At the end of a dirt road winding between rice paddies and coconut gardens, you come to a raised plot of ground enclosed by a fence, where a small Buddhist pagoda and an old brick mass stand quietly beneath the trees. That brick structure has no receding multi-tiered roof, no false doors on three sides, and an almost bare exterior without a single band of carved foliage. Its entrance is a wide opening, and instead of facing East it faces Southwest.
This is Vĩnh Hưng Ancient Tower, also known as Trà Long Tower or Lục Hiền Tower. If you have just traveled through central Vietnam and grown accustomed to Cham towers, everything here will look unfamiliar, and for good reason, because this is not a Cham tower. It is a monument of the late Óc Eo culture in the Mekong Delta, built in the manner of a pre-Angkorian Khmer brick sanctuary, and it is the only ancient brick tower of that tradition still standing above ground in southwestern Vietnam.
IThe deity worshiped here and the Óc Eo cultural layer
The object of worship inside the tower chamber is a Linga set upon a Yoni pedestal, the characteristic emblem of Shiva in Hinduism. Together with the assemblage of artifacts excavated around the base of the tower, this confirms that the monument was a Hindu sanctuary dedicated to the Shaiva tradition rather than a Buddhist pagoda.
In Hindu teaching, the Linga and Yoni form a symbolic pair representing the principle of cosmic generation, where masculine and feminine principles unite to bring forth life. The central ritual performed before this emblem consists of pouring water over the top of the Linga so that it flows down the surface of the Yoni basin and drains through its spout. At Vĩnh Hưng, according to archaeological descriptions and the site caretakers, the lustration water from the sacred emblem was channeled out to two sacred wells beside the tower, from which worshipers drew water to take home.
Alongside Shiva, the great Hindu triad includes Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver. Artifacts uncovered at the site show that both Shaiva and Vaishnava worship were present in the region, matching what is known of the religious life of Óc Eo communities across the delta.
Five artifacts discovered at the monument have been recognized as National Treasures across three batches, namely the statue of Goddess Laksmi, the statue of Sadashiva and the head of Shiva under Prime Minister Decision No. 2382/QĐ-TTg on December 25, 2015, the statue of a Male Deity under Decision No. 2283/QĐ-TTg on December 31, 2020, and the relief of Goddess Uma under Decision No. 73/QĐ-TTg on January 18, 2024. The original masterpieces are preserved at the provincial museum, while replicas are displayed on site. Excavations also yielded bronze figurines, pottery, roof tiles and carved stone fragments dating from roughly the 7th to the 13th centuries.
That chronological depth is the most remarkable aspect of the site. The heritage dossier records that settlement and religious worship here lasted from roughly the 4th century to the 13th century, nearly a thousand years of continuous activity rather than a single short-lived structure. The brick tower still standing today belongs to a later phase within that long span.
Here lies the most frequent misunderstanding about this monument, which should be clarified in a straightforward historical manner without blaming anyone. Vĩnh Hưng Tower is not a Cham tower. The word tower, together with brick masonry and a Linga emblem, has led many popular accounts to group it with Cham towers, yet none of those three features is exclusive to Champa, as all three are shared across Indianized monuments throughout Southeast Asia.
Different builders and different land. Cham towers were built by the kingdom of Champa along the coastal plains of central Vietnam. Vĩnh Hưng Tower stands in the Mekong Delta, within the territory of the Óc Eo culture, an archaeological civilization linked to the kingdom of Funan that continued into the post-Óc Eo period. They represent two distinct regions, two communities and two historical trajectories.
Different architectural form. A Cham kalan has a distinct three-part division of base, body and roof, a tall superstructure of receding false tiers, three false doors and densely carved wall surfaces. Vĩnh Hưng Tower has a nearly square floor plan with symmetrically indented corners, no multi-tiered false roof superstructure or false pilasters, an almost plain exterior and a corbeled brick vault inside. Its architectural language is far closer to pre-Angkorian Khmer brick sanctuaries than to a Cham kalan.
Different orientation. Cham towers almost invariably open their main doorway to the East. The doorway of Vĩnh Hưng Tower opens to the Southwest, a rare exception among Indian-influenced sanctuaries for which there is still no universally accepted explanation.
Recording these differences is not a matter of ranking one tradition above another, but of calling a heritage site by its rightful name. Lumping Vĩnh Hưng together with Cham towers erases the visible trace of an entire civilization that once flourished across the Mekong Delta.
