Traveling along the old mandarin road through the dry southern coast, as you reach Ba Tháp village you see two reddish-brown brick masses standing across a stretch of open field, with a flattened square earth platform between them. There are no grand steps, no intact enclosure walls and no tall shade trees. Sunlight falls straight onto the brick walls and brings out every band of foliage carved deep into the masonry.
This is Hòa Lai Cham Towers, a Cham Hindu temple-tower complex belonging to the earliest surviving layer on former Cham lands. Local Vietnamese residents call it Ba Tháp (Three Towers) after the original number of structures, while the Cham call it Yang Hakral. The middle tower collapsed long ago, leaving only its base, so the name Ba Tháp today tells of a number the eye can no longer see in full.
IBa Tháp, Hòa Lai and Yang Hakral
This complex carries three layers of names, each coming from a different side. Ba Tháp is the name local Vietnamese residents gave it after the number of structures, which over time also became the name of the village. Yang Hakral is the Cham name. Hòa Lai is a place name that later became the name of an entire architectural style in Champa studies.
The third name is the one that carries weight in scholarship. When art historians periodized Champa art, they chose representative monuments to name each period, and this complex was selected as the benchmark for the Hòa Lai style. According to the heritage dossier, this is a transitional phase emerging from the Mỹ Sơn E1 style, marked by distinctive arch construction, pilaster arrangement and above all carved ornament.
The name Hòa Lai therefore has two meanings today. One is the specific monument complex in Ba Tháp village. The other is an artistic period used to classify structures elsewhere as well. When reading research works that mention this term, one should check the context to see which meaning is intended.
Regarding who is worshiped here, it must be stated accurately that no intact object of worship remains in situ inside the two standing towers. In 1989, a sandstone Linga and Yoni set was found in the Central Tower area, with the Linga measuring 14 cm high and 43 cm in diameter and the square Yoni pedestal measuring 43 cm per side, 19 cm high with a 22 cm spout, now preserved at the provincial museum. The Linga and Yoni set is the characteristic emblem of Shiva in Hinduism, symbolizing the principle of generation. Furthermore, the 2011 decipherment of the Hòa Lai stele by scholars Arlo Griffiths and William Southworth reveals that King Satyavarman offered gifts to Shiva under the titles Sri Adidevesvara and Sri Vrddhesvara, including a silver Linga sheath with a golden face known as a kosha. These records confirm that the complex belonged to the Shaiva tradition rather than to Buddhism or the worship of a deified mortal.
In Hindu teaching, each tower is a kalan, an enclosed sanctuary with only one real doorway opening to the East. The tower mass with its progressively receding roof tiers represents the sacred mountain at the center of the cosmos, so the interior chamber is narrow and dark, designed for a single officiating priest standing before the emblem rather than for a congregation sitting inside.
There is a common misunderstanding that should be addressed in the spirit of historical evidence, without blaming anyone. Local folklore tells a legend of a tower-building contest between the Cham king Pô Klong Garai and a Khmer figure named Hakral, in which whoever finished building within three days would win. The story is told to explain both the name Yang Hakral and why the complex appears unfinished.
The discrepancy lies in chronology. Architectural analysis places this complex in the late 8th to early 9th century, whereas Pô Klong Garai is a figure of the 12th and 13th centuries, three or four hundred years later. The legend therefore cannot be a historical memory of the towers' construction. It belongs to a later layer of explanation, created when subsequent generations stood before a monument whose origins were forgotten and wove a coherent tale around it. Its value lies in showing how folk memory works, not in recording an accurate date.
IIThree towers built across a century
The dossier of the Department of Cultural Heritage dates the complex to roughly the 8th to 9th centuries. That figure is a span rather than a single year because the three towers were not built at the same time. According to a more detailed account in Văn Hóa newspaper, the South Tower dates from the early to mid-8th century, the Central Tower from the late 8th century, and the North Tower from the early 9th century. In other words, the whole complex was the work of several generations rather than a single construction campaign.
