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Phan Thiet's Nghinh Ong Festival a Spectacle to Remember
...for Two More Years.

02.08.10 Yesterday's grand Nghinh Ong Parade kicked off at 5am in front of the Quang Thanh temple at the Phan Thiet Central Market. Complete with two dragon dancing troupes, lion dancers, acrobats, martial arts, stilt walkers, traditional music performaces, costumed dancing and much more, the performances "wowed" the entire city.

As is tradition, the finale was the arrival of Phan Thiet's nationally renowned Ky Lan, a mythical Chinese beast that is a chimera of a lion, deer and dragon. The Ky lan is thought to be a bringer of good fortune. The festival will not occur again for another two years.

Normally Phan Thiet's Ky lan only makes an appearance at the Nghinh Ong festival, however some of the performers said that they will be taking it for an appearance at the 1000 Year Anniversary Celebration in Hanoi next month.

See more photos from the Nghinh Ong Festival here.

Nghinh Ong - Quang Thanh Festival Opens

31.08.10 Phan Thiet’s grand Nghinh Ong- Quang Thanh Festival opened yesterday with a spectacular show at the Quang Thanh temple at Phan Thiet’s central market. The opener including lion and dragon dancing, martial arts performances and acrobatics, with a large traditional orchestra providing background music.

The star of the show by far was 16 year old Tuan Nhi from Phan Thiet. The pint-sized lion-timer leapt into the air with flying summersaults and acrobatics, spinning over the tops of a pair of lion-dance teams, whipping them into submission and directing epic battles between them.

The opening festivities mark Phan Thiet City as one of Vietnam’s greatest festival destinations. The grande finale of the festival is September 1 with a city-wide parade beginning at 5am and finishing in the early afternoon. What a pity the tourism office didn’t bother to advertise it to foreign visitors.

See more photos from the Nghinh Ong Festival here.

Thousands of Ancient Sa Huynh Relics Discovered in Phan Thiet

26.08.10 Thousands of Sa Huynh Culture artefacts dating back to the 5th Century BC have been discovered at Phu Truong in Phan Thiet City after three months of excavations.

The Vietnam History Museum and the Binh Thuan Province Culture, Sports and Tourism Department said on August 10 that the finds include 10,000 pottery pieces, 83 stone artifacts, and 13 copper, iron, and crystal items.

Pottery covered in floral patterns is a recurring theme. Archaeologists from the Vietnam History Museum and the Binh Thuan Antiquities department carried out the excavations and Nguyen Xuan Ly, director of the antiquities department, said the finds are between 2,000 and 2,500 years old.

Phu Truong (Phan Thiet) is now recognized as one of the country’s most important archaeological sites for Sa Huynh Culture relics, along with Doc Chua in southern Binh Duong Province and Chinh Spring in central Quang Ngai Province.

The Sa Huynh Culture thrived in central and southern Vietnam between 1,000 BC and AD 200, leaving behind artifacts like iron axes, swords, fine jewelry and knives inside burial jars. The Sa Huynh culture (named by archaeologists after the first village where relics were discovered in Quang Ngai Province) is thought to be the predecessor of the Champa kingdom. This find helps establish Phan Thiet, a major port city of the ancient Champa Empire, as one of the longest-continuously inhabited cities in Vietnam (sorry Hanoi...).

Sadly, Binh Thuan Province still has no history museum, so the fate of these relics is unclear, as none are available for public viewing.

Read more about archaeology and antiquities in Binh Thuan Province here.

Whale Funerals, Nghinh Ong & Other Festivals

24.08.10 It's festival season in Phan Thiet. Below we’ve outlined some of the fascinating events taking place very soon in our area.

