Go Thap Relic Site

Across the flooded plain of Đồng Tháp Mười, low mounds of earth rise above the water, and each one keeps thousands of years of memory inside it. These mounds are Gò Tháp, now a special national heritage site in Đồng Tháp province. It is one of the rare archaeological and cultural sites of the Mekong Delta.

What sets Gò Tháp apart from most historic sites is that it holds three layers at once, each different in age and in kind. The oldest is archaeological, from the kingdom of Phù Nam about 15 centuries ago. In English, Phù Nam is called Funan, an early kingdom of Southeast Asia strongly influenced by Indian culture. The second is the history of the fight against French rule and of the resistance war in the south, across the 19th and 20th centuries. The third is folk religion, still alive today. Step onto Gò Tháp and you walk into all three at the same time.

The oldest layer comes first. Archaeologists have established that Gò Tháp was once a small state within the kingdom of Phù Nam. A great deal survives here. There are traces of Hindu temple buildings, sacred ponds and sacred wells, old paths, places where people lived, workshops, and a great many artifacts. The French found the site at the end of the 19th century. They named it Prasat Pream Loven, a name often translated as "the five-chamber pagoda". Since then, one excavation after another has brought finds to light. There are sandstone statues of Vishnu, carved patterns and inscriptions. Above all, there is a collection of more than 400 gold artifacts of the Óc Eo culture, confirmed by the Vietnam Records Organization. Óc Eo itself was an ancient port settlement in the Mekong Delta. Two of the Vishnu statues have been recognized as National Treasures.

Gò Tháp Mười, the highest mound in the complex, is what remains of a Hindu temple. It once belonged to a busy urban civilization. The mound still holds bricks, large stones and clear traces of buildings. There is no need for stone columns or grand monuments. The raised earth and a few courses of ancient brick showing at the surface are enough. From them, one can picture an important religious space of the people of Phù Nam.

The second layer of history at Gò Tháp belongs to the 19th century. From 1862 to 1866, this land became the headquarters of a resistance army. It was led by two commanders, Thiên hộ Võ Duy Dương and Đốc binh Nguyễn Tấn Kiều. The two men, honored as national heroes, chose Gò Tháp because it was hard to reach and ringed by floodwater. It was a place to gather fighters and also a strong place to defend. The tomb and temple of Nguyễn Tấn Kiều still stand within the site, close to the temple of Võ Duy Dương. In the 20th century, the story went on. From 1946 to 1949, Gò Tháp was the base of the Southern Regional Party Committee and of the Southern Resistance and Administrative Committee. Early in 1960, forces of Kiến Phong province brought down an observation tower right here. The tower belonged to the government of Ngô Đình Diệm, president of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963.

The third layer, very much alive and carried on to the present, is folk belief. Within the Gò Tháp complex stand three places of worship. One is the shrine of Bà Chúa Xứ, a mother goddess believed to grant protection and prosperity. The others are the shrine of Hoàng Cô and Tháp Linh pagoda. All three stand side by side, and people come from many provinces to offer incense. Two great festivals mark each year. On the full moon of the third lunar month comes the festival of Bà Chúa Xứ. On the full moon of the eleventh lunar month comes the death anniversary of the two commanders, Võ Duy Dương and Nguyễn Tấn Kiều. In festival season, Gò Tháp carries the air of both a temple and a village fair, solemn and warm at once.

Beside the historic sites lies the Gò Tháp ecological area, covering more than 160 hectares. In 2015, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment recognized it as a biodiversity conservation area. It is a surviving piece of the original wetland of Đồng Tháp Mười. Lotus grows thick here, and many endemic plants and animals still live on. In the flood season, wide water spreads across the fields between clumps of wild grass. The result is a landscape quite unlike the rest of the Mekong Delta.

Gò Minh Sư lies about 400 meters north-northeast of Gò Tháp Mười. It is another of the five representative sites in the complex. Its surface is scattered with old pottery shards, broken bricks, statue bases and pebbles. All of them are traces of a substantial material culture that once existed on this wetland.

Gò Tháp has no grand monuments on display. On one small piece of land in the middle of Đồng Tháp Mười, the old bricks of the Phù Nam people, the tomb of Nguyễn Tấn Kiều and the incense smoke of the shrines lie side by side. Each generation has left its own mark here.

From the highest mound in the flood season, open water stretches away on every side. White lotus blooms under a low sky. And just beneath the ground, the bricks of Phù Nam, more than a thousand years old, still lie quiet. Few places in Vietnam hold the past and the present this close together.