I keep reading Wikipedia about the past of Vietnam. Exciting to combine new facts with what I already know about Thai and, in general, Southeast-Asian history. Here, in Hue City, I can also visit historical places to look at the remnants of the past. For instance, I visited the tomb of the fifth emperor of Vietnam on September 27, 2024. They had a long renovation there and opened a few weeks ago.
From Google.Maps, it's clear the place was closed at least since 2018:
A bit of history. 🤓 The reign of Dục Đức, the fifth Vietnamese emperor, wasn't long. According to Wikipedia, after the previous emperor died, three regents declared 31-year-old Dục Đức the next ruler. That's what happened next:
Dục Đức ruled for only three days [20 July 1883 – 23 July 1883] before he was deposed and sentenced to death by the same regents who had enthroned him. The reasons are unclear... ...Dục Đức so embarrassed the court with his debauchery... The court quickly ruled to execute him with poison for violating the mourning rules and buried him in an unmarked grave.
😲😲😲 Game of Thrones in its purest (history is always this)!
4 short-living emperors later: Dục Đức's son, Emperor Thành Thái, constructed the mausoleum and shrine complex dedicated to his father in 1889, and this was what I visited recently... Exciting, isn't it?!
So let's get started!
Mausoleum of Dục Đức on Google.Maps
But first about food! I began the walk with charging my body's battery at my favorite "cơm tấm" place:
The protein recharge! Fish, fried egg, pickled ginger + a plate with soup and chili as an extra source of vitamins. Delicious! Only 30.000 dong ($1.2). I left the restaurant and started walking to the Emperor Duc Duc tomb.
4 pm, I arrived:
I found a half-opened door but the place appeared so empty that I suspected it was still under renovation. No travelers, no employees, no ticket booth... Without wasting time I slipped inside.
There was a temple in the yard (Long An shrine) but I decided to sneak further to the emperor's mausoleum before some employee could potentially stop me.
The mausoleum is over the fence in the image, with a charming wooded hill in the background (pine trees? They have ones in Hue!)
The sky was forming lovely shapes and drawing patterns. The late afternoon sunlight was soft as silk.
The gate into the mausoleum opened up the joyful view:
So many colors but they are in harmony; great work!
If you check out old images of the place, you'll see blackened ruins (the source):
Now it's full of life:
That's the front yard with lawn and young trees and the decorative gate with doors. There is another part of the place, the tomb area behind the gate. Two more smaller gates lead to the tomb area, one of them:
At the tomb area, the central place is taken by an altar house:
Tombs are located on the left and right of it (the source):
On both sides of this house are two graves of King Duc Duc and Queen Tu Minh lying symmetrically on each other.
The tombs look like stepped structures (above) below 1 meter in height.
But most artworks are around the altar house, so let's return to it:
The view from the altar house to the opposite side:
Let's zoom in:
I would call it a fantastic beauty. Isn't it?
The mosaic makes a special impression, made of broken crockery:
Another crockery mosaic (the fish):
Look at this high relief of goats with bottle glass used as decorative elements:
I don't know how historical this look is but, to my taste, Dục Đức tomb is an amazing artwork, I loved the time I spent there.
It was so strange and pleasant that I was alone at the tomb all that time!
No people, no dogs, only a bird flew up from under my feet.
At ten to five I was returning to the Long An shrine to leave the area being afraid someone can lock me inside.
I had several minutes to have a walk around the shrine.
I was right, a few minutes to five a security man appeared and started closing the place. At 5 pm, the entrance was closed.
Do you know, dear reader, it's rainy season in Hue?... And look at this brilliant sky... What a lucky beautiful day it was.
More stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out my previous posts on my personal Travelfeed or Worldmappin map.
I took these images with a Nikkor 50mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on September 27, 2024, in Hue, Vietnam.