001-021 introduction_Layout 1 6/25/12 10:34 AM Page 12
Bat motif – Imperial Citadel.
has become a beautiful city once more, a place where a harmony between heaven and earth has been rekindled. Spanning across the Perfume River, the Eiffel-built Trang Tien Bridge stretched fully repaired, the banks of the river are again lined with newly painted monuments. On the north bank, the Imperial Citadel unabashedly displays what’s left of its exquisite structures. On the south bank, some of the Nguyen tombs are showing off their immensely under-rated landscape architecture, now that they have again been returned to their former function, being palaces of afterlife for the Nguyen Emperors. From being a piece of Cham territory annexed into ancient Vietnam in 1307, not only had Hue proven to be a city remarkable in its strive for greatness and beauty, it has now become a city of festivals, when, every two years since 2000, the entire city immerses itself in a grand celebration of Nguyen lifestyle, the latest being in 2010. Alternating between the festivals, Hue traditional handicrafts are showcased every other year, when the finest traditional Nguyen arts are put on display and their techniques of production explained. According to official statistics, over seven million foreign visitors came to Hue since 1993. Most of them left with awe and wonder at the lavish architecture and the richness of Nguyen arts, others with a feeling of slight dissatisfaction that Nguyen arts were not much different from their Chinese counterparts and not as grand. Classical arts under the Nguyen, indeed, have a Chinese appearance at first glance, however, they have distinctive Vietnamese features that evolved with time to include new elements, some by the inventiveness of local artists, others imported from Europe and elsewhere. What inspired different Nguyen emperors to make Hue and their arts so uniquely Vietnamese? Let us first take you on a journey back in time, starting on the last event of the Nguyen Dynasty, and then, together, we travel forth to discover a modern Hue, a royal heritage restored and re-invented. Court of Stone at Minh Mang’s tomb.
Thien Mu Pagoda. 12
001-021 introduction_Layout 1 6/25/12 10:34 AM Page 12
Bat motif – Imperial Citadel.
has become a beautiful city once more, a place where a harmony between heaven and earth has been rekindled. Spanning across the Perfume River, the Eiffel-built Trang Tien Bridge stretched fully repaired, the banks of the river are again lined with newly painted monuments. On the north bank, the Imperial Citadel unabashedly displays what’s left of its exquisite structures. On the south bank, some of the Nguyen tombs are showing off their immensely under-rated landscape architecture, now that they have again been returned to their former function, being palaces of afterlife for the Nguyen Emperors. From being a piece of Cham territory annexed into ancient Vietnam in 1307, not only had Hue proven to be a city remarkable in its strive for greatness and beauty, it has now become a city of festivals, when, every two years since 2000, the entire city immerses itself in a grand celebration of Nguyen lifestyle, the latest being in 2010. Alternating between the festivals, Hue traditional handicrafts are showcased every other year, when the finest traditional Nguyen arts are put on display and their techniques of production explained. According to official statistics, over seven million foreign visitors came to Hue since 1993. Most of them left with awe and wonder at the lavish architecture and the richness of Nguyen arts, others with a feeling of slight dissatisfaction that Nguyen arts were not much different from their Chinese counterparts and not as grand. Classical arts under the Nguyen, indeed, have a Chinese appearance at first glance, however, they have distinctive Vietnamese features that evolved with time to include new elements, some by the inventiveness of local artists, others imported from Europe and elsewhere. What inspired different Nguyen emperors to make Hue and their arts so uniquely Vietnamese? Let us first take you on a journey back in time, starting on the last event of the Nguyen Dynasty, and then, together, we travel forth to discover a modern Hue, a royal heritage restored and re-invented. Court of Stone at Minh Mang’s tomb.
Thien Mu Pagoda. 12
001-021 introduction_Layout 1 6/25/12 10:35 AM Page 16
Previous page: Emperor Khai Dinh’s An Dinh Palace.