IIThe 892 CE Sanskrit stele and a thousand years of cultural layers
The firmest chronological anchor at this site lies not in the brickwork itself, but in a Sanskrit stone stele discovered on the grounds. According to published scholarship, the inscription records the month of Karhila in the year 814 of the Saka era, corresponding to 892 CE, together with the place name Lục Hiền and the name of a king transcribed as Yacovarman. That stele gave the monument its second historical name, Lục Hiền Tower.
- From the 4th century onwardEarliest settlement and religious layerThe heritage dossier records that the cultural layer at this site began around the 4th century CE within the Óc Eo culture and continued across many subsequent centuries.
- 892Sanskrit stone steleThe stele records the month of Karhila in the year 814 Saka era, corresponding to 892 CE, along with the place name Lục Hiền and a king transcribed as Yacovarman. It is the sole dated epigraphic record at the monument.
- 1911 and 1917Surveys by French scholarsIn 1911, French scholar Lunet de Lajonquière first documented and published the monument under the name Trà Long Tower. In 1917, archaeologist Henri Parmentier surveyed it and published a study in the journal of the École française d'Extrême-Orient under the name Lục Hiền Tower.
- 1988 to 1993First three archaeological excavationsExcavations carried out in 1988, 1990 and 1993 uncovered pottery, intact roof tiles and numerous bronze figurines belonging to the Óc Eo tradition.
- 1992National heritage siteRanked by the Ministry of Culture and Information as a national architectural and artistic heritage site under Decision No. 983-QĐ/VH, placing the monument under statutory protection.
- 2002 and 2011Two major excavationsThese campaigns exposed additional foundation structures and recovered the most important group of sculptures, several of which were later recognized as National Treasures.
- 2015 to 2024Five National Treasures recognizedFive artifacts found at the site were recognized as National Treasures across three batches, namely the Goddess Laksmi statue, Sadashiva statue and Shiva head in 2015, the Male Deity statue in 2020 and the Goddess Uma relief in 2024.
- 2024Special national heritage siteRanked under Prime Minister Decision No. 694/QĐ-TTg on July 18, 2024, under the official title Vĩnh Hưng Archaeological Site.
Two points where sources differ should be noted clearly so readers do not have to guess.
Date of the stele. Most official publications record the stele's date as 892 CE and give the king's name as Yacovarman. A report in VnExpress, however, cites the reading by French researcher Henri Parmentier, according to which the stele bears the date 872 CE and names a king Jayavarman. The two readings differ by twenty years and by the royal name. The library records both without choosing a single figure in the absence of a full critical edition of the inscription.
Dimensions of the tower. The heritage dossier records the tower base at 9.36 meters by 9.44 meters and its height at nearly 9.5 meters, with the lower walls about 1.8 meters thick tapering upward. Other publications describe a rectangular footprint measuring 5.6 meters by 6.9 meters and a height between 8.2 and 8.9 meters. The most plausible explanation is that the larger figures measure the outer foundation base while the smaller figures measure the upper wall body or interior chamber, and because sources do not specify their reference points, the library records both sets of measurements.
IIIA plain brick mass and an interior corbeled vault
Seen from outside, Vĩnh Hưng Tower is an almost unadorned brick mass. There are no floral friezes, no wall reliefs and no multi-tiered false roof. Its visual power lies not in surface ornament, but in its sheer volume and wall thickness, which give the viewer the sense of a structure built to endure across centuries.
Nearly square ground plan whose corners are indented three times symmetrically on both front and back, while the upper walls and roof have no stepped tiers or false pilasters. This is a characteristic trait of Mekong Delta brick architecture of the period.
According to the heritage dossier, the lower walls are about 1.8 meters thick, thinning gradually toward the top. That massive thickness has kept the tower standing on the soft alluvial soil of the delta.
The interior chamber rises into a corbeled brick vault built by laying successive courses of brick projecting inward toward the center, clearly visible when looking overhead.
A single wide doorway opening to the Southwest instead of the East, a rare feature among Indian-influenced sanctuaries that still lacks a definitive explanation.
Predominantly fired brick, supplemented by stone for thresholds and structural fittings and ceramic tiles for roofing, unlike Cham towers whose bodies and roofs are almost purely brick.
A century-old Buddhist pagoda built right beside the ancient tower within the same fenced compound, bringing together two religious traditions separated by a thousand years.