Nghinh Ong

Driving around Phan Thiet, you won’t encounter anything to suggest that the largest cultural festival in Binh Thuan Province is happenting next week. It’s a pitty that there have been no advertisements or visible announcements because Phan Thiet’s Nghinh Ong festival only occurs once every to years. The festival falls on the middle of the 8th lunar month but the exact dates are adjusted by the government to compliment the September 2 National Day (a fairly boring day for foreigners unless you enjoy long-winded speaches by party officials, poorly-produced patriotic ballads, more hammers and sickles than a national army could use to build barns & cut hay, and hordes of Vietnamese families crowding the beach). This year Nghinh Ong falls on August 30, 31 and September 1.

The first two days of Nghinh Ong are marked by prayers, offerings, singing and traditional costumed opera in the temples of Van Thuy Tu and/or the temple behind the Ho Chi Minh Museum in Phan Thiet. The city-wide parade on the morning of September 1 is the main spectacle however, with dozens of troupes of dragon and lion dancers, martial artists, acrobats, stilt walkers, traditional musicians, costumed actors and more. The grand finale is a giant kylan (sort of a giant green dragon) dancing at the end of the procession. Phan Thiet’s kylan is nationally recognized as the country’s largest, at 49 meters long, with 19 body segments requiring 22 performers to control him at any given time, and a total of 125 trained performers throughout the parade.

Phan Thiet’s Nghinh Ong festival is a unique blending of the local whale-worshipping religion with ancient Chinese veneration of the deity Quang Cong, and a bit of Buddhism and Daoism thrown in for good measure. In the tradition of the parade, ethnic Chinese residents commune with Vietnamese fishermen to invite the spirit of the whale to join the spirit of Quang Cong in his own temple, ensuring a year of prosperity and safe sea travel for the year. All along the way the dragons, lions, Kylan and whale spirit stop at Buddhist temples and street shrines to gobble up ceremonial offerings and bestow good fortune on the devoted. Read more about the Nghinh Ong Festival and see photos on our blog.

A Whale Funeral

Seen as a particularly good omen for the festival, however tragic, a baby whale washed up into the mouth of the Ca Ty River last Sunday evening. Supposedly a resident recovered the body and tried to sell the corpse, weighing 40 kg, as meat in the market. Allegedly local residents identified it as not a fish but a whale, and persuaded the temporary owner to turn it over for an elaborate burial at the whale cemetery near Phan Thiet lighthouse, that very evening. The whale was buried with four others of varying sizes, and will remained interned for three years before it is exhumed in an elaborate ceremony and taken for permanent residence in one of the local whale temples. Read more about local whale-worship practices on our blog or check out our article for CNN.

Today: The Ghost Festival

Today (August 24) is the Ghost festival in Vietnam, one of the “Tet” holidays which includes the New Year and Mid Autumn Festivals. Today the devout believe that their ancestors return from the spirit world and commune with the living. Observances include offerings in homes and vegetarian banquets at pagodas.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Also known as the Lantern Festival and famous for “Moon Cakes”. This year it occurs the evening of September 22. Phan Thiet is nationally recognized for its flamboyant parade of school children carying themed lanterns and leading elaborate floats on the night of the festival. Read more about Phan Thiet's Mid-Autumn Festival, known as Trung Thu, on our blog.

Kate Festival

The Cham New Year is known as Kate, and celebrations are held at the Po Shanu Cham Towers overlooking Phan Thiet. Festivities including traditional music and dancing and a banquet for Cham participants. Undeniably the most interesting celebrations or in Phan Rang, Ninh Thuan Province. This is a good photo-op for Cham men and women in traditional costume. This year the day of celebration is October 7. Read more about the Cham Kate Festival in our blog.

Dinh Thay Thim

This festival, held in La Gi (southwest of Phan Thiet) celebrates an ancient husband and wife “sorcerer” duo that saved the town from a fatal epidemic due to their skills as herbalists. The festival is held yearly at the temple in their honor, and includes a popular evening fair, prayers and offerings by the devoted, and a rather impressive play recounting their supernatural deeds, complete with costumed performs, music, dancing, pyrotechnics, lion dancing and acrobatics. Even more impressive is the fact that this is an authentic religious-cultural display and not put on for tourism. This festival is slated for November 19 & 20 (the latter is also Vietnam Teacher's Day). Read more about Dinh Thay Thim on our blog.