- Early to mid-8th centuryConstruction of the South TowerThe earliest tower in the complex and the one with the largest footprint, measuring 9.2 meters on each side according to the heritage dossier.
- Late 8th centuryConstruction of the Central TowerBuilt during the reign of King Satyavarman, who ruled around 774 to 784. This is the tower that collapsed, leaving only its foundation.
- Early 9th centuryConstruction of the North TowerThe latest tower in the complex, measuring 8.4 meters on each side. It also preserves the most intact carved ornament.
- 1989Discovery of the Linga and Yoni setA sandstone ritual set found in the Central Tower area, now kept at the provincial museum. It provides material proof that the complex worshiped Shiva.
- 2005 to 2016Archaeological excavationsExcavations conducted in 2005, 2012 to 2013 and 2016 yielded a total of 405 artifacts including statues, ritual objects, inscriptions and decorated architectural elements.
- 1997 and 2016National and special national heritage rankingsRanked as a national heritage site in 1997, then upgraded to a special national architectural, artistic and archaeological heritage site under Prime Minister Decision No. 2499/QĐ-TTg on December 22, 2016.
- 2020Hòa Lai stele recognized as a national treasureThe ancient sandstone stele found at the site, inscribed in Sanskrit and Old Cham recording King Satyavarman's offerings to Shiva and the building and repair of temples, was recognized as a national treasure under Decision No. 2283/QĐ-TTg on December 31, 2020.
Two points where sources differ should be noted clearly.
Administrative place names. The heritage dossier and Văn Hóa newspaper record the complex in Ba Tháp village, Bắc Phong commune, Thuận Bắc district, Ninh Thuận province. Several earlier press articles record Ba Tháp village, Tân Hải commune, Ninh Hải district, Ninh Thuận province. Both refer to former administrative units that shifted as district boundaries were redrawn over time. Under the administrative boundaries effective from July 2025, Bắc Phong commune merged into the new Thuận Bắc commune, placing the monument in Ba Tháp village, Thuận Bắc commune, Khánh Hòa province.
Site area. The heritage dossier records a total protected area of 49,294.9 square meters. Other descriptive accounts mention a rectangular enclosure of roughly 200 meters by 125 meters surrounding the three towers. The two figures do not conflict, as one measures the statutory protection zone and the other measures the old perimeter wall foundation, and the library records both so readers do not have to guess.
IIIHooked-leaf carvings and early brickwork
What sets the Hòa Lai complex apart from later Cham tower groups is its sense of openness. The tower walls are not yet covered from top to bottom with ornament, and the wall pilasters are wide and spaced apart, giving the brick mass a solid, uncluttered presence. This is a hallmark of early Cham architecture before stone and brick carving entered its densely covered phase.
Square plan measuring 8.4 by 8.4 meters. It preserves the most intact decoration, with carved panels on the false arches and wall surfaces still largely legible.
Square plan measuring 9.2 by 9.2 meters, larger and taller than the North Tower and built earlier. Its body remains relatively intact with some unfinished wall carvings, while much of the roof has been lost.
Collapsed centuries ago, leaving only its foundation exposed on the ground. This missing middle structure is why the local name Ba Tháp no longer matches what meets the eye.
The signature motif of the Hòa Lai style. Curving bands of foliage hook into one another around doorway arches and wall cornices, carved directly into the finished brick wall.
Each tower has only one real doorway opening East, while the other three sides have false doors with full frames and decorative arches bricked shut. Multi-layered arches are an unmistakable trait of early towers.
Images of the mythical bird Garuda, the mount of Vishnu in Hinduism, carved on the cornice of the North Tower alongside scrolling leaf motifs on the pilasters.
Carving directly into finished brick walls
The tower walls were built of bricks laid so tightly that the naked eye can hardly find a mortar joint, and most of the floral ornament was carved directly into the wall surface after construction, so a single band of foliage cuts seamlessly across multiple adjacent bricks. That method required carvers to work on an already standing mass with no room for correction, where every chisel stroke was final.
