At the end of a red dirt road winding through open dipterocarp forest near the banks of the Ea H'leo River and the Ea Nao Stream, visitors encounter a small brick tower standing alone beneath green forest canopies. There are no high hills, no coastline, and no Cham villages nearby. The four roof corners bear stone heads of the divine bird Garuda, while the pinnacle tapers like a lotus bud. During the dry season, dipterocarp leaves carpet the laterite base, and morning sunlight shines directly into the main eastern doorway.
This is Yang Prong Tower (also known as Tháp Chàm Rừng Xanh or the Ea Súp Cham Tower), an ancient Cham brick tower preserved on the Central Highlands plateau, built in the late 13th or early 14th century during the reign of King Jaya Simhavarman III. The temple was dedicated to Shiva in the form of an ekamukhalinga (a linga carved with a single divine face). In both the Jarai and Ê Đê languages, the name Yang Prong means the Great Deity, and local ethnic residents still maintain the custom of coming here to burn incense, linking present-day highland life with a seven-century-old sanctuary.
IShiva bearing the king's name
A monograph by Dr. Nguyễn Thị Hòa published by the Department of Cultural Heritage records that the tower was dedicated to the deity Sri Jaya Simhavarmalingesvara. This title combines the name of King Jaya Simhavarman with the Sanskrit term lingesvara, meaning the Lord of the Linga, an epithet of Shiva. In short, the deity is Shiva bearing the king's name. The original object of worship inside the sanctuary was an ekamukhalinga (a stone linga carved with a single face of Shiva) set upon a stone yoni pedestal.
King Jaya Simhavarman III, known as Prince Harijit before his accession and referred to in Vietnamese chronicles as Chế Mân (reigned around 1288 to 1307), ruled from the capital at Vijaya. According to Department of Cultural Heritage records, around 1938 the French provincial resident in Buôn Ma Thuột had the ekamukhalinga and the broken yoni pedestal removed from the tower. The heavy yoni pedestal was brought to the grounds of the Buôn Ma Thuột Residency (now part of the Đắk Lắk Museum), whereas the ekamukhalinga was lost during wartime.
In Shaiva tradition, the linga serves as the unmanifest emblem of Shiva. By carving a divine face onto the shaft of the linga, sculptors brought the deity closer to worshipers, giving the god a visible countenance while preserving the sacred pillar symbolizing creative energy. The single-faced form (ekamukhalinga) is encountered less frequently than plain lingas across Champa temple towers.
Combining the reigning monarch's name with an epithet of Shiva to name a temple's consecrated image was a well-established practice across ancient Indianized kingdoms in Southeast Asia. When a ruler founded a temple and erected a linga, the deity's title incorporated the king's name to link royal authority with divine protection.
It is helpful to distinguish the worship here from that at Po Klong Garai Tower in Phan Rang, which was also constructed during the reign of King Jaya Simhavarman III. At Po Klong Garai, the venerated figure is a deified king whose mukhalinga bears the likeness of that ruler. At Yang Prong, according to Department of Cultural Heritage documents, the deity worshiped is Shiva himself under a royal title honoring the king who founded the sanctuary.
The tower stands deep within the flat forest plains of western Đắk Lắk Province, far from the central coastal lowlands. Existing scholarly sources do not assign the monument to any specific coastal principality, and the library cites King Jaya Simhavarman III solely as a chronological anchor for the temple.
Three common misconceptions often arise regarding this site. First, many visitors assume Yang Prong is an ancient Cham name, whereas it is actually a term in both the Jarai and Ê Đê languages meaning the Great Deity. Department of Cultural Heritage records note that historical documents have referred to the monument by eight different names, including Kat Cham, Tali (after a nearby Jarai village), Yang Prong, Năm Liêu, Ya Liau (Ea H'leo), Msat Chàm (meaning Cham tomb), Ea Súp Cham Tower, and Tháp Chàm Rừng Xanh (Green Forest Cham Tower). Second, some secondary travel articles mistakenly claim that the tower opens to the west, whereas all official heritage dossiers from Đắk Lắk Province, the Đắk Lắk Museum, and Văn Hóa Newspaper confirm that the sole functional doorway opens to the east, while the western, southern, and northern walls feature false doors. Third, the worshipers who burn incense here today belong to local ethnic communities (Jarai, Ê Đê, M'nông, Lao, and Kinh), while Cham communities do not hold periodic festivals at the tower.
