Tag: Vietnamese history

Neighborhood Lion Dancers Stop By

Last night was Tết Trung thu – the Mid-Autumn Festival – in Vietnam (and China and elsewhere in this part of the world). In Vietnam, I associate this traditional holiday with the Lion Dance more than anything else. The neighborhood dancers that came to our home, schoolboys who all live nearby, stopped by last night to perform and bring Minh and I good fortune in the year to come. Plenty of neighbors were on hand to watch – Lion Dance performances are great fun for all. For the record the boys have been practicing their drum act for the last six weeks or so about 50 meters from my house in a place used by the government’s neighborhood committee. Rehearsals finally came to an end with last night’s performances. Another reason to welcome the arrival of Tết Trung thu.

After the drum concert concluded, the lions arrived to do their dance. Some of the troupes that tour downtown areas do elaborate acrobatic acts that draw large crowds. The dance at my home was much simpler, but also considerably more intimate and no less enjoyable than slicker acts elsewhere.

After performing in the courtyard outside my home, the lion’s moved inside for a brief tour of the house to spread good fortune throughout. Some neighborhood kids grabbed front row seats for the festivities.

Finally, the dancers concluded their performance with a bright send-off, before moving on to the house across the street.

Mỹ Sơn: Legacy of the Cham People

About one hour to the west of Hoi An, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Mỹ Sơn, was an important religious center of the Cham people. The earliest Cham settlements in what is now central and southern Vietnam date back to the 3rd century CE. At some point early in their history, the Cham came into contact with Hinduism and adopted some variant of that religion. While there is debate about the extent to which the Cham in Vietnam were a unified kingdom, there is no question that Cham polities functioned throughout much of Vietnam for hundreds of years. They were traders and seafarers – Hoi An was originally a Cham port city and trading center – who developed a sophisticated civilization that presented formidable challenges to the Vietnamese living in the northern part of today’s Vietnam. For many years, there were ongoing conflicts and wars between the Cham and the Vietnamese. As the Vietnamese moved south, they eventually overran the Cham and absorbed their culture, though it was not until the 19th century that the last Cham enclaves were subdued.

Vietnamese friends have told me that the Cham people have been completely assimilated into the Vietnamese nation. While I suspect that is largely true, I have read that there is still a small, distinctly Cham ethnic minority in the country. How and to what extent Cham culture and customs have influenced the development of Vietnamese culture, I simply do not know enough about the very complex history of interaction between to two peoples to comment.

I have made two trips to My Son. The first time I went, it was a cloudy gray day. The second time I went, it was a cloudy and raining gray day. The photo above is from my second visit in November of 2024.

The Japanese Bridge in the Evening

After weeks of endless cloudy days and rain, yesterday was dry, sunny and gorgeous, offering a perfect opportunity for a dinnertime stroll through the Hoi An Old Town. The recently refurbished Japanese Bridge – it was built in the 16th century by a community of Japanese traders living in the area – looks great, all clean and shiny and lit up in the evening.

Not So Modern Art, Hue Citadel

A gray day and drizzling rain provided the flat light needed to illuminate the rich, beautifully saturated colors in this arched doorway. The Hue Citadel was the official seat of government and the home of Vietnam’s Nguyen dynasty emperors (1802-1945). It is a huge, sprawling walled area, a wonderful place to explore in any kind of weather.