Read more about the local festivals in Binh Thuan Province.

Phan Thiet’s OTHER Cham Temple
Under Threat

30.07.10 While everyone knows about Thap Po Shanu, the obvious Cham temple in Phu Hai that overlooks Phan Thiet City, nobody seems to be aware of the Cham ruins at Kim Binh, a small village just on the edge of the city in Ham Thang District. This is perhaps no wonder, since nothing has been done to study or protect them.

A large Buddhist pagoda has recently been constructed on one corner of the ruins. New Vietnamese grave boxes and lattices of squash vines are perched on another end, and dragon fruit cactus on the back portion. No care has been afforded the ruins whatsoever, which is surprising, given the large piles of bricks and pottery strewn about—indications that relics are still likely hidden underneath the piles. There are no free-standing walls visible, but there could be intact temple-tower foundations under the rubble. If of similar age to other ruins in the area, those at Kim Binh could be more than 1000 years old.

Residents say that a gold idol was unearthed from the pile, though claim it was later stolen. The monks of the pagoda have reclaimed 3 primitive idols from the ruins however, and house them in a shrine on the other side of the pagoda. The three images are granite slabs with the faces of Cham god-kings and goddess-queens carved in the surface.

As one of more than a dozen discovered ancient Cham ruins throughout the province, its unclear why the government has not sought to preserve them and develop a network of tourism sites to showcase the historical relics.

Read more about archaeology and antiquities in Binh Thuan Province here.

The Raping of Nui Ong: Local Wildlife “Farms” Destroying Binh Thuan’s National Parks

28.07.10 I was on the way to Nui Ong National Park in Northwest Binh Thuan Province. There’s very little infrastructure at the park’s main entrance—just some signs on trees displaying Latin names, and a designated parking area. (See the bottom of this page for a report on a previous visit to the park, or visit our blog for a photo essay.)

This time however, I was heading to an unofficial back entrance, closer to Phan Thiet. There the illegal loggers plough trails through the national park, removing bamboo, large trees and more wildlife.

I was utterly disappointed when I arrived, finding that since my previous visit one year ago, the forests of the national park had been dramatically thinned. What was once a dark and dense forest, thick with plant life and enormous towering trees, was now sparse with empty meadows and glens, patches of cropland, and streams of sunlight falling to the forest floor in every direction.

During my visit last year, the forest twittered, rustled, hummed and sang with the sounds of innumerable wild bird life. Torrents of butterflies pounded down the paths. Snakes, lizards and frogs hopped, ran and climbed through both the underbrush and canopy above. Now what was left of the forest was quiet and motionless, save for a vestige of butterflies. The loggers had drastically degraded the plant life, but poachers had taken care of the animals.

For the fate of Nui Ong’s animals, I must back up and recount what I encountered on the way to Nui Ong, halfway from Phan Thiet. From highway 1A there has been a sign visible for several years, advertising wild boar meat sold at a farm called “Ba Bau”. This time, the sign had been changed to more brazenly advertise a wide variety of animals, including porcupine, tortoises, civet and monitor lizard. I turned north from the highway, deciding to inspect the facility.

The place wasn’t difficult to find—there were signs directing where to turn. This place obviously wasn’t a secret. The friendly owner proudly welcomed me in and showed off the stock of animals, kept in damp, cement barracks in the back of the property, overgrown with vines from the outside. There were indeed a few porcupines, civet cats (known potential carriers of SARS) a dozen tortoises, almost twice as many bamboo rats, and even more monitory lizards.

“Did you breed these animals?” I asked.

“Oh no, none of them,” dismissed the owner, “except for the wild pigs.” She motioned behind us. There were half-a-dozen stalls of beautifully brown and white speckled piglets. “All the other animals I buy from people who catch them in the forests near the mountains north of here (Nui Ong).”

“But its OK” she quickly added. “The government knows what we are doing and they don’t care. We bought a license from them for a wild animal farm. After we buy that, we can do anything we like. They don’t care.”

