Shiva

In Hindu myth, the cosmic ocean was once churned with terrible force. Gods and demons pulled at the two ends of the giant serpent Vasuki, coiled around Mount Mandara, and sea and sky were turned upside down. From the depths of the ocean rose a deadly poison that could burn up every living being. No one dared to drink it. Only one god stepped forward. He raised the bowl of poison to his lips and drank it to the last drop. Fire raged in his throat. A blue color spread across it, patch by patch, and would not stop. The whole universe held its breath. From then on he bore the title Nilakantha, which means Blue Throat. That god was Shiva.

This is one of the best-known myths about Shiva. In Hindu tradition he is the third god of the Trimurti, the three gods who are one. Brahma is the god of creation, Vishnu is the god of preservation, and Shiva is the god of destruction and transformation. In Sanskrit, the name Shiva means auspicious. A kindly god. He destroys. And yet his name means the kindly one.

No other god looks quite like Shiva. His skin is white as snow, which is explained as "the pure essence of all colors". He has three eyes, standing for the sun, the moon and the fire of the world. The third eye sees everything, even what lies hidden in time. His hair is long, loose and tangled, a symbol of the wind. His hands hold the trident called Trishul and the small drum called Damaru, and a snake coils around his neck. Fierce, yet merciful. An ascetic, yet bound up with fertility. Alone, yet everything.

The myth of the Ganges tells of that mercy in a beautiful way. When the sacred river Ganges came rushing down from heaven to earth, its force was great enough to bring everything crashing down. Shiva stood beneath it and spread out his tangled hair to catch the stream. He let the water wind through each lock and led it gently down to the ground, like a tender hand. The earth did not shake. The Ganges flowed calmly. And Shiva stood there, his hair wet, in silence.

But the best-known image of Shiva is Nataraja, the King of Dance.

The legend says that when 10,000 sages cursed him, Shiva did not rage and did not take revenge. He danced. His Tandava dance shook the whole universe, his four arms moving inside a ring of fire. One hand held the small drum Damaru, beating out the rhythm that makes the sound of creation. One hand held a flame, the sign of the destruction that rebirth requires. One hand was raised in a gesture that said, do not be afraid. One hand pointed toward his raised foot, while his other foot stood on the figure of a small demon, a symbol of ignorance. The whole cycle of the universe, from creation to preservation to destruction and then rebirth, was gathered into a single dance.

That is Nataraja.

The family of Shiva is full of remarkable figures too. His consort takes many forms: gentle Parvati, dark Kali, mysterious Durga. All of them are forms of a feminine energy called Shakti, which completes the power of Shiva. His son Ganesha, who has the head of an elephant, is the god of good fortune and wisdom, and one of the most widely worshipped gods in India. His son Karttikeya is the god of war. And his mount is Nandi, the great sacred bull. Nandi sits on guard in front of every Shiva temple, facing the door of the shrine, waiting.

Shiva temples often hold the Linga and the Yoni. The Linga is an upright stone pillar, and the Yoni is the flat base beneath it. The Sanskrit word lingam means sign. A Shiva Linga is built in three tiers, standing in turn for Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. In Hindu philosophy it is a symbol of the order of the cosmos, of the masculine and the feminine principles, of fertility and rebirth. It is nothing coarse or profane.

Shiva is worshipped in a great many places, but the holiest city of all to him is Varanasi.

Legend says that Shiva founded Varanasi 6,000 years ago. The city lies on the bank of the holy Ganges, between two small rivers, the Varana and the Asi. Every year, millions of pilgrims come to the city to worship Shiva.

The traces of Shiva in human history go back a very long way. From about 1500 to 900 years before the Common Era, the Rig Veda scripture carried myths about Rudra, the forerunner of Shiva. From India, the image of Shiva followed merchants and holy men across the sea to Southeast Asia. In time it reached central Vietnam itself.

The kingdom of Champa held central Vietnam for many centuries. Most of its art is bound up with the image of Shiva. The first sculptures of Shiva in Champa date from the 8th century of the Common Era. The Mỹ Sơn sanctuary in Da Nang gathers images of Shiva along with remarkable carvings of the divine dance. Much has changed over the course of history, yet Shiva is still present. He lives on in hundreds of Linga images inside the Cham towers that remain.

The Cham are a people of south-central Vietnam whose ancestors lived in the ancient kingdom of Champa. Today, some Cham communities in Khánh Hòa and Lâm Đồng still keep up rituals of Shiva worship. In these ceremonies, people worship with stone pillars, statues of the bull Nandi, bunches of flowers, jars of coconut oil and other offerings. These rituals have been handed down through the centuries.

In a corner of some moss-covered Cham tower, a flame is lit amid a light haze of incense. In front of it, a statue of the bull Nandi sits in silence, its head turned toward the shrine. Its stone eyes gaze into the darkness inside, as if waiting for something. For centuries, Nandi has sat like this. And the flame still burns.