40 km away from Hoi An sits “My Son”, also known as the little Angkor Wat. This is Vietnam’s 5th world heritage and is one of the most famous spots in central area. These temples are constructed by the kings of Champa during 4th to 13th century AD. The emperor of Champa was once ruling central Vietnam for a long time. After the kingdom moved to other places during the 15th century, My Son was then forgotten by the people. However, after US carpet bombing during Vietnam war, now only around 20 temples are better preserved.

美山聖地，有小吳哥窟的美名，它位在會安40公里外的郊區，如果來到會安可以花一個下午參觀。我們找了一個導遊 Mr. Turtle 負責交通兼解說。美山是越南的第五個世界遺產，當時由統治中越的占婆王國耗費了將近一千年的時間建造完成。當初原本有71座塔，可惜在越戰時被美軍轟炸只剩下20座。

The path is really far, fortunately they provide shuttle bus.

實際的遺址位置距離入口處非常遙遠，最好是搭乘接駁車前往。

This is mainly the area we can visit. From group A to F.

目前可以參觀的地方是 Group A 到 F，其中又以Group B 最為完整。

There was a traditional dance performance in the spot when we arrived.

剛好我們一抵達就看到傳統舞蹈在遺址上表演。

This is the evidence of the US bomb…

這是美軍轟炸的痕跡。

The main religion in Champa is Brahmanism and they worship Shiva. You will see two kinds of statue a lot in My Son, this is Linga which represents Shiva’s genital organ. People worship Linga here so each temple has one at least. The square part under the linga represents the female side. We actually hired a local guide, Mr. Turtle to explain the culture and history of My Son for us. He is really energetic and talked very loudly especially when he explained the Linga. Whenever he saw a linga, he would shout at my husband and said:” LOOK! This is you!!!” and everybody would be looking at us and laughing… well.. luckily there weren’t too many people that day..

占婆王國的宗教深受印度的婆羅門教影響，他們主要信奉溼婆神 Shiva，在美山我們看到很多林伽 (Linga) 如下圖，它是溼婆神的象徵，在占婆文化裡代表溼婆神的陽具，因此每個塔裡面都至少有一個。至於左邊在林伽下面方形的則代表女性的陰，來說明陰陽結合。我們的導遊烏龜先生有點過動，只要看到這個就會超興奮的跟H吼著說：你看！這個是你！快點來拍照！其他遊客聽了就會在旁邊竊笑，實在是超尷尬的！！

Most heads of the statue were cutoff. There are three major deities in Hindu, and we saw 3 of them in My Son. You can recognize them by the animal they are with.

這裡神像的頭都被切掉了。印度教主要有三個神明，我們都有看到他們的蹤跡，可以透過他們身上的動物或踩著的動物來判別是哪位。烏龜先生有教我們但是現在有點忘了。

The most mysterious part of the culture that people always wonder is the technique of the brick building. Until now, we still don’t know how Champa built those stable bricks because we didn’t see any imprint of any kind of glue. Locals have been rebuilding the bricks (as below left picture) but it was not flat and also grows moss. Comparing to the right picture which were built by Champa, it is still nice and steady now.

占婆人非常擅長磚砌，經過了一千多年，這些平整的磚塊還是緊密牢固的黏在一起 (如下右圖)，反觀現在當地人重建的磚塊，不但歪七扭八而且還生青苔，到現在考古學家都還找不到答案呢！