I was horrified, sickened, but not surprised. In theory, she was wrong, what she was doing was illegal—not the intention of the law… in theory. In practice however, this seems to be exactly what is happening all over Vietnam. Small businesses buy these wild animal “farming” licenses then procure most or all of their stock from national parks—or may even be smuggling poached wildlife from surrounding countries.

Vietnam’s wild animal farming program isn’t limited to small mammals and reptiles however. It also includes large threatened or endangered species such as tigers, African Rhinos (see our blog for more on the Rhino problem) and bears, all with the intent of harvesting their body parts for traditional “medicine” to be sold here in Vietnam or in neighboring China.

“Who are your customers?” I asked the owner.

“Big restaurants and resorts in Mui Ne and Phan Thiet. They pay extra money so we can make a paper for them to make it look legal.”

In other words, restaurants, resorts offer exotic animals on their menu—porcupine, monitor lizard, turtle, tortoise, snake, civet, bamboo rat or something worse—assuring their customers that the wild animals on the menu are legally farm-raised—they might even show them the paperwork—but in fact, the meat on the dinner plate all came from the nearest national park.

There’s another dirty little secret that these restaurant owners haven’t told their customers however. The wild animals that they are eating—their meat is contaminated by parasites—and cooking them (particularly the sloppy and unsanitary methods used by these restaurants) doesn’t kill them all. Tape worms, flukes, heart worms, lung worms, bacteria and viruses—and they are all being passed on to the consumer. Even worse--though a customer may not order dishes made with these animals--the very presence of the animal or its flesh in the same restaurant may be introducing contaminants that could still make customers seriously ill. For this reason it is important not to eat at any restaurant serving wild animals.

Binh Thuan's Volcanic Zone Spawns Earthquake

04.07.10 A 4.5 magnitude earthquake struck 150km from the coast of Phan Thiet City last Friday, on June 23. The epicenter was in the vicinity of several semi-active undersea volcanoes and volcanic islands, including Phu Quy Island. Tremors were felt as far away as Ho Chi Minh city but no damage or tidal waves were reported. Aftershocks are likely in the weeks following but not possible to predict. The area endures earthquakes once every year or two, all of similar magnitude. Binh Thuan Province is seismically very active, with numerous dormant volcanoes on the mainland, several hot springs, and many volcanic rock and mineral deposits.

Read more about wildlife and conservation issues here, or visit our blog.

Gordon Ramsey Films in Phan Thiet

17.06.10 British Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsey visited Mui Ne this week to film segments for his new travel-adventure-food-series, "Gordon's Great Escape: Southeast Asia". Visit the Mui Ne blog "Fish Egg Tree" to read about how we were involved with pre-production for the show.

More Temple Ruins & Green Peafowl Discovered

23.05.10 On a recent expedition Adam Bray, a resident travel writer and freelance journalist, has located yet another undocumented set of ancient temple ruins. It is unclear whether the remains are from the Champa or earlier Funan Kingdoms. Stories of ghosts and monsters associated with this temple are recounted by families living nearby the ruins. Two foundation holes are visible in the sand, with red bricks strewn about. Villagers living in the surrounding area say that the temple ruins were desecrated and robbed several times from 1992-1995. The man responsible is a notorious tomb raider who has molested archaeological sites throughout the area. Villagers claim he carried off cartloads of statuary, steles with inscriptions, and gold artifacts dug from underneath the ruins.

In the process of locating the temples, Adam also may have stumbled upon a previously unknown population of green peafowl. These endangered birds are highly significant because they were previously only known to be located in Dak Lak (Yuk Don National Park) and Dong Nai (Cat Tien National Park) Provinces.

Both finds lend credence to the fact that Binh Thuan Province needs a well-managed National Park system to preserve these national treasures which currently have no protection and are under immanent threat.

Read more about famous people in Phan Thiet here.

