temple, as we can clearly see at Mỹ Sơn A, B and C groups. These groups are of two types: (1) one with smaller subsiduary temples built right beside the main temple; (2) one with the smaller subsiduary temples built parallel with the main temple. The dimensions of these subsiduary structures gradually grew until they were built of a size equivalent to that of the main temple: hence the appearance of the three-kalan group.
If it is said that the three-kalan group appeared at the same time, around the end of the twelfth century, this is because that was when they received influence from Angkor period Khmer temple-tower architecture in Cambodia. In the process of development from groups with a single main temple and several subsiduary temples to the three-kalan group, Champa architecture came under multiple influences from neighbouring artistic styles, including those of Java (Indonesia) during the ninth and the tenth centuries and those of the Khmer (Cambodia) during the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries.
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| The composition of the temple of Mỹ Sơn A1 temple-tower |
Construction Materials and Technology
Champa temple-towers were built according to the traditional technology of Indian religious architecture, which combined horizontal rows with upright axes. The durability of the edifice is clearly demonstrated in the rows of vertical pilasters combined with horizontal stone or brick lintels. These were fixed to the walls by means of corbels. Corbel technology requires bricks to be laid on top of one another in individual rows and mouldings; the bricks protuded horizontally at each level, creating an empty space between the two walls; they gradually tapered in towards the top before meeting to form a single final row of bricks at the highest point. The use of corbel technology gave the towers their strong and magnificent beauty, which was further enhanced by the rows of vertical pilasters and horizontal lintels. Inside the tower, thanks to the use of corbels, the Cham people created for their temple a spacious area, with the upper arch formed by a horizontal moulding, giving it a fi ne appearance. Arch technology, whereby the structure is held up by a single piece of stone or brick at the top (keystone), was commonly used by ancient Roman architects but rarely creates a spacious inside area, especially in structures of relatively small size. By contrast, the application of corbel technology in Indian architecture created an airy inside space, convenient for the purposes of worship even in small structures of low height.
Champa temple-towers were built of fired bricks, to which decorative elements were attached; they supported stone features such as the temple crown and summit-piece, doorframes, pillars, lintels, tympana, cornices, friezes, foundations and so on.
In general, the people of Champa fired their bricks at a low heat, making them relatively soft (with the exception of a few bricks that, for technological reasons, were overfired, forming stoneware: these were found at several sites at Mỹ Sơn). The bricks are of various sizes, mostly around 30 cm × 20 cm × 10 cm. It is possible that Champa bricks were fired in a type of semi open-air kiln, as local people in central Vietnam still relate with admiration. The very fact that these brick towers without visible mortar layers have remained stable for a thousand years serves as living evidence for the brick-building talent of the people of Champa. The towers have suffered the effects of rain, sun, wind and sand only in the gradual erosion of their surface features: it is not easy to remove bricks from the walls.
According to a number of early hypotheses, the people of Champa used a type of vegetable resin - which today’s local population calls dầu rái and which comes from the tree Dipterocarpus Alatus Roxb - as a bonding agent to fix the bricks together. This tree was planted to form forests in central Vietnam; its trunk is broad, round, tall and straight; its resin can be harvested annually in large quantities, has strong adhesive properties and is completely waterproof. The resin is extremely easy to use: it is mixed with clay or brick powder to form a mortar which dries and hardens easily in the sun. The tower walls are very thick, measuring 1 m to 1.5 m. The hollow space inside was padded with brick fragments glued together with resin. Only the two outer walls were built with regular bricks, which were filed and polished after construction. Once the wall was built, the sculptors started work engraving their motifs directly on the brick. After completion, the wall was coated with a layer of resin to protect the exterior of the tower and prevent damage from sun and rain.
Today, this resin is still very widely used by the people of central Vietnam, especially in the building of boats and junks. It is usually mixed with lime extracted from clam shells and plastered on the boat’s hull or joint lines (where the planks are connected) for waterproof.
