Mỹ Sơn
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How it came to be
My Son is a sanctuary of the Champa kingdom in a mountain basin in central Vietnam. King Bhadravarman, who reigned from 380 to 413, built a hall there to worship Shiva as Bhadreshvara and set up a stele dedicating the whole valley to the god. The inscription asks later kings not to destroy what he had given.
The first temple, built of wood, burned in a great fire in 535 or 536, and in the 7th century King Sambhuvarman rebuilt it. Most of the surviving towers are of brick and date from the late 10th and 11th centuries, with their carvings cut straight into the brick walls. The last major inscription dates from 1243, and by the early 15th century the area had passed to the Viet.
The forgotten ruins were found in 1898, and Henri Parmentier, who began his survey in 1899, counted 71 buildings. Many were damaged in the wars of the 20th century and have since been conserved. The sanctuary was inscribed in 1999.
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