Introduction On the 30th of August 1945, standing on the Ngu Phung terrace of Ngo Mon, the royal gateway into the Imperial Citadel of Hue, the last emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, formally announced his decision to abdicate to a bemused crowd of thousands who had been impatiently waiting under the glaring afternoon sun. ‘With sad reminiscence of the four hundred-year-struggle that our glorious ancestors went through to expand our nation from Thuan Hoa to Ha Tien, with some regrets for the twenty years of our reign, during which, we faced the impossibility of providing an appreciable service to our country, we have decided to abdicate…’.
Image of the Nguyen Emperor’s seal.
Right Corner of Ngu Phung Terrace.
The surprisingly short statement, dated 25th of August 1945, was issued at the request of the newly formed Democratic Republic Government of Ho Chi Minh’s Anti-French Alliance, the Viet-Minh. It was a dramatic and ultimate act of the last Nguyen Emperor, after days of confusion at court, when Bao Dai suddenly found himself abandoned by all. ‘On the morning of the 21st of August, emptiness was all around me, no prime-minister Tran Trong Kim, no minister at all appearing at the Palace’, Bao Dai recalled in his Memoir, published in 1980. Being alone was a bewildering experience for Bao Dai who had been protected from unpleasantness throughout his life and reign by his own family, his mandarins, the French protectorate authority and the Japanese occupying force. Those days in August 1945 were a shocking reality for Bao Dai who remembered them as a time that ‘the citizens of Hue seemed to be seized by a high fever’, while demonstrations occurred daily. His own earlier effort to proclaim independence and appeal for national unity was ignored both in Vietnam and elsewhere. His letters to President Truman, King George VI, General Chiang Kai-shek and General De Gaulle went unanswered. With his abdication, Bao Dai closed the last chapter in the history of the Nguyen Dynasty, a turbulent rule of 143 years that, at times, saw Vietnam engaging in intense diplomatic discourse with successive French authorities, allied with and then fighting against the Thai and the French, only to succumb to French domination in the later half of the 19th century. In his Memoir, Bao Dai recalled: ‘the announcement of my abdication met with a profound silence’, ‘a look of naked astonishment passed through the faces of those lining up on the first rows’. ‘Men and women
The Throne room in Thai Hoa Palace.
Inside Ngu Phung Terrace.
Introduction 17
001-021 introduction_Layout 1 6/25/12 10:35 AM Page 16
Previous page: Emperor Khai Dinh’s An Dinh Palace.
Introduction On the 30th of August 1945, standing on the Ngu Phung terrace of Ngo Mon, the royal gateway into the Imperial Citadel of Hue, the last emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, formally announced his decision to abdicate to a bemused crowd of thousands who had been impatiently waiting under the glaring afternoon sun. ‘With sad reminiscence of the four hundred-year-struggle that our glorious ancestors went through to expand our nation from Thuan Hoa to Ha Tien, with some regrets for the twenty years of our reign, during which, we faced the impossibility of providing an appreciable service to our country, we have decided to abdicate…’.
Image of the Nguyen Emperor’s seal.
Right Corner of Ngu Phung Terrace.
The surprisingly short statement, dated 25th of August 1945, was issued at the request of the newly formed Democratic Republic Government of Ho Chi Minh’s Anti-French Alliance, the Viet-Minh. It was a dramatic and ultimate act of the last Nguyen Emperor, after days of confusion at court, when Bao Dai suddenly found himself abandoned by all. ‘On the morning of the 21st of August, emptiness was all around me, no prime-minister Tran Trong Kim, no minister at all appearing at the Palace’, Bao Dai recalled in his Memoir, published in 1980. Being alone was a bewildering experience for Bao Dai who had been protected from unpleasantness throughout his life and reign by his own family, his mandarins, the French protectorate authority and the Japanese occupying force. Those days in August 1945 were a shocking reality for Bao Dai who remembered them as a time that ‘the citizens of Hue seemed to be seized by a high fever’, while demonstrations occurred daily. His own earlier effort to proclaim independence and appeal for national unity was ignored both in Vietnam and elsewhere. His letters to President Truman, King George VI, General Chiang Kai-shek and General De Gaulle went unanswered. With his abdication, Bao Dai closed the last chapter in the history of the Nguyen Dynasty, a turbulent rule of 143 years that, at times, saw Vietnam engaging in intense diplomatic discourse with successive French authorities, allied with and then fighting against the Thai and the French, only to succumb to French domination in the later half of the 19th century. In his Memoir, Bao Dai recalled: ‘the announcement of my abdication met with a profound silence’, ‘a look of naked astonishment passed through the faces of those lining up on the first rows’. ‘Men and women
The Throne room in Thai Hoa Palace.