Chemical analysis of the adhesive properties of the resin, as applied in the construction of the most recent temple-towers, shows that the Cham did use a locally available type of vegetable resin to join the bricks together, and that the bricks used were fired at an average heat of less than 850°C.23 Furthermore, comparison with the most adhesive vegetable resins currently used by the inhabitants of central Vietnam renders this theory - that the people of ancient Champa used dầu rái resin in their construction of the towers - extremely convincing.
The towers were repaired and improved continuously over the cen-turies. The rulers of Champa, after ascending the throne, often extended or improved an old temple built by their predecessors, expressing thereby reverence for their forefathers and the deities of the realm: such restora-tion work is often mentioned in Champa inscriptions on steles.
They generally restored only the exterior walls of the temples, while the interior was maintained in its original state. At several groups of towers, construction and improvement work was carried out over a period of several decades. When improving an old temple, the original decorative features were reproduced: many decorative motifs were thus reused from century to century, undergoing little modification in the process. On the other hand, construction techniques changed greatly from one century to the next. When restoring an old temple, the people of Champa traditionally reused materials from earlier structures, especially those made of sandstone.
In the religious architecture of Champa, there was no tradition of construction using exclusively sandstone materials, by contrast with neighbouring architectural traditions. Champa technology is notable for its use of brick, while Khmer and Java technology stand out for their use of stone, as evidenced in Angkor Wat or Angkor Bayon (in Cambodia) and Borobodur or Prambanam (in Indonesia). This difference in building materials implied differences in construction technique, as well as differ-ences in the application of human resources to the construction project. The difference between these two tendencies - architectural tech-nology using bricks or stone - can explained principally in terms of the specific economic forms adopted by the respective ancient Southeast Asian civilisations.
Khmer and Java technologies were the technologies of agricultural societies, situated as they were in wide deltas (as in Cambodia) or on plains with andesite (mineral-rich) soils (as on Java). In these agricul-tural societies, kings, lords or chiefs could easily mobilise an abundant workforce for long periods of time: the workforce could be used to build temples made of sandstone or other stone materials, according to the wishes of the ruler.
The people of Champa, by contrast, were inclined to overseas com-merce. In commercial societies, the capacity for mobilisation of the human resources necessary for the construction of important religious buildings was more limited.
Champa lay on an international trade route; its people possessed a coastline of more than one thousand kilometres; its economy was based on seafaring and commercial exchange between the highlands and the plains: the people of Champa, as a result, were busy throughout the year with trade and the exchange of goods. Furthermore, the country’s agriculture was relatively undeveloped because of a shortage of land, in a region where agricultural land consisted only of small fi elds located alongside the short rivers of today’s central Vietnam. We should also note that the valleys of the longer rivers, such as the Thu Bồn river (Quảng Nam) or the Côn river (Bình Định), had more fertile soils and close links with the great ports of Cửa Đại (Hội An) or Cửa Thi Nại (Qui Nhơn): great numbers of temple-towers were built of brick in these areas as a result of the greater density of population these economic resources could support. This suggests that as soon as the necessary workforce was available for the construction of religious buildings, the kings of Champa immediately made use of it to raise larger and more magnificent architectural structures in the shape of temple-towers.
In general, agricultural societies were able to supply such workforces in greater and more stable quantities than commercial societies, relying, in particular, on the underemployment of farm workers between harvests, in an economy which in ancient times generally had no more than one annual harvest.
The building of a stone temple required a concentration of labour resources for the quarrying and transportation of the stone, and for all the other tasks up to the construction itself. A brick temple, meanwhile, did not require such a powerful workforce: a smaller number of workers, employed for the necessary period of time, could create temples of impressive size, as for example the tallest Champa temples of the Dương Long group (Bình Định), which are Southeast Asia’s tallest Hinduist buildings in brick (42 m).
