Golden Linga discovered at Po Dam tower

The two-year archaeological excavation (2013 - 2014) conducted by the Southern Institute of Social Sciences and Binh Thuan Museum at Po Dam Tower, Phu Lac Commune, Tuy Phong District, brought out of the ground an extremely rich and diverse number of architectural structures and relics, with a lot of information providing new understanding of a group of temples and towers belonging to the oldest type of Champa architecture more than 1,300 years ago.

New discoveries of the excavation

In the early 20th century, French archaeologist Henri Parmentier, who specialized in Champa culture, surveyed and studied the Po Dam tower. Due to lack of excavation conditions, when he came here, he only surveyed and measured the structures above ground and concluded that this group of towers only had 6 towers, the 2 northern towers had collapsed, leaving behind a brick tower base about 1 meter high.

More than 100 years later, Vietnamese archaeologists discovered two new tower bases. Both towers were located in front of tower group B to the south, and had collapsed and been buried many centuries ago, so no one knew about them; one of them had a base of 16.30m long and a width of 6.95m. It was the vestige of the longest tower discovered for the first time here and in the area from Binh Dinh onwards. While all other Cham towers in Binh Thuan as well as in the Central region mostly have square or nearly square plans, with a main door facing the East, here the tower has two doors, one facing the North and the other facing the South. Thus, the Po Dam tower group has a total of eight towers. Four towers collapsed and four towers have been restored to their original appearance.

In addition to the ruins of tower bases and other architectural parts found with very diverse and complex structures belonging to many different architectural and usage periods, the excavation results also discovered a very large volume of stone, ceramic, terracotta, metal relics and a grinding table (pesani - rasun batau) with a very different shape compared to the grinding table commonly found in Champa culture.

The golden linga was an important discovery of this excavation.

A stone inscription engraved in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language, dated to 710 (early 8th century). It can be seen that this inscription is a very important discovery, because thanks to the content engraved on it, the historical and architectural values of the tower group are clarified and objective, including re-dating a number of other Cham towers.

Religious activities centuries ago here through the collection of metal relics collected include objects made from different materials such as gold, brass, iron, ceramics, such as bronze musical instruments including bells, cymbals, rattles. Jewelry with 2 rings of the popular type and bearing the identity of Champa culture (muta rings); 1 piece of bronze mirror originating from China. A bronze ruler in the middle of the 4 square sides has many lines engraved on all 4 sides with different symbols, the two round ends are the scale rulers used by the workers when building the tower. This is an interesting discovery and has scientific value in the architecture and the process of building the tower. The above discoveries have great value in both the tangible and intangible culture of the ancient Cham people.

Discovery of Golden Linga

Like any other normal day when excavating the archaeological site in the Po Dam tower area. That day, in the afternoon of mid-June of the year Quy Ty (2013), when the group of workers were digging the layers of soil outside the wall of the North tower group, suddenly a worker discovered something yellow about 50cm deep under the layer of soil mixed with gravel and broken bricks. As the supervisor of the excavation workers, Mr. Uong Trung Hoa (Provincial Museum) and experts from the Institute of Social Sciences calmly invited everyone to step back to examine and perform technical work. After a while, a yellow metal relic was brought up. Without saying anything, the group of workers at the excavation site all knew it was gold. They just didn't know what it was, what its function was, and why it was buried there...

Due to the confidentiality of the relic, after making a record at the scene and other procedures according to the decision to allow excavation by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The yellow metal relic was escorted to the Provincial Museum that night. Through the appraisal, scientists confirmed that this was the head of a Linga made of pure gold (gold of high purity, unlike the young gold in the cups discovered at Po Klong Garai tower in 1984 in Phan Rang). Linga is a work of art that with the talent of the goldsmith created a masterpiece full of the aesthetics of the ancestors, demonstrating the talent, intelligence, and creativity of the Cham identity in the field of religion and belief. Dated around the 8th century - the same year as the construction of the Po Dam tower group.

Linga size and measurements: Height 6.4cm; width 5.7cm; outer diameter 5.7cm; circumference 17cm; weight 78.3630g (assessment results of the Center for Technical Measurement and Quality 3 of the Ministry of Science and Technology). Compared to the gold Lingas discovered in Champa or Oc Eo cultural relics, the gold Linga in Po Dam is much larger in size, weight and gold content. However, the main value of the Linga in Po Dam does not lie in the 78.3630g of pure gold but in the structure of the Linga, its origin, age, rarity and craftsmanship.

Linga was crafted by casting from a mold, not by hammering or embossing like most of the gold relics discovered in the Oc Eo culture (Ba The - An Giang) or in the Cat Tien temple complex - Lam Dong. What is special is that Linga was discovered in the excavated strata. The details on the Linga are round, the inside and outside are smooth, the base has thin borders... showing very delicately, proving that in the past, Cham craftsmen had reached a fairly high level in the art of goldsmithing. Up to now, it can be seen that the golden Linga in Po Dam is one of the rare works known in Champa art in general and Binh Thuan in particular. Along with other unique relics such as stele inscriptions, bronze rulers, bronze mirrors, musical instruments... the golden Linga is an important discovery of this excavation.

Research on the culture, religion and beliefs of the Champa kingdom during its prosperous periods shows that each king, after ascending the throne or achieving a glorious victory, often built new or renovated old towers, and cast golden statues to offer to the supreme god Shiva. That was the most important and precious gift that the Champa kings offered to Shiva. The golden Linga in Po Dam is also a case like that. The god Shiva in Po Dam tower is the embodiment of the stone Linga - Yoni idol worshiped in the Northern tower group that Henri Parmentier described in the early 20th century. This is also a special relic that the Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism chose to establish a dossier to submit to the National Heritage Council for review and recognition as a national treasure.

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