page_title: Mỹ Sơn
section_title: Architectural styles
hierarchical_section_title: Mỹ Sơn / Archeology and architecture / Architectural styles
caption_attribution_description: English: Building B5 of Group B, Mỹ Sơn sanctuary, Vietnam.
context_page_description: Mỹ Sơn is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples in Quảng Nam province, central Vietnam, constructed between the 4th and the 14th century by the Kings of Champa, an Indianized kingdom of the Cham people. The temples are dedicated to the worship of the god Shiva, known under various local names, the most important of which is Bhadreshvara.
  Mỹ Sơn is located near the village of Duy Phú, in the administrative district of Duy Xuyên in Quảng Nam Province in Central Vietnam, 69 km southwest of Da Nang, and approximately 10 km from the historic Champa capital of Trà Kiệu. The temples are in a valley roughly two kilometres wide that is surrounded by two mountain ranges.
  From the 4th to the 14th century AD, the valley at Mỹ Sơn was a site of religious ceremony for kings of the ruling dynasties of Champa, as well as a burial place for Cham royalty and national heroes. It was closely associated with the nearby Cham cities of Indrapura and Simhapura. At one time, the site encompassed over 70 temples as well as numerous stele bearing historically important inscriptions in Sanskrit and Cham.
context_section_description: Art historians have classified the architectural and artistic legacy of Champa into seven artistic styles or phases of development. Six of the styles are represented at Mỹ Sơn, and two are believed to have originated from there. They are known as the Mỹ Sơn E1 Style and the Mỹ Sơn A1 Style. In particular the temple known as "A1" is often referred to as the architectural masterpiece of the Cham. The six styles of Cham architecture represented at Mỹ Sơn are the following:
  The style of Mỹ Sơn E1 and F1 dates to the 8th century AD. The temple known as "E1" is now ruined. The style which it established is represented today by two works of art that formerly belonged to the temple but today are housed in the Museum of Cham Sculpture in Da Nang: a pedestal and a tympanum.
  The style exemplified by My Son A2, C7 and F3 is similar to the style of Hòa Lai from the turn of the 9th century.
  The Đồng Dương style of the late 9th century is reflected in Mỹ Sơn A10, A11-13, B4, and B12. This style is named after the Vietnamese town that occupies the site of the 9th century city and Buddhist monastery of Indrapura. The archeological site of the monastery has been largely destroyed; French scholars of the early 20th century were able to create diagrams of its layout and the disposition of its buildings. Numerous striking works of sculpture belonging to this style survive in Vietnamese museums.
  The Mỹ Sơn A1 style of the 10th century is exemplified by Mỹ Sơn B5, B6, B7, B9, C1, C2, C5, D1, D2, and D4. It is the most heavily represented style at My Son, and is known for its elegance and grace. The style's namesake and most important architectural exemplar, the once magnificent tower known as "A1," is largely ruined. It is a mound of earth, surrounded by rubble and the outline of a wall, at the center of which stands a whitish pedestal. A scale model of the former temple created by Japanese researchers as well as a schematic frontal view are exhibited in the Museum of Cham Sculpture in Da Nang. The most striking of the remaining buildings belonging to the style may be the storehouse B5, which exemplifies the saddle-shaped roof peculiar to Cham artchitecture. The My Son A1 style is sometimes also known as the Tra Kieu Style, after the nearby town of Trà Kiệu which may be the site of the historical Cham city of Simhapura. Many architectural ornaments from this style survive and are displayed in the Museum of Cham Sculpture.
  A transitional style of the early 11th century to the middle of the 12th century is exhibited in Mỹ Sơn E4, F2, and the K group of sites.
  The style of Bình Định that prevailed in Cham architecture from the end of the 11th century, when the center of the Cham polity was displaced southward from the area around My Son to Vijaya in Bình Định Province, to the start of the 14th is represented by Mỹ Sơn B1 and groups G and H.
caption: The storehouse known as "B5" is the outstanding surviving exemplar of the My Son A1 style.
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "GFX 50S", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2019:02:19 03:26:13", "Image Artist": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "http://shansov.net", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 3, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "1120", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2298", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "14146", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/140", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF Tag 0x8831": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:12:22 14:32:35", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:12:22 14:32:35", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "359/50", "EXIF ApertureValue": "57/10", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "339/50", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "23", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5481", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4118", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1887", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1887", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "18", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "6773a9735231d54c9b97d9a70a12d7b4", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "72005296", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[23, 23, 4, 4]", "EXIF LensMake": "FUJIFILM", "EXIF LensModel": "GF23mmF4 R LM WR", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "76A03270"}