Besides these differences of materials and construction technology, the ancient artistic traditions of Southeast Asia also had their own individual characteristics which distinguished them in a variety of ways. These particularly relate to the ground plan arrangements and the spatial conception of the model used for each group of temple-towers. The ground plan in Cham architecture often consists of no more than a simple square, while in Khmer or Java stone structures it is usually much more elaborate and complex. The Cham spatial model, based on several separate square blocks, is relatively monotonous, while the Khmer and Java models are more fully developed and comprise a variety of different shapes. The different spatial arrangements and architectural models refl ect differences of artistic consciousness, products of the specifi c ‘collective intelligence’ of each ethnic group and society in Southeast Asia.
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| Duong Long temple tower |
Considerations of Terrain
According to the Brhat Samhita scriptures of Hinduism, “The gods always play where groves are near, rivers, mountains and springs and in towns with pleasure gardens.”30 On the basis of this concept, sites for the construction of Cham temples were chosen in the following types of place: (1) in closed valleys, such as at Mỹ Sơn; (2) on plains, as at Đồng Dương; (3) on flat land beside great rivers, like the towers of Bằng An, Khương Mỹ, Bình Lâm and Thủ Thiện; (4) on hills beside estuaries and sea channels, as at Pô Nagar Nha Trang, Phú Hài and Linh Thái; (5) on hills beside rivers, like the Bánh Ít/Tháp Bạc (Fig. 9) and Tháp Nhạn groups; (6) on isolated hills in the middle of plains, like Thốc Lốc, Pô Klaung Garai and Pô Ramê; (7) on mountain ridges, like the Pô Dam/Pô Tằm group; (8) on the sea shore, as at Mỹ Khánh; (9) on the top of mountains, like Hòn Chuông/Hòn Bà tower; (10) in caves, like Động Phong Nha (Quảng Bình province), Động Tàng Chơn (Non Nước, Ngũ Hành Sơn, Đà Nẵng city).
For almost all the Cham temple-towers, the terrain was chosen on the basis of its association with a particular local legend, within the beliefs of Hinduism. These might involve a warning conveyed by a god in a dream, or a divinity’s birth, or the expression of gratitude to a local deity, or the marking of the site of a victory over an enemy and so on.
However, in the choice of site, the presence of a spring of sacred water, for use in rituals and sacrifices, was important: sites beside rivers and streams were often privileged. The flow of sacred water symbolised the goddess Ganga/Mahānadi, wife of the god Śiva. In addition, the great rivers and estuaries of today’s central Vietnam - such as Thạch Hãn (Quảng Trị), Thu Bồn (Quảng Nam), Trà Khúc (Quảng Ngãi), Sông Côn (Bình Định), Sông Ba (Phú Yên), Sông Cái (Khánh Hoà), Sông Dinh (Ninh Thuận), Sông Cà Ty (Bình Thuận) - all played an important role in the economic life of the people of Champa. As a result, almost all the temple-towers were sited beside rivers flowing out to the sea or associated with the ports which served as the commercial heart of each principality or vassal state of the country.
Mountains also played an important role in the choice of temple sites: the sacred mountain symbolised the Great Mountain God, or the god Śiva; examples include the sacred mountain of Mahāparvata/Hòn Đền (temple mountain)/Núi Chúa (mountain of God)/Núi Răng Mèo (cat’s tooth mountain) at Mỹ Sơn (Fig. 10); the mountain of Mò O/ Maha in the principality of Vijaya (in today’s An Nhơn district, Bình Định); the mountain of Lăng-già-bát-bạt-đa/Liṅgaparvata or Núi Đá Bia at Cả pass (Phú Yên); the mountain of Đại An in the principality of Kauṭhāra (Diên Khánh district, Khánh Hoà); the mountain of Chà Ban in the principality of Pāṇḍuraṅga (Ninh Phước district, Ninh Thuận). Isolated mountains on plains were also chosen, as these were often seen as sacred mountains.
