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The charms of Binh Thuan


Known for beautiful sandy beaches and resorts, Binh Thuan Province also impresses visitors with picturesque landscapes and other attractions like Poshanu towers and Lau Ong Hoang (Prince's palace).

Poshanu is the name of a group of three brick towers located on a hill, some 7km northeast of Phan Thiet, the capital of Binh Thuan. Dating back to the 8th century the towers are considered as architectural masterpieces of the Cham people in the central region.

The towers are dedicated to Shiva, one of the principal Hindu deities and often conceived as a member of the triad, also including Brahma and Vishnu, and Poshanu, an empress of the Chams who had the merit to develop the Champa community.

The Poshanu towers are of great significance to Cham architectural works of historical interest, from the architectural form to the construction techniques and art decoration on the body, the rolling domes, the main doors and imitation ones inside and up to the top. Only the construction techniques and art decoration on the tower can evoke a specific aesthetic feature of Hoa Lai - one of Champa's ancient art architectural styles. They are the only Cham architectural works built with large bricks, which were ground and stuck to one another in a unique way.

Inside the main tower there is an altar, on which a couple of Linga -Yoni, a symbol of the existence of the Shiva, is worshipped. The towers were worn and torn by weather and time. Work on a project to restore these towers, recognized as national heritage in 1991, started in the 1990s and has recently been completed.

Every year, crowds of Cham people from the nearby areas come there to perform solemn rituals of appealing for rain. Another interesting thing is that fishermen in Binh Thuan and its vicinity also come here to appeal for safe journeys before sailing to the sea.



Besides Poshanu towers, visitors to Binh Thuan can also take an excursion to the nearby Lau Ong Hoang, which consists of a community of hills, mountain, river, sea and pagoda creating an area of beautiful sights.

This site was called Lau Ong Hoang as there was a palace used as a residence of a person belonging to a noble French family. In early 1911, French duke de Montpensier came here for traveling and hunting in the nearby hills. Captivated by the beautiful sights, he decided to buy land there to build a villa as a retreat. Work on the prince's villa began in February 1911 and was completed a year later. The villa, around 100m south of the Poshanu towers, covered 536m² and consisted of 13 rooms and an underground tank to store rainwater enough for the people living in the villa in a year. The villa was considered the most modern in Binh Thuan at that time and it looked more beautiful at night under the lights of electric lamps. The local residents then used to call that whole area where the prince's villa was located as Lau Ong Hoang.

In July 1917, de Montpensier sold the villa to a French person named Prasetts, who later built a hotel on the nearby hill, turning this area into an attraction in the central region. However, the villa and hotel were destroyed in the war and visitors now can see just the foundation and the underground tank of the former villa.

The Lau Ong Hoang area also includes old Buu Son Pagoda and Co Mountain where patriot poet Nguyen Thong was buried. Lau Ong Hoang was also a source of inspiration for Han Mac Tu, one of famous Vietnamese poets. Tu mentioned this place in his poem entitled "Phan Thiet, Phan Thiet" written after his broken romance with beauty Mong Cam, who used to come to Lau Ong Hoang with the poet to admire the scenery.

Visitors can mark their trip to Lau Ong Hoang by purchasing some souvenir items sold at the foot of the towers. Among the choices include paper fans with Han Mac Tu's "Phan Thiet, Phan Thiet" poem printed on.

(Source: Saigon Today)