Two Boys Drown in Construction Site

20.05.10 Update: Drownings continue at Doi Duong and bodies are still washing up on shire. Visit our blog to read about the in situ autopsy on one Victim under the Phu Hai Bridge.

20.05.10 Two 13-year-old boys drowned at an excavation site at Doi Duong beach in Phan Thiet city last Friday. According to rescuers, Nguyen Minh Thanh and Pham Hoang Khang were found dead in a three-meter-deep hole dug for a dyke. The hole, located at the seashore, is usually submerged at high tide, but the contractor, Thai Binh Company (Hai Phong City), didn’t post any warnings. After the incident the company decided to fill the hole. Residents said a few days ago they had rescued five local students who also fell into the same hole.

Read more about child welfare in Binh Thuan Province here.

May Day Offensive 40th Anniversary

01.05.10 April 30 marked Vietnam’s 35th anniversary, known as “Liberation Day.” May 1, or International Worker’s Day is a fitting follow-up. What many visitors may not realize is that this weekend is also the 40th anniversary of the May-Day Offensive.

On May 2-3 the Viet Cong capitalized on the growing anti-war sentiment ensuing from the My Lai massacre trials, the invasion of Cambodia and the Ohio National Guard shootings of students at Kent State. That weekend the communist forces attacked 77 US bases in a coordinated military offensive.

The LZ Betty in Phan Thiet was the hardest hit in a firefight that lasted 6 hours. In total, 7 US servicemen were killed and 36 injured. According to Task Force South intel on the offensive, communist forces in Binh Thuan Province lost 895 soldiers (killed in action), 50 soldiers were taken prisoner and 361 small arms were captured. Total American forces killed nationwide during the offensive were 76.

According to retired American serviceman Bryan Lagimoniere, “..for those of us who were there that night is forever logged into our minds.”

We offer our sincere condolences to the families on both sides who lost loved ones during this historic battle, and our thanks and gratitude to the soldiers who sacrificed for the cause of freedom and liberty.

Read more about the history of Phan Thiet here.

Mui Ne Business Owners Band Together
to Stop the Killings

15.04.10 Urgent: Yet another man was killed by an automobile last night--Mui Ne's friendly street-cart corn-seller. He was struck and killed by an car driven by an intoxicated Russian tourist, in front of Hot Rock. Another tourist was killed a week ago when struck by an automobile. This has been the bloodiest tourist season in Mui Ne ever, and Mui Ne may be setting records for foreign deaths in the entire country--at least Since the American War. There have been several tourists killed or gravely injured almost every week since the tourist season began last fall. This doesn't include the countless Vietnamese who are also killed several times a week throughout Phan Thiet City.

Some suggestions on how to stay safe in Mui Ne:

1. Please, please, please, do not drive yourself in Mui Ne unless you have a vietnamese license and several years of experience. Otherwise don't drive yourself by car and not by motorbike.
2. Please, please, please, stay on the sidewalk. many of the tourist deaths this season have been pedestrians. Stay alert when near the street!
3. As much as I hate to say it, bicycling really isn't safe in Mui Ne. Strongly consider it before you do it, and please do not let your children ride alone.
4. Though I really dislike Mai Linh and have witnessed them perpetrate hit-and-run accidents, they are much safer than going by motorbike driver.
5. If you are drinking, please do not walk long distances back to your room. Take a taxi.
6. If you think your driver is driving too fast, speak up! Make the driver slow down. Complain to your hotel if they arranged the driver. Refuse to pay if they don't slow down.

If you do drive:

1. Motorbike drivers must wear helmets. It's the law!
2. You must have a vietnamese license. Its't the law!
3. Do not ride with more than 2 adults on a motorbike. It's the law!
4. Do not drink and drive! Vietnamese often do it, and those that do are stupid, and they die because of it!
5. Drive slowly. Your life and the lives of those around you depend on it. If you kill someone, as a foreigner, you will automatically be considered the one at fault and you will be extorted for as much money as possible. You may not be allowed to leave the city until you pay up.

