Tomb of Minh Mang

So taking notes while learning historical context and riding down the road where the lines are painted on merely as suggestions and “no passing” zones don’t seem to exist tends to break one’s concentration a bit.  So some things are a bit sketchy, but EB took good pictures and tried to get the historical markers for me as well.  There’s still some gaps, though.

Vietnam existed for over 1,000 years.  During a good part of that time, the Chinese were attempting to take it over.  It stopped being a monarchy and became a democracy (maybe - I’m unclear on that) in 1946 as part of the outcome of WWII.  The central part of Vietnam is traditionally populated by the Cham ethnic people, who were an independent nation from the 1^st century thru 1471.  Their domain was a large chunk of land that was given as a bridal price, although we lost the specifics there.

These other dynasties seem to have come about after that and, as might be imagined with that many emperors over the years, there are more than a few tombs floating around.  We were going to see two of them while here.

We heard about one king / emperor (he seemed to alternate between the words) who reigned between 1802 and 1819, then he died in 1820 and didn’t get to enjoy his retirement much at all.  This guy had 600 wives and 142 kids.  Obviously, he was not thinking about when they would all be in college and need tuition and books at the same time.  Or maybe that’s what killed him.

How he related to the next guy was lost in the bumps on the road.  Anyhow, the next Emperor reigned from 1820 to 1840.  After he died in 1840, his tomb was built between 1840 and 1843, which probably shows that it was a government contract job built in without penalties for work stoppages and failure to meet goals.  He designed it prior to his death and it took 10,000 individual workers to construct.  There’s a man-made lake and the building is constructed pursuant to the principles of zin/zahn, which is the Vietnamese version of Yin/Yang.  It also incorporates VN Feng Shui ideas.

There are some constants about the tombs – there’s a main gate that is always very ornate, and it’s only used once (more indication of a government job), for the king.  Once he goes through it’s sealed up forever and everyone else gets to use the side entrance.

There are a variety of statues and other items for him to use in the afterlife, and his eldest son is expected to write a story of his life to be carved into an ante-house that is about as ornate as the tomb.

These all have several different buildings.  The two behind are to hold (a) concubines and (b) servants.  I gather this was for while he was still alive, because, let’s face it – kings using concubines after their death is beyond “Fifty Shades of Gray” kinky.

There are meanings regarding the various colors and symbols used in construction, but I didn’t catch that and you’re tired of descriptions by now, anyhow.

Ohh, look – pretty pictures!

The place was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.