F1 Tower will be renovated in the near future. Photo: VL
Opportunity for F1 tower
It is expected that at the end of April, an independent working group of the Indian Government will go to My Son to survey and learn about the current situation of the F tower group, especially the F1 tower, to assess the urgency and technical status, and report to the Government for approval of funding support before Indian professional agencies establish a restoration project.
Tower Group F consists of two architectural works, F1 and F2, of which tower F1 was the most severely damaged. Up to now, most of the bricks on the tower walls have faded and broken joints, due to the separation between archaeological excavation and restoration that took place in the past.
To keep the tower from collapsing, many years ago, the My Son Cultural Heritage Management Board coordinated with relevant units to weld an iron frame around it to hold the tower wall against collapse, and at the same time erected a corrugated iron roof above to limit the impact of rain and sun.
Inside My Son temple tower. Photo: VL
At the end of December 2022, at the handover ceremony of the project to preserve and restore tower groups A, H, K of My Son temple complex, Mr. Subhash Prasad Gupta - Deputy Ambassador of India to Vietnam pledged that the Indian Government will continue to carry out the work of preserving, restoring and embellishing the F temple complex and Dong Duong Buddhist Institute as well as Nhan Tower (Phu Yen). This is considered positive information to help Cham architectural works in the Central region, especially the F My Son tower group, to be quickly protected.
Architect Dang Khanh Ngoc - Director of the Institute for Monuments Conservation (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) acknowledged that among the degraded architectural works in My Son, tower F1 needs urgent restoration. More than 10 years ago, the Institute for Monuments Conservation also proposed urgent preservation of this work, but due to a number of reasons it has not been implemented yet.
“I think the problem here is not technical. We have experience in restoring tower groups at My Son, most recently tower group A. However, F1 is a large project with a large amount of work and requires a large amount of resources. Therefore, the Indian Government's support for restoration funding will be a good opportunity to effectively preserve F1 as well as this group of towers,” shared Architect Dang Khanh Ngoc.
My Son is reviving
Exactly 20 years since the G Tower Group Conservation Project was implemented (in 2003), many My Son architectural works have been successfully protected such as tower E7, tower groups K, H, A... bringing a new look to Champa temples in My Son.
Many groups of towers in My Son have been successfully preserved. Photo: VL
Mr. Nguyen Cong Khiet - Deputy Director of My Son Cultural Heritage Management Board affirmed that the clear effectiveness of the projects is the solidity of the temple towers here. At the same time, the tourism space is expanded, bringing more experiences to visitors on their journey to explore My Son.
“Now, visitors to My Son, in addition to admiring the spiritual architectural works of the Cham people, can also learn about the methods of restoring Champa temples and towers, especially how the ancient Cham people built the towers - something that has long been a secret,” said Mr. Nguyen Cong Khiet.
According to statistics, My Son still has about 8 large and small temples and towers that are damaged and degraded and need to be restored. Every year, the My Son Cultural Heritage Management Board invests about 2 billion VND to reinforce, restore, protect, clear the ground against erosion, and clean the tower body...
In fact, at the restored tower groups such as G and A, since they opened for visitors, the number of visitors has been very large. Therefore, the My Son Cultural Heritage Management Board and relevant levels and sectors of the province have stepped up connections and sought resources to preserve the heritage.
Mr. Nguyen Cong Khiet informed that in addition to the project to preserve tower group F, specialized agencies of the Indian Government are also developing a plan to restore tower groups E and A' in the period 2025 - 2030. After completing the conservation of these structures, the My Son Cham tower system will basically enter a stable phase.
Towers D1 and D2 will be reinforced and renovated in 2023 - 2024. Photo: VL
In 2023 - 2024, the Institute for Monuments Conservation will implement a project to restore towers D1 and D2, which were repaired and reinforced by Polish experts in the 90s of the 20th century and have now deteriorated. The total cost of restoration is expected to be about 6 billion VND, drawn from the 15 billion VND Central Government support for annual heritage conservation work.
Specifically, experts from the Institute for Monuments Conservation will organize the arrangement, upgrading, and rearrangement of the artifacts on display inside the two towers. At the same time, they will reinforce, repair, replace the roof, and waterproof these two structures. Strive to start construction of tower D1 in June 2023, then continue to implement D2 in 2024.
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/day-manh-trung-tu-cac-den-thap-my-son-3052573.html
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