"Reconstruction" of the Hoa Lai towers at Phan Rang

From: Mike High <mike.high@earthlink.net>

Date: 2009/1/6

During my recent travels in the south of Vietnam, I stopped by to see what had become of the Hoa Lai towers, just to the north of Phan Rang city. (When I was passing through in 2006, I had seen scaffolding an a lot of men at work on the towers.)

I was unable to get in to see the temples up close—the temple keeper told us that the towers were “off-limits” due to construction. However, all of the scaffolding from two years ago had been removed, and I could see no work in progress.

However, I took a few photographs over the wall around the temples, using my telephoto lens, and these images confirmed my fears that the construction was not at all authentic. In fact, entirely new images of elephant heads and at least one garuda have been added, in a style that does not match that of the tower, or for that matter, any Cham carving that I’ve seen.

I’ve posted some samples at:

http://home.earthlink.net/~daiviet05/HoaLai.html

If anyone is interested, I can send higher-resolution versions of these photos.

What I’ve seen here is a great disappoinment—the original towers have been deliberately defaced.

:: Mike High

Great Falls, Virginia

USA