VietNamNet Bridge – India will provide Vietnam with US$3 million to restore and preserve the My Son sanctuary – a UNESCO-recognized World Heritage site in the central province of Quang Nam, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
India will also send archaeologists and architects to help with the restoration, which will be implemented in the next five years.

The project is part of a plan to celebrate the Vietnam-India Friendship Year 2012, when the two countries mark the 40th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.

A group of experts from the Archaeological Survey of India had conducted a preliminary study of temples and towers at the site.

The Indian experts said My Son is one of the major cradles of Hinduism in Southeast Asia.

My Son is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples constructed between the 4th and the 14th century AD by the kings of Champa. The temples are dedicated to the worship of the god Shiva, known under various local names, the most important of which is "Bhadresvara."

My Son is located near the village of Duy Phu, in Duy Xuyen District, 69 km southwest of Da Nang. The temples are in a valley roughly two kilometers wide that is surrounded by two mountain ranges.

From the 4th to the 14th century AD, the valley at My Son was a site of religious ceremony for kings of the ruling dynasties of Champa, as well as a burial place for Cham royalty and national heroes. It was closely associated with the nearby Cham cities of Indrapura and Simhapura. At one time, the site encompassed over 70 temples as well as numerous stele bearing historically important inscriptions in Sanskrit and Cham.

My Son is perhaps the longest inhabited archaeological site in Indochina, but a large majority of its architecture was destroyed by US carpet bombing during a single week of the Vietnam War.
The My Son temple complex is regarded one of the foremost Hindu temple complexes in Southeast Asia and is the foremost heritage site of this nature in Vietnam. It is often compared with other historical temple complexes in Southeast Asia, such as Borobudur of Java in Indonesia, Angkor Wat of Cambodia, Bagan of Myanmar and Ayutthaya of Thailand.

As of 1999, My Son has been recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site. At its 23rd meeting, UNESCO accorded My Son this recognition pursuant to its criterion C (II), as an example of evolution and change in culture, and pursuant to its criterion C (III), as evidence of an Asian civilization which is now extinct.

PV