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| Banh It tower |
- The first period, in the seventh to eighth centuries, was that of Hinduist architecture, mainly in the northern part of Champa. Epigraphical evidence suggests that bricks were used for building at Mỹ Sơn in around the seventh to eighth centuries. However, we also know that the Mỹ Sơn E1 temple was built with very low brick walls, and had four square stone pillar-bases supporting the wooden pillars set at the four corners of the tower; this temple did not have high closed surrounding wall, so there were no false doors; at the main door, two round pillars made of sandstone supported a sandstone pediment; the roof frame was made of wood, and covered with terracotta tiles or wood. Roof construction with corbel technology may not have been used during this period. Mỹ Sơn E1 temple is important, as it has preserved for us the most ancient style of wooden religious architecture, which dates from this first period and is mentioned many times in Cham epigraphy;
- The second period, from the late eighth to mid ninth centuries. During this period, modest Hinduist buildings of brick with low roofs were built with corbel technology in many places throughout both the northern and southern parts of Champa, up to the end of the eighth century. We may cite, by way of example, the main temple in the Phú Hài tower group, with its round brick pilasters similar to the two stone door pillars of Mỹ Sơn E1. False doors fi rst appeared on the tower walls during this period. In particular, the buildings at Mỹ Sơn started to take on more impressive proportions, suited to the site’s dignity as the sacred capital of the royal authority in the northern part of Champa: temples such as A’1, A’3, F1, F3 and C7, as well as the important C1 temple before it was restored in later centuries. In the south, we may mention the temples at Phú Hài, Pô Đam/Pô Tằm and Hoà Lai: of these, the group of three towers at Hoà Lai were impressive and elaborately carved brick constructions of great size. During this period, most buildings were made of brick, while sandstone was used to a modest extent in some sections, mainly for decorative purposes. Artistic influence from Funan and Chenla/pre-Angkor (Cambodia) appeared on some decorative features, especially on towers in the south;
- The third period, which lasted from the mid ninth century to the end of the tenth century, during the Indrapura dynasty. Hinduist and Buddhist buildings were built. During this period, there were relations between Champa and Java, especially in the form of pilgrimages to Java (Yavadvīpapura) made by high-ranking mandarins of the Indrapura court in the northern part of Champa, around the years 911-912.35 In particular, also in the north, many impressive Buddhist and Hinduist buildings were built in new styles. Buildings with surrounding walls and a square ground plan were widely preferred. More attention was paid to the use of sandstone, particularly for supporting weight. This was a period during which many outside factors - from Java and from the Khmer - infl uenced Champa architecture’s artistic evolution. The Mỹ Sơn A1 temple, built in the first half of the tenth century, was a masterpiece of architecture, both in terms of decorative art and building technology, on which this period - the high point of Champa’s artistic development - left its mark;
- The fourth period, from around the eleventh to the sixteenth centu-ries, is distinguished by the conservation of older styles and a certain stagnation of artistic creativity. During this period, the Hinduist and Buddhist courts wanted to display their authority through the con-struction of monumental buildings. These buildings, however, were often architecturally monotonous. Temples tended to be built on high hills, to enhance impression the impression they left on those who saw them. The architectural style integrated multiple outside ele-ments into its decorative features and construction technology, and temples were built taller and larger than during the previous periods. Many towers were decorated with larger pilasters - but these were left bare of carved decorations - and larger arcatures consisting of multiple layers of patterns. The use of sandstone was more highly esteemed and widely used, for both decorative and structurally supportive purposes, revealing a construction technology of great skill and sophistication in the combination of two types of material - brick and stone, which have very different supportive capacities and durabilities - in the same edifice. Most of the temple-towers were built around the commercial ports, centres of international com-merce and cultural exchange. The influence of Khmer art appeared on buildings raised during the late twelfth and thirteenth centu-ries, especially those of the Dương Long and Hưng Thạnh groups (Bình Định).
Source : Tran Ky Phuong
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