8 posts
In 1980 a Japanese diplomat saw a Vietnamese vase dated 1450 in the Topkapı Palace and wrote a letter to Hải Hưng province. Answering it took decades: kilns under a rice-farming village, a shipwreck carrying a quarter of a million pots, and a signature scholars still argue over.
He led Đại Việt through two Mongol invasions, handed the throne to his son in his mid-thirties, and ended his life as a monk on Yên Tử, where he founded the only Zen school born in Vietnam.
Continue reading “Trần Nhân Tông: The King Who Beat the Mongols, Then Climbed a Mountain” →
In 1397 Hồ Quý Ly raised a capital of giant limestone blocks in Thanh Hóa. The walls still stand six centuries later. The dynasty that built them lasted seven years. What the Citadel of the Hồ Dynasty says about power, reform and loyalty.
Continue reading “The Hồ Citadel: A Stone Capital Built in Months, Lost in Weeks” →
For nine centuries the kings of Champa built brick temples to Shiva in a closed valley behind Hội An. A French survey counted 71 of them; a single war-time week in 1969 wrecked most of the best. The story of Mỹ Sơn is also a story of who keeps a promise.
Continue reading “Mỹ Sơn: The Brick Sanctuary Champa's Kings Asked Us Not to Destroy” →
In 938 Ngô Quyền, and in 1288 Trần Hưng Đạo, wrecked invading fleets on the same tidal river with the same trap: sharpened stakes hidden under high water. Seven centuries later, the stakes are still coming out of the mud.
Continue reading “The Stakes of Bạch Đằng: How One River Beat Invading Fleets Twice” →
The 82 doctoral steles name the laureates. This is about the people who ran the school: the Tế tửu and Tư nghiệp of the Quốc Tử Giám, from Chu Văn An in the fourteenth century to the heritage directors who look after it today.
Continue reading “The Rectors of Văn Miếu: Who Ran Việt Nam's Imperial Academy” →
In the Temple of Literature in Hà Nội, 82 stone steles on the backs of stone turtles record the doctoral laureates of 1442 to 1779. They are a hall of fame, a political statement, and one of the best archives of how Việt Nam chose its officials.
Continue reading “The Turtles of Văn Miếu: Three Centuries of Exam Results Carved in Stone” →
The Vietnamese capital has carried more than a dozen names across a thousand years. Each one is a small history lesson in itself.
Continue reading “Thăng Long to Hà Nội: One City, Many Names” →