Many of the business owners/managers in Mui ne are banding together this week to start a grass roots road safety campaign. You may see posters and brochures and other related activities. Please help us support this effort. If we don't try to make a difference, nobody else will. How many more need to die? Ten more? Twenty? How about your family or friends? Lets work together to end the bloodshed and make Mui Ne a safe place again.

To read about the many fatalities in Mui Ne's ongoing road safety crisis, CLICK HERE

Kiteboard Tour Asia in Mui Ne

2010 Windsurf Fun Cup Tournament in Mui Ne

This year Mui Ne’s 11th Fun Cup featured more divisions, faster riders, more competition, and bigger prizes than ever before. Both days started with light wind, building up to 20 knots plus by the last race of the day.

Ov professional, women’s, and amateur categories were calculated with the point system to determine overall ratings. The professional division with the flying start gave a good chance to showcase positioning techniques, and the LeMans start for the amateurs and women allowed the crowd to enjoy watching the competitors jostle at the beachstart. A small shorebreak gave some trouble to those not used to these conditions, but all competitors soon got underway.

After the races, the award ceremony and barbecue party followed with such entertainment as vocalists, traditional Cham ethnic dancers, and DJ providing fun for all.

Results are as follows:

See you next year at the 2011 Fun Cup at Jibe’s!

Read more about Kiteboarding and Windsurfing in Mui Ne here.

Hotels and Restaurants Keeping or Serving
Wild Animals are Committing Crimes

It is a crime to eat wild animals or keep them as pets in Vietnam, now with a maximum fine of 500 Million VND and penalty of 7 years in a Vietnamese prison. Have you been offered rice wine with bear bile? Does your guesthouse or hotel keep monkeys, gibbons or loris in cages? Did you see tiger teeth or bear claw necklaces for sale in your hotel gift shop? Was wild deer, civet or a strange animal on the menu at your restaurant last night? Did your tour company take you too a farm raising bears, deer, leopards, monkeys or bright blue-green lizards? You may have witnessed a serious crime. Please call ENV's anonymous hotline below, or contact us and we will help look into it.

Read more about local wildlife and conservation issues on our blog.

Adam Bray Discovers Second Ancient Cham Temple in One Week

A second ancient Cham Temple site was discovered this weekend in Binh Thuan Province by resident travel writer, Adam Bray, while exploring the countryside. The temple sits on a mound in the middle of crop fields, and appears to support the remains of 4 structures, thought to have once been towers. The largest of the 4 still has 3 standing walls, though they are hidden among trees and vines. Weathered red bricks lay scattered about, along with the lintel of the temple entrance, though no statuary or decorative elements are immediately visible.

Adam Bray and a friend found another temple site buried in the jungle earlier in the week (see “New Discovery of Ancient Cham Tower by Resident Guidebook Writer” below), also in the general vicinity. Even more astonishing, locals have suggested a third undocumented temple site is also located in the area, though Mr. Bray did not have time to investigate yet. The discovery of several ancient Cham sites in the same locality in Binh Thuan Province is an exciting development because the Champa kingdom was not known to have large settlements in the area. Other temple sites, such as Thap Po Sha Nu, Thap Po Dam, and the recently-discovered temple at Thuan Hoa (see “Another Ancient Cham Temple Discovered in Binh Thuan Province” below), all date from the 8th-9th centuries. If these new temples also date from the same time period, it suggests a much more significant settlement at that period than previously though, and could change our understanding of Cham history overall.

Read more about Binh Thuan Province Antiquities and Cham temple ruins.

Another Ancient Cham Temple Discovered in Binh Thuan Province

06.10.09 Early this past summer, the Binh Thuan Antiquities Department excavated the foundation of a [relatively] recently-discovered ancient Cham temple ruins in Dan Hoa village, Thuan Hoa commune, Ham Thuan Bac district. The main body of the tower had almost completely collapsed, but 1.2m of the foundation remained, mostly buried under the soil. Local officials determined the structure to be from the 9th century, based on the style of foundation, bricks and un-named decorative elements.

