Retracing An Older Vietnam
August 28, 2008
A glimpse into the country’s evolution
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — While Democrats gather this week in Denver to usher in a new era in American politics and society, here in Vietnam, a small group of American students are gaining a glimpse into some of the fundamental evolution of this country’s history.
With students from De Anza College, I’ve rediscovered both an old Vietnam in Yen Tu and Bach Dang and an even older Vietnam at My Son.
On the way to the picturesque Ha Long Bay, we stopped at Yen Tu Mountain, an assortment of shrines, temples and pagodas built over the centuries by Buddhist kings. Legend has it that Yen Ky Sinh, an early adherent to Buddhism, lived in this mountain as a recluse and reached nirvana more than 2,000 years ago. As he transformed himself into a Buddha, his soul inhabited an 11-foot tall rock resembling a monk that still stands on top of the mountain, at some 3,200 feet.
By the 13th Century, as Genghis Khan’s armies raged across Asia and Eastern Europe, King Tran Nhan Tong, who reigned from 1279 to 1293 and twice defeated the Mongol invasion with the help from his superb general Tran Hung Dao, decided to give up his throne and retreated to Yen Tu Mountain. He had pine trees planted there in order to connect the various temples; today, these seven-centuries-old trees form a pilgrimage route for visitors. He also founded the Truc Lam Zen Meditation branch of Buddhism, still practiced today in Vietnam and overseas.
Within view from the top of Yen Tu runs the Bach Dang River, the site of two major naval victories using the same strategy: One by Ngo Quyen in 936 that regained independence for Vietnam and the other by Tran Hung Dao in 1285 that repelled the Mongol invasion. The strategy was a simple deception. Warriors buried bronze-tipped stakes in the river and lured the enemy’s flotilla upstream during high tide; then as the tide receded, the warriors chased them downstream thereby impaling and sinking the enemy and its boats. Some of these stakes are preserved in a nearby museum today.
The second historic stop dates from an even older Vietnam: About 40 miles from Da Nang is the Holy Land My Son, or the ancient religious capital of Amaravati, the greatest of the Champa states.
The Champa Kingdom was established around the 2nd century, C.E., and flourished for about 1,000 years, roughly from the 5th to the 15th centuries in what today is Central Vietnam. Free from the Chinese occupation and through commercial contacts with India, Champa adopted both Hinduism and its culture. As Vietnam gained independence in the 10th century, it began to push south and by the 15th Century, much of the Kingdom of Champa was conquered. Vietnamese continued the southward path, encroaching into the Khmer Kingdom, occupying Prey Nokor, which was renamed Saigon, and since 1976 renamed once again as Ho Chi Minh City.
Vu-Duc Vuong is a teacher and writer in the Bay Area. (vuduc.vuong@gmail.com)
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