Thi Nai Lagoon

The short name Thị Nại holds a whole history of language.

The name comes from a Cham place name of Sanskrit origin, Cri Vinaya. Its sounds were then transcribed into Sino-Vietnamese as Thị-lị-bì-nại. Sino-Vietnamese is the Vietnamese form of words taken from Chinese. Over time the long form shrank to Thị Nại. So the name passed through at least three languages, from Sanskrit to Cham to Sino-Vietnamese, before it became the one the people of Quy Nhơn use every day. The lagoon once carried one more name, Hải Hạc Đàm. Hải hạc means sea crane, a name that calls up flocks of birds over the water.

Today the lagoon lies in the Quy Nhơn area of Gia Lai Province, under the new provincial boundaries. Its water covers more than 5,000 hectares. It reaches across the wards of Quy Nhơn and Quy Nhơn Đông. It also reaches the communes of Tuy Phước and Tuy Phước Đông. This is brackish water, where the Hà Thanh River and the Kôn River meet before flowing out to the sea. Fresh water comes down from the mountains and salt water comes in from the sea. The two streams meet and make a home that feeds a great many aquatic species.

The people of the lagoon catch tiger prawns, oysters, a fish called cá dìa, crabs, groupers, and a shellfish called sò huyết. That is how thousands of fishing families around the lagoon make their living, a way handed down across many generations. In every season of the year there is something to do: haul a net, dig, or push a boat out to set traps.

Cồn Chim is the place that draws the most visitors in the lagoon. The name covers three islets that rise from the water. The other two are Cồn Trạng and Cồn Giá, and together the three cover 480 hectares. The whole area is a mangrove forest. It shelters waterbirds and migratory birds, and it is a breeding ground for many aquatic species.

Near the western side of the lagoon stands a small mountain that the fishermen call Tháp Thầy Bói. The name comes from its shape, which brings an ancient tower to mind. On it is a shrine built by the fishing people to honor the water spirit and ask for safety at sea. It is a popular name tied to the life of the fishermen, not an official place name.

The history of the harbor mouth is tied to sea battles in the struggle between the Tây Sơn and Nguyễn Ánh, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Tây Sơn were three brothers who led an uprising from 1771 and for a time ruled Vietnam. Nguyễn Ánh was the man who took the throne as Emperor Gia Long. In particular, the battle of 1801 was fought here, at the Thị Nại harbor mouth.

The Thị Nại bridge crosses the lagoon. It is nearly 2.5 kilometers long, and it was once the longest bridge over the sea in Vietnam. Looking down from the bridge, the lagoon spreads out on both sides, the water sparkling, and the Phương Mai peninsula rises and falls in the distance.

The worth of this place does not lie in any single spot. It lies in the meeting of water, mangrove forest, birds, boats, fishing villages and a harbor mouth. That harbor mouth was once a battlefield, once the port of a dynasty, and is now the quiet livelihood of the people who stayed.