Vinh Hung ancient tower is a rare architectural work that preserves the beauty of Oc Eo culture over time in Bac Lieu province in particular and the Southern region in general. The tower was ranked as a “National architectural and artistic relic” in 1992 and a “Special National Monument” in July 2024.
Vinh Hung ancient tower is located in Trung Hung 1B hamlet, Vinh Hung A commune, Vinh Loi district, Bac Lieu province, about 20 km from the city center. Follow National Highway 1A, from Bac Lieu towards Ca Mau 5km, to Sap bridge, turn onto the way to Vinh Hung market to reach Vinh Hung tower. This is not only the only remaining tower architecture of the Oc-Eo culture in the Southwest, but during the excavation at Vinh Hung tower, archaeologists also collected many extremely valuable artifacts with many stone, bronze, ceramic, precious stone statues… marking a rather long period of existence and development (from the 4th century to the 13th century AD) of Vinh Hung ancient tower. Vinh Hung tower has undergone many surveys, in 1911, French scholar Lunet de Lajonquiere discovered it under the name Tra Long tower. In 1917, Henri Parmentier came to survey this area and reported in the journal of the Far East School of Ancient North (No. XVII, volume 6, 1917, pages 48-49). In this report (under the name of Luc Hien tower), he listed a number of artifacts discovered inside and outside the tower. In particular, among them is a stele found in Phuoc Buu Tu pagoda next to the tower engraved with Sanskrit characters, clearly stating the month of Karhila, year 814, corresponding to the year 892 AD, and the name of King Yacovan-Man (9th century). Archaeologists have determined that the tower was built around the 9th century AD to worship a king named Khmer Yacovar-Man.
In May 1990, archaeologists from the Institute of Social Sciences, Ho Chi Minh City. HCM (now the Institute for Sustainable Development of the Southern Region) in collaboration with the Minh Hai Provincial Museum came to survey and dig a pit, discovering a number of artifacts such as the head of a god statue, inscriptions, grinding table, Linga – Yoni…
Continuing the journey to clarify the value of a national relic, as well as to serve the restoration, embellishment, and prevention of deterioration of the Vinh Hung tower relic, in 2002 and then in 2011, the Center for Archaeological Research coordinated with the Bac Lieu Provincial Museum to excavate around the tower. These excavations continued to do things such as exposing the tower’s foundation, resolving the traces buried in the ground to find solutions to restore and embellish the tower to promote the value of the relic. Many valuable artifacts have been discovered during the surveys such as: the Goddess statue carved in the traditional style of the Oc Eo Phu Nam round statue, the right hand of the “God Statue”, some Linga – Yoni, pottery used in daily life and especially the bronze statue set which is considered by archaeologists to be a unique collection of statues, a “national treasure”, including a number of unique statues of very high value.
In 2011, the Vinh Hung tower relic was restored and embellished with items: exhibition house, stele house, guard house, fence and a number of other items to preserve and promote the value of the relic.
Ancient tower architecture
From afar, the tower looks like a cylindrical block standing tall in the middle of the forest, with an ancient appearance – partly covered with moss, and many places with jagged bricks protruding deep into the inside of the tower due to long-term exposure to rain and sun. Bac Lieu Province had to go all the way to the East to find soil to bring back and burn into bricks to restore the damaged front part.
The ancient tower has a fairly simple and rustic architecture on a strip of land with an area of about 100m, the door of the tower faces the West, the base of the tower is rectangular with two sides of 5.6m and 6.9m. The height of the tower is 8.2m (from the base of the tower). The entire 3 sides of the East – South – North are built of bricks. The wall of the base of the tower is 1.8m thick, the higher the wall is, the thinner it is, the wall is gradually tilted towards the top to form a vault.
How was the ancient tower built?
Through many historical changes, what created an ancient tower that is thousands of years old? According to many scientists, the ancient Khmer people used a special construction technique, they used a type of vegetable glue to stick the bricks together, without using building materials such as cement or mortar like today. The tower was built with two types of bricks of different colors. From the base of the tower to a height of 4m, red bricks were used, and from 4m up, white bricks were used. Looking from the main door is the Linga – Yoni set symbolizing the harmony of yin and yang, which has been restored. The original Linga – Yoni set is being preserved at the museum.
From the unique values recorded, Vinh Hung Ancient Tower was recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) as a national architectural and artistic relic since 1992.
If you have the opportunity to travel to Bac Lieu, remember to take the time to visit Vinh Hung Ancient Tower to better understand an ancient civilization. The scenery here is really attractive to tourists. In addition to the tower architecture, visitors can breathe fresh air filled with the scent of wild flowers and gaze out over the vast fertile fields of a land that has been sweetened.
