Research and invest in Hon Chuong tower tourist destination
Implementing the direction of the provincial leaders, recently, the Department of Culture and Sports presided over and coordinated with relevant units and local authorities to conduct a survey of the Hon Chuong tower relic area in Chanh Danh village, Cat Tai commune (Phu Cat district) to advise the Provincial People's Committee on investment orientation and construction of the Hon Chuong tower area into a unique cultural and historical tourist destination in Binh Dinh.
In 1991, local people provided the scientific staff of the Provincial Museum - who were surveying and researching documents to compile a dossier for ranking the historical relic of Ba Mountain - with information about an architecture located on a large, towering rock, commonly known as Hon Chuong, about 800 m above sea level. Comparing all available documents and many other reference sources, but not finding any documents mentioning this architecture, the Provincial Museum organized a number of field trips, surveyed the Hon Chuong area and discovered many pieces of Cham bricks, leaf-shaped tiles, and cow horn tiles. Preliminarily, it was determined that this was a Cham tower architecture and named the tower Hon Chuong. Immediately after that, Binh Dinh province proceeded to add points to the Ba Mountain relic, increasing the number of Cham towers in Binh Dinh to 8 tower clusters. By 1994, the Ministry of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) ranked the Ba Mountain National Monument; In which, Hon Chuong tower is one of 22 relic sites located on Ba Mountain range.
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Binh Dinh province will move towards building the Hon Chuong tower relic into a tourist destination with unique experiences. Photo: Provided by the provincial museum |
Mr. Bui Tinh, Director of the Provincial Museum, said: In 2020, the Provincial Museum conducted a survey and research on Hon Chuong tower using a survey flycam. The results determined that Hon Chuong tower has a square plan, each side is 8.5 m long and about 7 m high; the tower was built without a fake door system and is completely unadorned like other Cham towers in Binh Dinh. The roof of the tower has collapsed, the western side of the tower has collapsed quite a lot, the southern and northern sides have lost part of the outer brick layer, the eastern side has relatively intact walls, in the middle is the entrance to the tower. However, the cultural and historical values of Hon Chuong tower still have many mysteries that have not been deeply researched to clarify.
As someone who has spent a lot of time researching the Cham tower system in Binh Dinh and directly participated in the recent survey of the Hon Chuong tower area, researcher Nguyen Thanh Quang commented: There are many opinions that Hon Chuong tower was built in the early stage, but in my opinion, the tower could have been built in the late Champa period. The tower is located in a very difficult to access location, so it is not possible to directly touch, see with your own eyes, and conduct research steps on Hon Chuong tower, but through the survey images by flycam, I believe that the construction of Hon Chuong tower was during the peak of the Vijaya period (Mam tower style or also known as Binh Dinh style) from the 11th to 13th centuries. Hon Chuong tower is located on a large rock, the way up is difficult now, in the past it was probably even more difficult; moreover, this area is covered with clouds all year round... the architecture will therefore be simple, not elaborate, with many details like the remaining Cham towers in Binh Dinh. The function of this tower is still only a familiar hypothesis as a watchtower or a spiritual structure, but there is no convincing scientific research to prove it.
Over the past years, the Cham tower relic system in Binh Dinh province has received investment in restoration, embellishment, and renovation to preserve and maintain the value of cultural and historical heritage, aiming at the goal of developing cultural tourism. For many reasons, Hon Chuong tower has not been able to do anything. Mr. Ta Xuan Chanh, Director of the Department of Culture and Sports, said: After the survey of Hon Chuong tower area, the cultural sector is building a report to submit to the Provincial People's Committee to propose initial steps to protect and restore Hon Chuong tower; build roads leading to the tower, works serving spiritual tourism, cultural tourism to turn Hon Chuong tower area into a unique destination in Binh Dinh connecting the Nui Ba National Monument with mountain climbing tourism experiences, checking-in the Nui Ba ecosystem... Along with that, the cultural sector is also designing and building ideas to propose to the Provincial People's Committee to implement a tourism model for the remaining Cham tower clusters in Binh Dinh province under the direction of the provincial leaders.
DOAN NGOC NHUAN
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