So we had to go over a bridge to get to the next place, and stopped in the middle for a photo opp. There’s a lady Buddha (?) upon on the hill that has special local significance, but with traffic whizzing by again, I was a bit preoccupied with not getting smeared across the bug shield of some truck.
This was the second to the last emperor, and he served between 1922 and 1934. He died in 1935, when he was only 40 years old. He was around long enough to be photographed, though, and both he and the Mrs. are featured in the museum housed on-site.
Ideas were changing, and this is the smallest of the Tombs, only 50 x 150 meters, really just with one building in it. It was really pretty, though.
There are two obelisks there, as at the other, but they are much more ornate and show the influence of Indian Buddhism. There’s also a distinctly “French” flair, because by this time Vietnam had become a French Colony.
This guy was not especially well liked – he asked the French to allow him to increase taxes by 30%, and they did – so it’s probably a good thing he did not have to stand for re-election. He went all out for his tomb, though. It is largely done with ceramic / mosaics rather than painting, and has a DOUBLE row of statues out front. He also had the place wired for electricity, because face it – who wants to sweat, even if you’re dead.
It was not comforting to note that the knob and tube wiring in this tomb is the same thing as in our house!
The ceiling was painted not by hand, but by foot. I’m not sure why that would be, other than that it goes to prove that most artists are a bit off, regardless of their heritage.
Ohh, more pretty pictures!
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