Walking from Lạc Trị village toward the foot of Mount Ông Xiêm, you see reddish brick structures that do not stand atop an open hill like most Cham towers, but nestle closely against the rocky mountain slope, one terrace stepping above another along the incline. Behind them rise gray rocks and scrub, and before them stretches the dry plain of the Tuy Phong coast. Some towers still retain arched doorways with pilasters and carved leaf ornament, while others survive only as foundations and scattered bricks.
This is Pô Đam Cham Towers, also called Po Dam, Pô Tằm, Pô Kathit or Trà Duyệt, a group of six Cham Hindu temple-towers built around the late 8th to early 9th century in the Hòa Lai style. Local Cham residents associate the complex with King Pô Đam of Panduranga, remembered for teaching the people how to build dams and channel water. Yet the towers predated that king by many centuries, and that chronological gap is the most revealing story of this place.
IA Shiva sanctuary and a later king
This site holds two layers of worship superimposed on one another. The original layer, according to the dossier of the Department of Cultural Heritage, was a Hindu sanctuary dedicated to Shiva in the form of a linga yoni. The later layer is the Cham veneration of King Pô Đam and his royal family within these same brick sanctuaries. The Department of Cultural Heritage notes that the site preserves a linga yoni emblem alongside kút steles, stone markers representing Pô Đam and members of his royal clan.
In Shaiva teaching, a linga set upon a yoni pedestal is the most widespread emblem of Shiva in Cham temple-towers. In Cham religious custom, meanwhile, a ruler who rendered great service to the people could be elevated to divine rank after death and worshiped at a sanctuary. Kút are upright stones erected by the Cham to represent deceased ancestors of a lineage. When the kút stones of Pô Đam and his royal kin were placed here, the ancient Shiva sanctuary acquired a second layer of meaning as a place of ancestral and royal commemoration.
The chronology must be stated clearly. The towers were built around the 8th to 9th centuries. King Pô Đam, by contrast, lived in the 15th century, with his reign dated to 1446 to 1472 by Lâm Đồng newspaper and to 1433 to 1460 by Tây Ninh newspaper. The king therefore lived some six or seven hundred years after the towers were erected. Worshiping the king here is a later devotional layer attached to an ancient temple, not the reason the towers were built.
According to the Department of Cultural Heritage and Tây Ninh newspaper, Cham tradition remembers Pô Đam as the younger brother of Princess Pô Sah Inư, credited with teaching the people wet-rice farming, weaving and dam building, which is why several irrigation dams across former Panduranga bear his name. Descendants who care for the sanctuary still preserve eight royal decrees (sắc phong) granted by six Nguyễn dynasty emperors, namely Minh Mạng, Thiệu Trị, Tự Đức, Đồng Khánh, Duy Tân and Khải Định, authorizing worship at the site.
The most common misunderstanding is to assume from the monument's name that King Pô Đam built the towers. He did not. Both the Hòa Lai architectural style and the dating by the Department of Cultural Heritage place the towers in the 8th to 9th centuries, whereas the king lived in the 15th century. The name reflects who was worshiped here later, not who founded the complex.
The second point concerns alternative names. Pô Tằm, Pô Kathit and Trà Duyệt all refer to this same six-tower complex, not to separate monuments.
IIFrom the 8th century to the royal cult
The complex belonged to the southern Champa principality of Panduranga. Its date is established by architectural style rather than by a foundation inscription, and sources do not completely agree. Lâm Đồng newspaper dates the entire complex to the late 8th to early 9th century on the basis of the Hòa Lai style. The Department of Cultural Heritage divides the complex into two phases, placing the three northern towers in the late 8th century, even earlier than the Hòa Lai group itself, and the remaining towers in the mid-9th century. This indicates that the complex was built in at least two distinct phases rather than all at once.
- Late 8th centuryNorthern tower groupAccording to the Department of Cultural Heritage, the three northern towers belong to this earliest phase, considered slightly earlier than the Hòa Lai towers.
- Mid-9th centuryRemaining towersAccording to the Department of Cultural Heritage. Lâm Đồng newspaper dates the whole complex together to the late 8th to early 9th century.
- 15th centuryReign of King Pô ĐamReigned from 1446 to 1472 according to Lâm Đồng newspaper, or from 1433 to 1460 according to Tây Ninh newspaper. The worship of the king and his royal family at the towers is a later devotional layer.