Inside Ngu Phung Terrace.
Introduction 17
001-021 introduction_Layout 1 6/25/12 10:36 AM Page 18
Emperor Bao Dai – photo courtesy of Phan Thuan An.
Emperor Bao Dai at his coronation.
seemed to have gone deaf’. ‘My announcement appeared as a thunderbolt rendering everybody petrified’. His own private secretary, Pham Khac Hoe, who was present at the ceremony, on the other hand, remembered it as a time that everybody clapped and cheered and that Bao Dai had read his statement in an emotional voice that wavered at times. In this atmosphere of general confusion in that fateful afternoon, Bao Dai quickly performed the required ceremony of handing over his symbols of royal authority - his Gold Seal (Kim An) and his Sword of Mandate - to representatives of Ho Chi Minh; Tran Huy Lieu, Nguyen Luong Bang and Cu Huy Can. The process of the abdication ceremony had been discussed and agreed between the court and representatives of the new government only the day before, as soon as the delegation from Hanoi arrived in Hue. According to Pham Khac Hoe, Bao Dai ‘dressed for the last time in his royal golden robes, a golden cloth headdress for crown, and embroidered shoes on his feet’. In the negotiation over the process of the ceremony, one of the requests that Bao Dai asked and was accepted was that his royal flag would be raised once more. During the ceremony, the royal yellow flag was raised and then lowered following his statement of abdication, to be replaced by the Red and Yellow flag of the new revolutionary government. The ceremony ended with 21 ceremonial shots of canon to announce that the exchange of power had been completed. The abdication ceremony over, Bao Dai left quickly and quietly, some said with tears in his eyes, to assume his new mantle of being Ngo Mon – view from inside the Citadel.
Blue and White Ceramic steam bowl.
Phap Lam plate. Emperor Bao Dai’s shoes. 18
Introduction 19
001-021 introduction_Layout 1 6/25/12 10:36 AM Page 18
Emperor Bao Dai – photo courtesy of Phan Thuan An.
Emperor Bao Dai at his coronation.
seemed to have gone deaf’. ‘My announcement appeared as a thunderbolt rendering everybody petrified’. His own private secretary, Pham Khac Hoe, who was present at the ceremony, on the other hand, remembered it as a time that everybody clapped and cheered and that Bao Dai had read his statement in an emotional voice that wavered at times. In this atmosphere of general confusion in that fateful afternoon, Bao Dai quickly performed the required ceremony of handing over his symbols of royal authority - his Gold Seal (Kim An) and his Sword of Mandate - to representatives of Ho Chi Minh; Tran Huy Lieu, Nguyen Luong Bang and Cu Huy Can. The process of the abdication ceremony had been discussed and agreed between the court and representatives of the new government only the day before, as soon as the delegation from Hanoi arrived in Hue. According to Pham Khac Hoe, Bao Dai ‘dressed for the last time in his royal golden robes, a golden cloth headdress for crown, and embroidered shoes on his feet’. In the negotiation over the process of the ceremony, one of the requests that Bao Dai asked and was accepted was that his royal flag would be raised once more. During the ceremony, the royal yellow flag was raised and then lowered following his statement of abdication, to be replaced by the Red and Yellow flag of the new revolutionary government. The ceremony ended with 21 ceremonial shots of canon to announce that the exchange of power had been completed. The abdication ceremony over, Bao Dai left quickly and quietly, some said with tears in his eyes, to assume his new mantle of being Ngo Mon – view from inside the Citadel.
Blue and White Ceramic steam bowl.
Phap Lam plate. Emperor Bao Dai’s shoes. 18
Introduction 19