Late Óc Eo culture and pre-Angkorian form
Óc Eo is the name of an archaeological culture across the Mekong Delta associated with the kingdom of Funan in the early centuries CE, marked by a sophisticated network of port cities, canals and craft workshops. After Funan waned, that cultural substrate did not vanish but transitioned into what archaeologists call the post-Óc Eo or late Óc Eo phase, coinciding with the period when the region came under the influence of Chenla, the pre-Angkorian era of Khmer history.
Vĩnh Hưng Tower belongs squarely to that horizon. Its architectural features, from the indented corner plan, thick walls and interior corbeled vault to the unadorned exterior, speak the language of pre-Angkorian brick sanctuaries rather than that of a Cham kalan. What makes the monument priceless is that across the entire southwestern delta only this single tower from that era remains standing above ground, so every study of early brick architecture in the Mekong Delta must return here for comparison.
In construction technique, the bricks here are laid with hair-thin joints using a binding method that remains as debated as in Cham masonry. The ground beneath, however, is completely different, because the Mekong Delta consists of soft, seasonally flooded alluvial soil rather than the bedrock or compact coastal sand of central Vietnam. How a heavy brick mass has stood for a millennium on soft delta alluvium remains an active subject of archaeological inquiry.
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 builders of this tower did not use it. Under the internal rules of Hindu temple architecture, sanctuaries open their doorway to the East so that the first rays of the morning sun shine through onto the sacred emblem, a rule followed by Cham towers and most Khmer temples alike. This tower, however, opens its doorway to the Southwest, making it an exception even within its own religious tradition. The section below is a comparative reading offered by the library for readers familiar with traditional Vietnamese geomancy, not something recorded on the stele or intended by the builders.
Read through traditional Vietnamese geomancy, the first feature is a raised mound amid watered plains. The tower stands on a plot of ground slightly higher than the surrounding rice fields, set within a low alluvial plain subject to seasonal flooding. In Vietnamese site-reading, a dry mound rising out of watered flatlands is a place of convergence, because water surrounds it while the ground stays dry underfoot. Óc Eo inhabitants chose the mound for the practical needs of delta life, and their choice coincides with what Vietnamese geomancy calls a spot that gathers qi.
The second feature is the southwestern orientation, the most debated aspect of the monument. In traditional Vietnamese geomancy, temples facing South or East are favored, whereas westward orientations are often faulted as facing declining afternoon energy. Judged by that standard, the doorway of Vĩnh Hưng Tower faces an unusual direction. Yet it must be remembered that the builders did not follow East Asian geomancy, and even within Hindu architecture this orientation is an exception to the eastern rule. Proposed explanations include aligning the entrance with an ancient canal waterway used by boats across the delta, or following a local religious tradition now lost. Neither hypothesis has been proven, and the library records them strictly as conjectures.
The third feature is the relationship with water. In central Vietnam, Cham towers often stand on hills or high knolls, using vertical elevation to command the landscape. Here the delta is as flat as a table with no vertical height to borrow, so the sanctuary's siting relates instead to the network of waterways. Within the monument grounds lie two sacred wells beside the tower that received the lustration water drained from the sacred emblem inside. Read in traditional terms, that forms a tightly knit water cycle in which rain falls from the sky, washes over the sacred emblem, and collects in the wells for worshipers to draw.
Finally, there is the solid mass standing in for the mountain. Hindu temple architecture recreates the sacred cosmic mountain within the building itself, so a sanctuary does not require a physical mountain range behind it. At Vĩnh Hưng Tower, that idea is expressed in a different architectural language from Cham towers, not through receding multi-tiered roofs, but through a dense brick block with massive walls and an enclosed corbeled vault inside. One religious doctrine, two landscapes, two ways of building form. The library records these observations simply as a comparative reading and leaves it there.