The binding agent used by Cham builders remains an open question. Commonly discussed hypotheses include grinding brick faces flat and bonding them with a thin layer of plant resin, laying partially fired bricks and firing the entire structure again, or using mortar mixed from brick dust itself. At Hòa Lai, under fierce sun and dry wind all year round, that question is all the more striking because two towers have stood for twelve centuries with their carved surfaces still legible.
The heritage dossier places the Hòa Lai style as a transitional phase growing out of the Mỹ Sơn E1 style. Put simply, this was the moment when Cham architecture was crystallizing the conventions that would guide it for nearly a thousand years afterward, including the three-part division of base, body and roof, a single real doorway facing East, three false doors and receding multi-tiered roofs. To stand here is to stand where those conventions had just taken shape.
IVThe lie of the land and orientation
One point should be stated plainly before reading further. Hinduism does not teach feng shui. Feng shui is an East Asian geomantic system, and the Cham builders did not use it when choosing sites for their towers. Opening the real doorway of each tower to the East follows the internal rules of Hindu temple architecture, where East is the direction of the rising sun whose first morning rays must shine through the doorway onto the sacred emblem. The section below is a comparative reading offered by the library for readers familiar with traditional Vietnamese geomancy, not something recorded in Cham inscriptions or intended by the builders.
Read through traditional Vietnamese geomancy, the first impression is dry ground. The complex sits on a slightly elevated strip of land amid the harshest sun and wind of the coastal plain, surrounded by low grass and drought-resistant scrub, with no large river alongside and no mountain range backing it closely. In Vietnamese site-reading, such a setting would often be faulted as having dispersed qi, lacking both a backing mountain and water gathering (thủy tụ).
Yet that is a critique from a system foreign to the builders. The Cham in this region lived by irrigated farming and seafaring, and they placed their temple-towers along a busy coastal thoroughfare rather than seeking a secluded pocket of land. The location shows that the sanctuary was built to be seen across the plain, not hidden away in a niche that gathers qi.
The second point is the eastern orientation. In traditional Vietnamese geomancy, East belongs to the Wood element and corresponds to the rising vitality of morning, so temples facing East are considered to receive ascending energy. Hindu temple architecture chooses the East for a different reason altogether, so that the first light of day touches the sacred emblem inside the sanctuary. Two traditions arrive at the same compass direction through two distinct lines of reasoning, and what is worth learning lies in that difference rather than in the coincidence.
The third point is three towers standing in a row. Traditional Vietnamese eyes are accustomed to reading a triad after the three-peak pattern, with a tall central mass flanked by two lower ones. At Hòa Lai, the three towers were built across roughly a century, so the alignment is the result of successive generations adding one sanctuary after another rather than a master blueprint drawn from the outset. It is a useful reminder that a layout looking highly deliberate can be the work of time rather than of a single drawing.
Finally, there is the mountain within. Vietnamese geomancy reads the lie of the land from the outside in, taking a physical mountain as backing for a building. Hindu architecture works the other way around, as the tower mass with its receding roof tiers is itself the image of the sacred cosmic mountain, rebuilding the mountain within its own form. Once this point is understood, it is no longer surprising that the complex stands in the middle of an open plain.
VRitual worship inside the temple-towers
It should be stated clearly at the outset that no regular Cham religious ceremonies take place at Hòa Lai today. This complex belongs to the class of monuments that ceased functioning as active sanctuaries long ago, unlike Pô Klong Garai and Pô Rômê in the same region, where the Katê festival is still celebrated annually by the Cham Balamon community in the seventh month of the Cham calendar. The table below reconstructs the rituals that once belonged to a kalan, based on excavated artifacts, architectural layout and Champa inscriptions in general, rather than a current festival calendar at the site.
