Duong Long Tower

Three Cham towers stand in a row from north to south on the land of old Tây Sơn. The tallest is the middle tower, 38.81 meters high, as tall as a 12-story building. These are the Dương Long Towers, among the largest monuments of Champa still standing in Vietnam. Champa was an ancient kingdom on the central and southern coast of what is now Vietnam.

The group of towers has several names. The Cultural Heritage Department lists it as the An Chánh Tower, the Bình An Tower and the Ivory Tower. In the colonial period the French called it Tour d'Ivoire, which also means Ivory Tower. The name Dương Long is simply the one most people use today. The towers now belong to Bình An commune in Gia Lai province. They stand in the Tây Sơn area of what used to be Bình Định province.

According to the Cultural Heritage Department, the towers date from about the end of the 12th century to the early 13th century. This was the age of Vijaya, the royal capital of Champa in the Bình Định region, when the kingdom flourished. The architecture and carving at Dương Long join the traditional Cham style with influence from the Khmer art of Angkor, to the west. Together they make an architectural language all their own.

What sets Dương Long apart from many Cham towers is its generous use of sandstone beside fired brick. In many towers brick is the main material, and the decoration sits mostly on the brick surface. Here, much of the decoration is carved straight into sandstone blocks at the base of the towers, around the doorways, on the false doors and along the roof edges. The Department records the objects and motifs found here: reliefs of the god Brahma, faces of Kala, the god Indra riding an elephant, Naga serpents, the sea creature Makara, and lotus petals.

Of all these, the Naga serpent is the most striking figure at Dương Long. A 2025 newspaper report quotes researchers who call the collection of Naga reliefs here rich and varied, a sign of exchange and blending among Cham, Indian and Khmer cultures. The Gia Lai provincial museum is now preparing a file on the collection, to ask that it be recognized as a national treasure.

Each of the three towers is in a different state of repair. The South Tower, 32.94 meters high, is described by the Department as the best preserved of the three. It is also the easiest of the three in which to see the architectural detail. Its main sandstone door frame is fairly whole, and its roof edge carries the Gajashimha motif, a figure with the head of an elephant and the body of a lion. The Middle Tower is the center and the tallest, but its main door arch, its false doors and its front hall are badly damaged. The North Tower, 31.76 meters high, is the most damaged, and it has been reinforced since 1984. Even so, the carving that remains on its south false door and its body still shows lions, serpents, seated figures with crossed legs, and dancers.

To the west of the main group, archaeological digs have uncovered two more brick structures. The Department says they may belong to the same complex and may have been built before the three main towers. This is an archaeological hypothesis, not a firm conclusion.

More than 800 years of wind and rain have left clear marks. The managers of the site have put up a sign asking people to keep 5 meters from the base of the towers, because stone blocks high up may fall. Even so, what remains is enough to leave a person standing before it in silence.

The Dương Long Towers have been a Special National Monument since December 2015. They are among the most important works of sculpture and architecture left from Champa, raised at the height of Vijaya more than 800 years ago. Red fired brick, gray sandstone, Naga serpents winding along the roof edges, and three towers rising straight into the highland sky are all still there.