VRitual worship inside the ancient sanctuary
The original liturgy of the tower builders passed out of practice centuries ago. The table below reconstructs the rituals that once belonged to a Hindu sanctuary of the late Óc Eo period, based on the sacred emblem in situ, the architectural layout and the excavated artifacts, rather than a current festival calendar at the site. Present-day religious activity within the compound belongs to the Buddhist pagoda standing beside the tower, representing a different religious tradition and a much later historical layer.
| Ritual | Practice | Surviving evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Bathing the Linga | The officiating priest poured water or scented oil over the top of the Linga, which flowed across the Yoni basin and drained through its spout. | The Linga and Yoni set inside the tower chamber, together with the two sacred wells beside the tower that received the lustration water. |
| Offering flowers, incense and fire | Daily worship in a Hindu sanctuary, offered directly before the sacred emblem rather than performed before a large congregation. | The enclosed vaulted brick chamber with a single doorway, sized for an officiating priest standing before the altar. |
| Shaiva worship | The principal emblem is the Linga set upon a Yoni pedestal, symbolizing the principle of generation. | The head of Shiva and the statue of Sadashiva discovered at the site, both recognized as National Treasures. |
| Veneration of Hindu goddesses | Alongside the principal deity, the sanctuary housed images of goddesses belonging to the Hindu pantheon. | The statue of Goddess Laksmi and the relief of Goddess Uma discovered at the site, both recognized as National Treasures. |
| Endowments and stele inscriptions | Dedications to the sanctuary were recorded on a Sanskrit stone stele bearing a date and the name of the royal patron. | The Sanskrit stele dated 892 CE recording the place name Lục Hiền and the name of a king. |
| Maintaining the sanctuary across generations | Restoring and endowing a temple was regarded as an act of religious merit, allowing a sanctuary to span multiple chronological layers. | Continuous cultural layers at the site extending from roughly the 4th century to the 13th century, with artifacts from successive periods. |
Local residents today visit the compound around the New Year and on the new and full moon days of each lunar month, mostly to worship at the adjacent Buddhist pagoda. That is a later layer of practice that grew up beside the ancient monument rather than a continuation of the Hindu sanctuary's liturgy, and the library records it simply as such, without ranking one tradition above the other.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- ấp Trung Hưng 1B, xã Châu Thới, tỉnh Cà Mau
- Getting there
- The monument stands in Trung Hưng 1B hamlet, Châu Thới commune, Cà Mau province, about twenty kilometers northwest of the former Bạc Liêu city center. Before the July 2025 administrative merger, it belonged to Vĩnh Hưng A commune, Vĩnh Lợi district, Bạc Liêu province.
- Coordinates
- 9.3921, 105.5781
Because this site is both an archaeological monument and home to an active Buddhist pagoda within the same compound, two sets of etiquette apply at once. For heritage conservation, do not touch or lean against the brick walls, do not wedge incense sticks into mortar joints, and do not climb onto the exposed foundation trenches. For religious respect, dress modestly, remove hats when entering the tower and the pagoda, and walk and speak quietly. The National Treasure sculptures displayed on site are replicas while the originals are kept at the provincial museum, so please check the display labels when viewing them.
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?Quick Questions
Is Vĩnh Hưng Ancient Tower a Cham tower
No. It is a monument of the late Óc Eo culture in the Mekong Delta, built in the style of a pre-Angkorian Khmer brick sanctuary. Cham towers were built by the kingdom of Champa along the central coast and feature a three-part elevation with multi-tiered false roofs, three false doors and dense brick carvings, none of which is present at Vĩnh Hưng Tower.
Who is worshiped at Vĩnh Hưng Ancient Tower
The object of worship inside the chamber is a Linga set upon a Yoni pedestal, the emblem of Shiva in Hinduism. Excavations at the site also uncovered a statue of Sadashiva, a head of Shiva, a statue of Goddess Laksmi and a relief of Goddess Uma, confirming that it was a Hindu sanctuary rather than a Buddhist pagoda.
When was Vĩnh Hưng Ancient Tower built
Its sole written date comes from a Sanskrit stone stele recording the month of Karhila in the year 814 Saka era, corresponding to 892 CE. An alternative reading by French scholar Henri Parmentier gave the date 872 CE. The broader archaeological settlement and worship layer at the site lasted from roughly the 4th century to the 13th century.
Why does the doorway of Vĩnh Hưng Tower not face East
The doorway faces Southwest, a rare exception among Indian-influenced sanctuaries, which normally open to the East so that morning sunlight reaches the sacred emblem. Proposed hypotheses include aligning the entrance with an ancient canal waterway used by boats or following a lost local cultic tradition, though neither has been conclusively proven.
How many National Treasures come from Vĩnh Hưng Tower
Five artifacts discovered at the site have been recognized as National Treasures across 2015, 2020 and 2024, namely the statue of Goddess Laksmi, the statue of Sadashiva, the head of Shiva, the statue of a Male Deity and the relief of Goddess Uma. The original artifacts are preserved at the provincial museum, while replicas are displayed at the monument.