The tower is located adjacent to a village of Nop (pronounced “nub”), a little-known local minority group that is not officially recognized by the government. Villages of Rai, another unrecognized minority group native (perhaps exclusive) to Binh Thuan, are also located in the area. (By unrecognized we mean not granted special status as an independent and unique ethnic group).

Villagers stated that they have known about the tower ruins for quite some time but left it relatively undisturbed, for fear of offending the spirits of the temple. They said that tomb robbers (most likely ethnic Vietnamese living in the nearby town of Ma Lam) desecrated the site about 2 years ago, at which time authorities took note and then determined to excavate the site this year. The excavation lasted for about 1 month, according to villagers.

The site is unkempt and has grown over with vines and shrubs since. It is now difficult to see the ruins. We feel it would be prudent for the government and surrounding minority villages to take pride in the site and develop it as a tourist attraction. In conjunction with cultural displays from the surrounding Cham, Rai, Nop and K'ho villages, it could be a formidable attraction--rivaling the very best that Sapa or Kon Tum has to offer in regard to minority culture. At present the potential is being squandered.

Read more about Binh Thuan Province Antiquities and Cham temple ruins.

New Discovery of Ancient Cham Tower by Resident Guidebook Writer

29.09.09 Yesterday amidst the wind and rain of the typhoon currently pounding the Vietnam coast, resident travel writer Adam Bray and a friend made an amazing discovery. On the way home from a long trip through the countryside, they stopped in a remote forested area for a break, and stumbled upon an unusual mound, camouflaged by trees and vines. Noticing a few old red bricks scattered on the ground, they climbed to the top of the mound for a better look. Wading through tall shrubs and thorny vines, they discovered a series of four shafts, 15 to 20 feet deep, lined with brick walls, descending into the ground.

The ancient red-brick walls of the buried towers were tell-tale signs that the two had discovered a previously unknown temple complex, attributed to the ancient Champa Empire. The Cham once dominated most of south and central Vietnam, and were contemporary adversaries of the Kingdom of Angkor in Cambodia. Today the Cham now heavily populate Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan Provinces of south-central Vietnam, with a thriving matriarchal, Hindu-descended culture. They are known for their beautiful hand-woven textiles, pottery made on a stationary wheel (the craftswomen circles the table, walking backwards as they work) , the white robes, turban and red tassels worn by Cham men, and bizarre burial rituals that include exhuming a corpse on the anniversary of death.

The location and arrangement of the temples is highly unusual. Rather than being located on a hilltop facing the sea or a river, the towers are buried underground, in a remote area that is currently difficult to access. The towers are also packed tightly together, and may even form a single structure with multiple chambers. It’s not possible yet to know precisely how old the towers are. However, if comparing the other temples here in Binh Thuan Province, including those found at Phu Hai (8th Century), Lien Huong (8th-9th Century) and the newly discovered temple at Thuan Hoa (9th Century), an age of 1100-1300 years is plausible. To unlock the temples secrets, and discern which god-king or goddess they were built to worship, the temples will need to be fully excavated and researched. For now, we’ve decided to nickname them “Thap Po A’dam-Hung.”

Read more about Binh Thuan Province Antiquities and Cham temple ruins.

Announcing "Binh Thuan Authentic"

Mui Ne's new shop, Binh Thuan Authentic, is the ONLY place to buy high-quality local items made by minorities in Binh Thuan Province. We specialize in all the stuff you want but can't find ANYWHERE else in Vietnam. Our first two items are 1. Local Honey: Cashew Flower Honey and Wildflower Honey to be precise, and 2. Minority Baskets (Backpacks) made by the K'ho, Rai, Rag Lai and Churu tribes of Binh Thuan Province. These unique specialty baskets have never been offered for retail in Vietnam before. Visit out shop for more information.

Read more: Mui Ne News.

Check out our other sites for tourism & lodging info: Phnom Penh Sleeps; and Sihanoukville Sleeps.

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