Mỹ Sơn is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Shaiva Hindu temples in central Vietnam, constructed between the 4th and the 14th century by the Kings of Champa, an Indianized kingdom of the Cham people. The temples are dedicated to the veneration of God in accordance with Shaivism, wherein God is named Shiva, or The Auspicious One. In this particular complex, he is venerated under various local names, the most important of which is Bhadreshvara.
Mỹ Sơn
This linga-like stone column is dated to the 10th century. It stands next to the temple known as "B4."
The great temple "A1" dedicated to the god Sambhubhadresvara by King Sambhuvarman in the 7th century is now a pile of rubble: scholars were able to make this diagram before its destruction during the Vietnam War.
Circular pedestal at E1 bearing the inscription: "This kosa is offered to Vikrantavarman, the most powerful King of kings"
Champa was a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd century CE until 1832. According to earliest historical references found in ancient sources, the first Cham polities were established around the 2nd to 3rd centuries CE, in the wake of Khu Liên's rebellion against the rule of China's Eastern Han dynasty, and lasted until when the final remaining principality of Champa was annexed by Emperor Minh Mạng of the Vietnamese Nguyễn dynasty as part of the expansionist Nam tiến policy. The kingdom was known variously as Nagaracampa, Champa (ꨌꩌꨛꨩ) in modern Cham, and Châmpa (ចាម្ប៉ា) in the Khmer inscriptions, Chiêm Thành in Vietnamese and Zhànchéng in Chinese records, and al-Ṣanf in Middle Eastern Muslim records.
This Cham head of Shiva was made of electrum around 800. It decorated a kosa, or metal sleeve fitted to a liṅgam. One can recognise Shiva by the tall chignon hairstyle and by the third eye in the middle of his forehead.
Crown of Champa in 7th and 8th century. (Museum of Vietnamese History)
Depiction of a couple of highland man and Cham lady in the Boxer Codex from 1590
Pottery vase of the Sa Huỳnh culture, 1000 BCE. The Sa Huỳnh people were the prehistoric ancestors of all Chamic peoples.