- 1996National heritage siteRanked as a national architectural and artistic heritage site under Decision No. 1460-QĐ/VH on June 28, 1996.
- 2025Administrative boundary changePhú Lạc commune, Tuy Phong district, Bình Thuận province became former administrative units. The monument now belongs to Liên Hương commune, Lâm Đồng province.
Regarding the number of surviving towers, sources also differ. The Department of Cultural Heritage records six towers divided into northern and southern groups. Lâm Đồng newspaper and Tây Ninh newspaper note that only three relatively intact towers of the northern group remain standing today. A 2013 article in Thể thao và Văn hóa newspaper, meanwhile, reports that two towers on the northern axis collapsed completely and none of the four towers on the southern axis remains intact, dividing the two groups differently from the heritage dossier. The library records all three accounts without choosing among them.
The site also preserves a stone stele inscribed in Cham script, an in situ epigraphic record whose full translation has not yet been published in general sources.
IIIHòa Lai style nestled against a cliff
Pô Đam is one of the representative complexes of the Hòa Lai style, sharing its architectural language with Hòa Lai Cham Towers, after which the style is named. A detailed introduction to that style is given in the Hòa Lai article. Here it suffices to point out the visual cues by which visitors can recognize it, including broad wall pilasters running vertically along the tower body, multi-layered corbeled doorway arches and bands of floral ornament carved directly into the brick surface. The Department of Cultural Heritage describes the sculptural motifs here as rich and rhythmic.
Six towers divided into northern and southern groups along two parallel axes. The towers are relatively small and compact, with the tallest rising about 7 to 8 meters on bases of 3 to 3.5 meters per side.
Built on the sloping foot of Mount Ông Xiêm, called Kađak or Cơk Gađak by the Cham, making use of the firm rocky base of the mountain.
Hallmarks of the Hòa Lai style, seen most clearly on the main tower (Tower C) of the northern group, which still houses a green stone linga yoni set.
An inscribed stone stele preserved on site alongside the kút stones representing King Pô Đam and his royal family.
What makes Pô Đam stand out from other complexes of the same style is its setting. Cham towers customarily stand on open hilltops, such as Po Sah Inư Cham Towers on Bà Nài Hill overlooking the sea, a contemporaneous 8th-century complex about 71 kilometers away. At Pô Đam, by contrast, the towers hug a rocky mountain slope. Thể thao và Văn hóa newspaper notes that researchers still have no official explanation for why a mountain slope was chosen instead of a hilltop, and the library records that fact as it stands.
IVThe lie of the land and orientation
The standard rule of Cham Hindu temple-towers is to open the main doorway to the East, place the sanctuary atop a knoll or hill, and connect the sacred precinct with a holy mountain and water source. Pô Đam is an exception to that rule. The Department of Cultural Heritage records that the two tower axes face south-southwest at an angle of 15 degrees 30 minutes. Thể thao và Văn hóa newspaper notes that five of the six towers face south-southwest while only the South Tower opens to the East, whereas Tây Ninh newspaper states more simply that the doorways face South. The reason remains unexplained. Hinduism does not teach feng shui. The next section offers a comparative reading by the library through traditional Vietnamese geomancy, not as an explanation for the unusual orientation nor as anything written in Cham texts.
To anyone accustomed to East Asian geomancy, Pô Đam is the easiest Cham tower complex to read because it possesses the very feature most other Cham towers lack, namely a mountain backing the site. The rocky slope of Mount Ông Xiêm rises immediately behind the towers while the coastal plain opens out in front. That arrangement closely resembles the classic mountain-backed posture that geomantic manuals regard as the foundation of a sound site. The Cham, however, did not read mountains in that way. For them, the mountain was a sacred abode, and placing the sanctuary against the slope was likely a way of setting the temple close to that sacred presence.
The second point is the south-southwest orientation. In traditional Vietnamese geomancy, the South belongs to the Fire element and is the favored orientation for northern Vietnamese temples because it receives warm sunlight and gentle breezes. A Cham complex facing nearly South therefore looks more familiar to Vietnamese eyes than towers facing East. Yet that convergence is coincidental. Once the builders chose to nestle the complex against the foot of Mount Ông Xiêm, the natural slope of the hillside very likely dictated the direction of the doorways, though the library notes this only as a practical hypothesis not confirmed by written sources.
