My Son Sanctuary, Vietnam


	My Son. City of the Cham. UNESCO article

	My Son: Before It's Ruined. Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel article

A Stark Reminder of the Destruction of the Vietnam War
My Son, located in Southern Vietnam, was a center for spirituality and worship during the reign of the Champa Kingdom. The My Son Sanctuary, which exemplifies the height of Cham architectural achievement, is a large complex of religious monuments originally comprised of more than 70 structures; the vestiges of 25 of these structures remain today. The builders of My Son were the nobility of the Champa Kingdom who derived their cultural and spiritual influences almost exclusively from India.

My Son was once a veritable forest of towers, many of which were destroyed by the ravages of time and war. This unique site is now in a state of significant disrepair, urgently requiring conservation efforts.

The archeological site represents the longest continuous occupation for religious purposes, not only of the Cham Kingdom, but also within Southeast Asia as a whole. The site was inhabited from the 4th until the 15th century AD, far longer than any of the other Indian-influenced sites in the region including the more famous sites of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Borobudur in Indonesia, Pagan in Myanmar, or Ayutthaya in Thailand.

My Son was once a veritable forest of towers, many of which were destroyed by the ravages of time and war. This unique site is now in a state of significant disrepair, urgently requiring conservation efforts.

GHF Results
My Son is a GHF project selected from the 2002 Site Nominations. We are grateful for our Trustee's support of conservation work at My Son Sanctuary for assisting with the authentic conservation of E7, a high priority temple at the most important archaeological site in Vietnam. Conservation efforts of E7 began in 2002. GHF is working in partnership with Lerici Institute towards stabilization and preservation of the last remaining 25 of 78 structures.