In the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, Hue was Vietnam's capital and seat of the emperors of the Nguyen dynasty. Many of them had magnificent mausoleums built for them, and these were all located at particularly beautiful or spiritually significant places in the countryside surrounding Hue. We visited three of them during the tour. The first was the tomb of Minh Mang, the dynasty's second emperor. He was apparently very concerned to not let the exact whereabouts of his body be known - the body thereby being 'available' for theft, or so he thought - so that it is only known that he was buried somewhere in an underground palace located in a walled-in area. The total area of his mausoleum encompasses more than 20 hectares!
The next tomb was that of Khai Dinh, the twelfth emperor. Area-wise, it was much more modest: just a hectare or two.
The interior decoration, however, was over the top. Just look at how many pieces of small, painted porcelain were used to decorate the walls:
This extravagance led to much higher building times and cost, of course. Our guide explained that Khai Dinh's son imposed a heavy tax to raise funds and demanded 20-hour days from the construction workers, and many of them died from hunger and illnesses.
After visiting the tombs, we made our way back into the city to visit the citadel. The Hue citadel, I had read before visiting, was modeled after Beijing's famous Forbidden City. I was therefore prepared to see grandeur and magnificence (and a lot of it), but instead, there was this:
Apparently, Hue had been the target of massive bombings during the Vietnam war, and about 90% of the citadel were destroyed. Restoration and reconstruction work is in progress, but expected to be completed only in 2035.
A few of the palaces have already been finished, however, and one of them was the king's mother's palace. To explain the importance of the king's mother, our guide explained the system how the Nguyen emperors chose their wives and successors. When someone became emperor, he initially didn't have a wife, only several concubines - up to a few hundred concubines, according to the guide. The king therefore had plenty of opportunity to produce offspring and potential successors. When he at some point decided to choose a successor, he chose one of his sons and simply married that son's mother. That mother didn't become queen immediately, however: the king's mother was queen. Only when the king died and his son succeeded on the throne did his widow become queen. A visit to the king's mother was therefore highly prestigious and allowed only to select persons. In addition, the king's first action each and every day was to visit his mother's palace to say good morning to her.
Another of the already restored buildings was a temple where the previous emperors were worshipped. The temple had a small altar for each of the deceased emperors, and they were prayed to at different times. Each of the emperors was known for specific qualities - wisdom, patience, etc. - and whenever a situation required one of an emperor's qualities, the current emperor would pray at his altar.
Our last stop was the Thien Mu pagoda, or pagoda of the heavenly lady. It is the oldest pagoda in Hue, and its tower the tallest in Vietnam. It is also occasionally being rained on quite heavily - during the time of our visit, for example ;-)