IISeven centuries in the dipterocarp forest
Regarding the construction date, specialist sources record two complementary scholarly assessments. Documents published by the Department of Cultural Heritage note that based on epigraphic evidence and architectural features the tower dates to the early 14th century, whereas based on the sculptural style of its cult image it belongs to the late 13th century, with both assessments linked to the reign of King Jaya Simhavarman III. The Đắk Lắk Museum and Văn Hóa Newspaper give a late 13th century date. Because these two estimates lie only a few decades apart within a single reign, the library records the date as the late 13th or early 14th century.
- Late 13th or early 14th centuryConstruction of the temple towerBuilt during the reign of King Jaya Simhavarman III to worship Sri Jaya Simhavarmalingesvara (Shiva bearing the king's name).
- 1900 - 1912Discovery and scholarly surveysIn 1900, a Laotian officer named Oum spotted the tower in the forest. In 1904, Prosper Odend'hal and Louis Finot published notes in the journal BEFEO. In 1906 and 1910, French ethnologist Henri Maitre surveyed the site and published his findings in 1909 and 1912.
- Around 1938Removal of sanctuary artifactsThe French provincial resident in Buôn Ma Thuột moved the broken yoni pedestal to the Buôn Ma Thuột Residency grounds, while the ekamukhalinga was later lost during wartime.
- 1988Survey and restoration of Garuda headsAn archaeological survey recovered an intact stone Garuda head, providing the model for restoring the Garuda sculptures at the four roof corners.
- 1991National heritage rankingThe Ministry of Culture and Information issued Decision No. 1371/QĐ on August 3, 1991 ranking Yang Prong Tower as a National Architectural and Artistic Heritage Site.
- 2013 - 2020Conservation and master planningIn 2013, Đắk Lắk Province invested over 10 billion VND to reinforce the structure, build a boundary wall, and pave a 1,200 m2 courtyard. On October 30, 2020, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 2615/QĐ-UBND approving the site conservation plan through 2025 with a vision to 2030.
Concerning epigraphic materials, Department of Cultural Heritage documents record an inscription carved on the lintel of the tower as well as a sandstone stele measuring 70 cm high and 40 cm wide that once stood about 600 m east of the monument. The flat face of this stele bore an ancient Cham inscription beginning with the phrase Pu Vya..., but the stone was unfortunately stolen around 2004. Regarding early 20th-century exploration, alongside the Department of Cultural Heritage account of the Laotian lieutenant Oum (1900) and scholars Odend'hal and Finot (1904), several press articles such as Sở hữu Trí tuệ Magazine highlight French ethnologist Henri Maitre (who surveyed the Central Highlands between 1905 and 1911) for introducing the monument to Western scholarship.
In terms of administrative boundaries, the tower is located in Hamlet 5, Ea Rốk Commune, Đắk Lắk Province (formerly part of Ea Súp District prior to the 2025 administrative reorganization, about 100 km northwest of downtown Buôn Ma Thuột). Under the 2025 administrative reorganization resolution, the three communes of Ia Jlơi, Cư Kbang, and Ea Rốk were merged into the new Ea Rốk Commune under Đắk Lắk Province.
According to Văn Hóa Newspaper, the tower's remote setting amid the dipterocarp forest protected the brick structure from urban encroachment across seven centuries, yet also exposed the site to riverbank erosion along the Ea H'leo River as well as moss growth and tree roots penetrating the base. The 2013 restoration project and the 2020 conservation plan focused on river embankment protection, biological treatment of the brick surfaces, and preservation of the surrounding primary forest landscape.
IIIA compact kalan with four divine Garuda birds
According to measurements from Văn Hóa Newspaper and the Đắk Lắk Museum, Yang Prong Tower is a kalan (main sanctuary) with a square ground plan measuring 5 m on each side and a brick body rising 9 m excluding the finial (reaching a total height of about 10 m including the stone pinnacle). The entire structure rests on a platform of large smoothed bluestone slabs elevated 0.08 m above natural ground level, topped by a lower wall base built of laterite. The tower has a single functional doorway opening to the east with a projecting vestibule measuring 1.60 m wide, while the western, southern, and northern walls each feature three false doors.
Department of Cultural Heritage records indicate that alongside its fired-brick superstructure and laterite base, the monument preserved several carved sandstone architectural elements, including the inscribed lintel, a sandstone roof fragment bearing a sketched outline of the sacred bull Nandin, four stone heads of the divine bird Garuda at the roof corners, and a conical stone pinnacle shaped like a lotus bud crowning the summit.