The third point is water. The complex bears the name of a king remembered for building irrigation dams. Traditional Vietnamese feng shui looks for physical water in front of a building to serve as the bright hall (minh đường). At Pô Đam, water lies not in the physical terrain before the towers, but in the monument's name and oral tradition, as the figure revered here is the one who brought water to an arid land.
VCham ceremonies at the tower complex
Pô Đam remains a living place of worship. The local Cham Balamon community still gathers here for rituals according to the Cham calendar. The Department of Cultural Heritage records three main annual ceremonies, namely the Katê festival, the rain-praying ceremony and the memorial ceremony for King Pô Đam. Tây Ninh newspaper calls the fourth-month ritual the Yơr Yang festival. Lâm Đồng newspaper adds that a larger festival is held once every three years without specifying which of the ceremonies it corresponds to, so the library lists it on a separate line.
| Festival | Time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Katê festival | 7th month, Cham calendar | The largest annual festival of the Cham Balamon, honoring deities and deified kings. |
| Rain-praying ceremony | Cham calendar | Ritual praying for water for the crops, closely aligned with the memory of the dam-building king in this dry region. |
| Pô Đam memorial ceremony (Yơr Yang) | 4th month, Cham calendar | Ceremony honoring King Pô Đam and his royal family in the middle of the 4th Cham month, according to the Department of Cultural Heritage and Tây Ninh newspaper. |
| Triennial festival | Month not specified in sources | Recorded by Lâm Đồng newspaper, without specifying which of the above rituals it coincides with. |
The sequence of stages in the Katê festival has already been described by the library in the article on Po Klong Garai Cham Towers. What is distinctive at Pô Đam is the memorial ceremony in the fourth month of the Cham calendar, dedicated specifically to the king whose name the complex bears, showing how the later royal cult has become the most vibrant living layer of this site.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- chân núi Ông Xiêm, thôn Lạc Trị, xã Liên Hương, tỉnh Lâm Đồng
- Getting there
- At the foot of Mount Ông Xiêm, Lạc Trị village, Liên Hương commune, Lâm Đồng province, formerly part of Phú Lạc commune, Tuy Phong district, in the old Bình Thuận province.
- Coordinates
- 11.2667, 108.6921
This is a sanctuary where the Cham community still performs religious ceremonies, even though several towers have collapsed. Visitors should not climb onto the brick tower walls or foundations, touch the Cham-script stele or the kút stones, or displace loose bricks around the bases. The mountain slope is steep and rocky, so keep to the existing footpath. On festival days, rituals are led by Cham religious dignitaries, and visitors observe from outside as guided by the caretakers.
Nearby places in the library
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?Quick Questions
Who is worshiped at the Pô Đam Cham Towers
The original layer was a Hindu sanctuary dedicated to Shiva in the form of a linga yoni. Later the Cham came to worship King Pô Đam and his royal family here through kút stones and eight preserved Nguyễn dynasty royal decrees. Because King Pô Đam lived in the 15th century, many centuries after the towers were built, the royal cult belongs to a later devotional layer.
When were the Pô Đam Cham Towers built
Their date is determined by the Hòa Lai architectural style. Lâm Đồng newspaper records the late 8th to early 9th century for the complex. The Department of Cultural Heritage dates the three northern towers to the late 8th century and the remaining towers to the mid-9th century. No foundation inscription records an exact year.
Why do the Pô Đam Towers not face East
The Department of Cultural Heritage records that the two tower axes face south-southwest at 15 degrees 30 minutes. Thể thao và Văn hóa newspaper notes that five of the six towers face that direction while only the South Tower opens East, and Tây Ninh newspaper states simply that the towers face South. Scholars have not yet offered an official explanation.
How many towers remain at Pô Đam today
The original complex had six towers in two parallel groups. Lâm Đồng newspaper and Tây Ninh newspaper record that three towers remain relatively intact today. A 2013 article in Thể thao và Văn hóa newspaper states that two towers on the northern axis collapsed completely and none of the four on the southern axis is intact. Sources differ in how they count the surviving structures.
Is the Katê festival celebrated at Pô Đam Towers
Yes. The Cham Balamon celebrate the Katê festival in the 7th Cham month, along with the rain-praying ceremony and the memorial ceremony for King Pô Đam (Yơr Yang) in the 4th Cham month, according to the Department of Cultural Heritage and Tây Ninh newspaper. Lâm Đồng newspaper also mentions a festival held once every three years.