Princess Huyen Tran

At the foot of Ngũ Phong Mountain in Hue, on a cool green hillside of pines, stands a bronze statue of a gentle young woman. Quiet in the sound of the wind, she gazes far into the distance. She is Princess Huyền Trân. To see why the people of Hue gave her that faraway gaze, go back more than 700 years.

Huyền Trân was the daughter of Emperor Trần Nhân Tông. Later generations honored him as one of the most respected emperors of the Trần dynasty. The Trần dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1225 to 1400. Born in a palace, the princess might have lived a calm life in the capital. But she was willing to take on a great duty for her homeland.

In those days, the country was called Đại Việt, an old name for Vietnam. Its neighbor to the south was the kingdom of Champa. Champa was an ancient kingdom on the central and southern coast of what is now Vietnam. To keep a lasting friendship between the two countries, the king of Champa, Chế Mân, asked for the hand of a Trần princess. In 1306, Huyền Trân set out for the south to marry him. The river wind blew. The sails filled. The boat left the landing.

It was no ordinary journey. It was a mission. A gentle princess took on the duty of keeping the borders of a whole country at peace. She left her parents and the familiar capital behind and stepped into a new land, with new customs and a new language.

From her journey, the country gained a whole new stretch of land. The old chronicles record that, in return for the marriage, King Chế Mân presented Đại Việt with two regions. These were Châu Ô and Châu Lý. They formed a long strip of land that today matches the area from Quảng Trị to Hue.

Afterward the Trần court renamed the two regions, and the land came to be called Thuận Hóa. That land became the cradle of Hue, a prosperous and poetic place, for more than 700 years. Hue's old pagoda roofs, the bends of the Perfume River and the folk songs sung there today all belong to land that came to the country through the princess's journey.

Huyền Trân stayed in Champa for a time, then returned to her homeland. In her last years she turned to the Buddhist life and lived in peace, giving her heart to the sound of chanting and the wooden block. A life that opened amid palace silk closed quietly beside that chanting, calm and at rest.

Out of gratitude, the people of Hue built a place where later generations could come to remember her. It is the Huyền Trân temple and cultural center. It stands at the foot of Ngũ Phong Mountain, in An Tây ward.

Among the pines is the bronze statue of the princess, 2 meters 37 centimeters tall, far above the head of a grown person. It was made by the bronze casters of Phường Đúc, a famous bronze-casting village of Hue. In the same wide grounds, people also honor her father, Emperor Trần Nhân Tông.

Every year, the ninth day of the first lunar month is the princess's death anniversary, and also the day the temple holds its festival. People come from all over to light a stick of incense and offer a respectful word, remembering a young woman who gave her years of youth to the peace of the country.

And the statue still stands there, in the shade of the pines on Ngũ Phong Mountain, the gentle young woman whose eyes always look toward faraway places. For more than 700 years the wind in the pines has blown, and the people of Hue still speak her name softly, as one speaks of a member of the family.