MY Son (pronounced: me son) is a group of ancient Hindu temples built between the 4-14th century AD by the Champa Kings in Central Vietnam in dedication to the Hindu God Shiva.

MY Son is located in a valley roughly two kilometers wide about 65km south west of Da Nang and directly west of the historic seaside town of Hoi An in Central Vietnam.

1600 years ago the My Son valley was used for religious ceremonies and as a royal burial site for the ruling Champa Kings. Some famous Cham heroes were also accorded great honour by being interred here as well as royalty.

At its peak the site encompassed over 70 Hindu temples as well as numerous stone monuments bearing historic inscriptions in Sanskrit and Cham.

MY Son was the longest inhabited archaeological site in Indochina and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindu temple complexes in Southeast Asia. It is often compared with other historical complexes in Southeast Asia, such as Borobudur of Java in Indonesia, Angkor Wat of Cambodia, Bagan of Myanmar and Ayutthaya of Thailand.

For identification purposes for visitors the surviving historic temples have been grouped together and labeled as Groups A, B, C, D, E, F, G & H, with several other smaller groups up to L located further away.

History of Hy Son

The temple complexes in the My Son valley were built and used by successive Champa Kings progressively during the 4-14th centuries. The People of Champa maintained written records in both Sanskrit and the old Cham language. Many of Champa’s most important inscriptions are on “steles” (slabs or pillars of stone). Scholars have found around 32 steles at MY Son, dated between the 5-12th century AD.

Following the conquest of central Vietnam by the northern Dai Viet around 1500 AD the MY Son temple complex fell into disuse and was largely forgotten. It was rediscovered around 1900 by French explorers who began to study the inscriptions, architecture, and art of My Son. Since 1999 MY Son has been recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site siting it as evidence of an Asian civilization which is now extinct.

My Son Restoration

In 1937, French scholars began to restore the temples at MY Son. Between 1937-38 the main temple known as “A1” and the smaller temples surrounding it in Group A were restored by the French. Other major temples were restored between 1939-43. However many or the restored ancient buildings were destroyed by US bombers during the American Vietnam War. The majority of the other temple sites in the centre of the complex have survived tho some are vulnerable to collapse due to their age.

Although many statues have been removed to France and to historical museums throughout Vietnam such as the Museum of Cham Sculpture in Da Nang, others can be viewed in a small museum that has been set up on site in one of the My Son temples.