National Heritage Buddhist College To Get Major Renovations

By Tan Ong

(CHAKRA) At a conference on the preservation of cultural relics in the province of Quang Nam, it was announced that the Dong Duong Buddhist College would be renovated to be able to continue to share its beauty with visitors from all around the world.

The Buddhist College, which is located in a jungle, is currently in ruins and in major need of renovations.  The people of the surrounding area are very happy to hear such news since the college has a lot of potential to spread cultural knowledge, being a National Heritage site.  Since it is located in one of the largest centres in Southeast Asia it has a large holding capacity.  One of the towers known as the Sang Tower is close to toppling down after merely being held up with a rotten piece of wood.

Nguyen Thuong Hi, a worker who spends a lot of time on the preservation of cultural architecture in the province, shared his fear of the tower and the high chance that it may not be able to withstand heavy rains.

Hoang Dao Kinh, an architect working on rebuilding the college stated that the difficulty in just repairing the My Son Towers has made clearer how difficult it will actually be to restore the Dong Duong Buddhist College. He envisions it to be a much more difficult job compared to the My Son Towers.

Kinh further stated that their top priority is to keep the current vestiges in tact.  He is determined to repair the college as soon as possible especially because he remembers visiting the relic over 30 years ago, after being mesmerized by photos of it published by the French.

Kinh is going about repairing the college with one important fact in mind: the less interference there is to fix and change the relic, the more it will continue to be recognized as a world cultural heritage site.

Tran Minh Ca, the vice-chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said that scientific research would be carried out to preserve and restore the cultural heritage and significance of the spiritual attraction.

According to Truong Quoc Binh, a member of the National Council for Cultural Heritage, explained that the Buddhist College was first founded by King Indravarman II in 875 in the capital city of the Champa Kingdom.

Located in the Binh Dinh Bac Commune of Quang Nam Province’s Thang Binh District, the Dong Duong Buddhist College, was first excavated by a French architect H. Parmentier in 1902.  It is commonly known that the towers of the main shrine were strategically arranged from west to east with a length of 1,300m.

Most of the sculptural work is on display at the Da Nang Museum of Champa Sculpture and contains elements of Hinduism and Buddhism from the second half of the ninth century.

The college was recognized as a National Heritage site in September 2000, after its cultural and historical value were measured.