The foundation rises 0.08 m above ground on large smoothed stone slabs, while the lower wall courses use locally quarried highland laterite rather than brick all the way to the ground.
The 5 m square shaft is built of tightly fitted red fired bricks without visible mortar joints. The main eastern entrance has a 1.60 m wide vestibule, while the western, southern, and northern faces each bear three false doors.
The four corners of the roof cornice are fitted with stone heads of the divine bird Garuda, replicated after the 1988 survey on the basis of an original Garuda head discovered at the site.
The upper superstructure tapers gracefully in tiers and is crowned at the center by a conical stone finial carved in the form of a lotus bud at a height of roughly 10 m.
The square inner sanctum narrows upward in a corbeled vault where the ekamukhalinga once stood on a yoni pedestal. An inscription remains on the lintel and a sandstone fragment on the roof bears a sketch of Nandin.
In Hindu mythology, Garuda is the divine bird and mount of Vishnu, yet in Champa architectural art Garuda figures regularly appear at roof corners as guardian beings supporting and protecting the temple regardless of whether the sanctuary honors Shiva or Vishnu. Compared with the nearest Cham monument in the library, Nhạn Tower in Tuy Hòa (a 23.5 m tall coastal hilltop tower now in eastern Đắk Lắk Province), Yang Prong Tower displays the compact proportions of an inland forest shrine combining Champa bricklaying techniques with highland laterite stone.
IVThe lie of the land and orientation
The spatial canon of Hindu temple architecture is faithfully maintained despite the monument's inland plateau location, with its sole doorway opening to the east to greet the rising sun (the direction of divine vitality) and its site anchored beside sacred waters formed by the Ea H'leo River and the Ea Nao Stream flowing through the forest. Those principles belong to the religious canon of the temple builders rather than East Asian geomancy. The following reading represents the library's comparative perspective placing traditional East Asian geomantic concepts alongside Hindu sacred geography.
Read through the lens of East Asian geomancy, the first notable feature is water gathering (thủy tụ) on level ground. Unlike coastal Cham towers that frequently sit on high hills, Yang Prong Tower stands on flat terrain amid the dipterocarp forest, embraced by the Ea H'leo River and the Ea Nao Stream. According to the Đắk Lắk Museum, the waters of the Ea Nao Stream and Ea H'leo River keep the forest immediately surrounding the tower lush and green year-round even during the Central Highlands dry season. In geomantic terms, watercourses curving past a structure in an arid seasonal climate serve both as a bright hall (minh đường) that gathers qi and as a vital artery nourishing the surrounding land.
The second feature is a solitary structure acting as its own mountain. Around the tower there are no subsidiary shrines, no sheltering hills, and no ancient residential settlements. In conventional geomancy, a solitary building standing on an open plain might be viewed as an isolated peak, yet in Hindu temple architecture the kalan body and its lotus-bud finial inherently embody a miniature cosmic Mount Meru. Amid the flat forest floor, the ten-meter brick tower rises as the focal node (huyệt) that gathers qi for the entire woodland.
The third feature is the bluestone foundation and native laterite base. Setting the foundation upon smoothed bluestone slabs and building the lower wall courses from red laterite quarried directly from the local highland soil allowed the monument to anchor itself firmly into the plateau geology, withstanding seven centuries of tropical monsoon erosion. This reading is offered by the library as a reflection on how ancient construction techniques harmonized with the natural terrain.
VTwo layers of veneration across seven centuries
At Yang Prong Tower today, Cham communities do not hold traditional calendar festivals as they do at coastal temples. Even so, the forest sanctuary has never been abandoned. According to the Đắk Lắk Museum and Văn Hóa Newspaper, local ethnic communities (Jarai, Ê Đê, M'nông, Lao, and Kinh) have long regarded the tower as a sacred site of their villages and regularly visit on full-moon and new-moon days as well as major holidays to burn incense and pray for health, children, and family harmony.