| Ritual | Practice | Surviving evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Bathing the Linga | The officiating priest poured water, milk or scented oil over the top of the Linga, which flowed down the Yoni basin and drained through its spout. | The sandstone Linga and Yoni set found at the site in 1989, now preserved at the provincial museum. |
| Offering flowers, incense and fire | Daily worship in a Hindu sanctuary, offered directly before the sacred emblem rather than performed before a large crowd. | The narrow, dark kalan chamber with a single real doorway, sized for an officiating priest standing before the altar. |
| Circumambulation | Worshipers walked clockwise around the tower mass, keeping the sanctuary on their right side. | The courtyard ground around the bases of the two standing towers, wide enough for a complete circuit. |
| Royal endowments and stele inscriptions | Kings and nobles endowed temples with land, attendants and precious objects, then erected stone steles recording construction and repairs. | The ancient Hòa Lai sandstone stele found at the site, praising Hindu deities and recording offerings and temple works. |
| Shaiva worship | The principal emblem is the Linga set upon a Yoni pedestal, symbolizing the principle of generation. | The Linga and Yoni set found in the Central Tower area, along with sacred sculptures among the 405 excavated artifacts. |
| Restoring temples as religious merit | Repairing a sanctuary was recorded as a meritorious act alongside founding one, so a single temple complex could carry multiple chronological layers. | Three towers built across roughly a century, and inscriptions mentioning both founding and restoration. |
Local residents, both Vietnamese and Cham, still visit to light incense at the base of the towers around the New Year. That is a later folk practice that grew up beside the monument rather than a continuation of ancient kalan liturgy, and the library records it simply as such, without ranking one practice above the other.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- thôn Ba Tháp, xã Thuận Bắc, tỉnh Khánh Hòa
- Getting there
- The complex stands in Ba Tháp village, Thuận Bắc commune, Khánh Hòa province, right beside the coastal highway north of the former Phan Rang area, about fifteen kilometers north of central Phan Rang.
- Coordinates
- 11.676, 109.0355
This is an architectural and archaeological monument standing in an open field, and the rule of the site is conservation. Do not touch or lean against the hooked-leaf brick carvings, because the weathered brick surface is fragile and handprints linger far longer than visitors realize. Do not climb onto the exposed foundation of the Central Tower, and do not place offerings on loose architectural stones arranged around the yard. The sun in this region is intense and there is no tree shade within the enclosure, so pace yourself when walking around the two towers.
Nearby places in the library
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?Quick Questions
Where are the Hòa Lai Cham Towers located
The complex is in Ba Tháp village, Thuận Bắc commune, Khánh Hòa province, right beside the coastal highway. Before the July 2025 administrative merger, it belonged to Bắc Phong commune, Thuận Bắc district, Ninh Thuận province, while some older articles recorded Tân Hải commune, Ninh Hải district.
Why are the Hòa Lai Towers also called Ba Tháp
Because the complex originally had three towers, and local Vietnamese residents named it after that number, which eventually became the village name as well. The Central Tower collapsed centuries ago and only its foundation remains, so on site today visitors see only the North and South Towers.
Who is worshiped at the Hòa Lai Towers
No intact object of worship remains inside the towers today. In 1989 a sandstone Linga and Yoni set was found in the Central Tower area, and the Hòa Lai stele records King Satyavarman offering gifts to Shiva under the titles Sri Adidevesvara and Sri Vrddhesvara. These records confirm that it was a Cham Hindu temple complex dedicated to Shiva rather than a Buddhist pagoda or a shrine to a mortal figure.
What does the Hòa Lai style mean
It is the name of a period in Champa art history, named after this very complex. The heritage dossier classifies it as a transitional phase emerging from the Mỹ Sơn E1 style, recognizable through its multi-layered arches, pilaster arrangement and distinctive hooked-leaf brick carvings.
Is the legend of the tower-building contest at Hòa Lai historical
The folk tale of a three-day building contest between King Pô Klong Garai and a Khmer figure named Hakral belongs to a later layer of oral explanation. The chronology does not match, because the Hòa Lai towers date from the late 8th to early 9th century whereas Pô Klong Garai lived in the 12th and 13th centuries.