| Layer of veneration | Practitioners | Devotional focus |
|---|---|---|
| Founding era (late 13th - early 14th century) | Cham worshipers under King Jaya Simhavarman III | Veneration of Sri Jaya Simhavarmalingesvara (Shiva bearing the king's name) as an ekamukhalinga on a yoni pedestal according to Hindu ritual. |
| Indigenous Central Highlands tradition | Local Jarai and Ê Đê residents | Honoring the sanctuary as Yang Prong (the Great Deity) and embracing the ancient monument as a sacred guardian of the forest and villages. |
| Contemporary devotional life | Local ethnic communities (Jarai, Ê Đê, M'nông, Lao, Kinh) | Visiting to offer incense and pray for children, health, abundant harvests, and family peace during holidays and lunar observance days. |
| Contemporary Cham community | Cham visitors and researchers | Visiting as a historical and cultural heritage monument, without a resident priesthood or periodic ritual calendar at the tower. |
Historical sources do not record a fixed annual festival date specific to Yang Prong Tower, so the library does not assign one. What stands out at this monument is the organic continuity across communities, where an ancient temple built by Cham artisans to honor Shiva has been cared for and entrusted with spiritual prayers by Central Highlands residents across generations.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Xã Ea Rốk (huyện Ea Súp cũ), tỉnh Đắk Lắk, trong rừng ven sông Ea H'leo. Nghị quyết sắp xếp năm 2025 gộp Ia Jlơi, Cư Kbang và Ea Rốk thành xã Ea Rốk mới
- Getting there
- Hamlet 5, Ea Rốk Commune (formerly Ea Súp District), Đắk Lắk Province, set in the dipterocarp forest beside the Ea H'leo River and Ea Nao Stream, about 100 km northwest of downtown Buôn Ma Thuột.
- Coordinates
- 13.2099, 107.8308
Yang Prong Tower is both a national architectural heritage site in primary forest and a living place of prayer for local communities. Visitors should not climb onto the tower body or roof, touch the stone Garuda heads, or wedge incense sticks into brick joints or the laterite base. If local residents are offering incense and praying, please remain quiet and step back until their observance concludes. Because the Ea Súp dipterocarp forest becomes highly flammable during the dry season, visitors must never burn votive paper or drop lit embers onto the dry leaves around the monument.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
Contribute photos, information or video for Yang Prong Cham Tower
Góp ảnh, thông tin hoặc video cho Tháp Yang ProngEveryone is welcome to enrich this page: a photo you took, a detail the page misses, a short video. Every contribution is read and answered.
Thầy Ưng Khiêm mời cộng đồng cùng làm giàu trang này. Ảnh chụp tận nơi, một chi tiết lịch sử chưa được nhắc, một đoạn video ngắn: mọi đóng góp đều được đọc và trả lời.
No community contribution yet. You could be the first. Chưa có đóng góp nào từ cộng đồng. Bạn có thể là người đầu tiên.
?Quick Questions
Who is worshiped at Yang Prong Tower?
According to a specialist monograph published by the Department of Cultural Heritage, the tower was dedicated to Sri Jaya Simhavarmalingesvara, meaning Shiva bearing the name of King Jaya Simhavarman III, worshiped in the form of an ekamukhalinga (a single-faced linga) set upon a yoni pedestal. Around 1938, the broken yoni pedestal was moved to Buôn Ma Thuột, while the ekamukhalinga was later lost during wartime.
When was Yang Prong Tower built?
Department of Cultural Heritage records note two scholarly estimates, placing the tower in the early 14th century (based on epigraphy and architecture) or the late 13th century (based on sculptural style), both during the reign of King Jaya Simhavarman III (Chế Mân). The Đắk Lắk Museum and Văn Hóa Newspaper cite a late 13th century date.
What does the name Yang Prong mean?
In both the Jarai and Ê Đê languages, Yang Prong means the Great Deity. This is the name given to the sanctuary by indigenous Central Highlands residents. Historical documents also record other names for the monument, including Tháp Chàm Rừng Xanh (Green Forest Cham Tower), Ea Súp Cham Tower, Tali, Kat Cham, and Msat Chàm.
Which direction does the main entrance of Yang Prong Tower face?
According to official heritage dossiers from Đắk Lắk Province, the Đắk Lắk Museum, and Văn Hóa Newspaper, Yang Prong Tower has a 5 m square plan with a single functional entrance opening to the east (featuring a 1.60 m wide vestibule), while the western, southern, and northern walls each have three false doors. Claims in some secondary travel articles that the tower opens to the west are inaccurate.
How tall is Yang Prong Tower and what materials were used to build it?
According to Văn Hóa Newspaper and the Đắk Lắk Museum, the brick shaft stands 9 m high excluding the finial (about 10 m in total including the lotus-bud stone pinnacle), resting on a 0.08 m high smoothed bluestone platform and a laterite lower wall base. The body is built of red fired bricks, and the four roof corners bear stone Garuda heads restored after a 1988 survey.