Tomb of Khai Dinh

One hundred and twenty-seven steps. Not 127 ordinary strides along a path, but steps that climb the slope of Châu Chữ mountain, terrace after terrace. At the very top stands what may be the most astonishing sight of a whole trip to Hue.

This is Ứng Lăng, the tomb of Emperor Khải Định. It is the smallest tomb of the Nguyễn dynasty, Vietnam's last royal dynasty. It covers about half a hectare, while the tomb of Emperor Minh Mạng spreads over about 18 hectares. Yet it is also the most intricate, the most costly and the most original. Khải Định began the work on September 4, 1920. He died in 1925, at the age of 40, with the tomb still unfinished. His only son, Emperor Bảo Đại, carried it through to completion in 1931. In all, the work took 11 years.

Khải Định was the twelfth emperor of the dynasty. He reigned for nine years, from 1916 to 1925. In his time, the French protectorate held full control, and the court played a mostly symbolic role. He came to the throne because the French had deposed his predecessor, Duy Tân, for joining an uprising against them. In 1922, Khải Định became the first reigning Nguyễn emperor to go abroad. He traveled to France for the Colonial Exhibition in Marseille.

The story of Khải Định is not a simple one. He had an original eye, and he loved art and design. But to fund the tomb, he asked the French protectorate to let him raise the land tax by 30 percent. The poor suffered bitterly. In 1922, the patriot Phan Châu Trinh sent a letter from France. History records it as the Thất Điều thư. In it, he publicly accused Khải Định of seven crimes. An open letter attacking a Nguyễn emperor like this was rare in Vietnamese history. The beauty waiting at the top was paid for with the hardship of ordinary people.

On the way up, rows of stone figures line both sides of the Bái Đình courtyard: mandarins, soldiers, elephants and horses. According to some sources, their faces are Vietnamese, unlike the Chinese-style faces of the statues at older tombs. Khải Định is thought to have asked for this. It showed a conscious wish to make court dress and imagery Vietnamese. Nearby stand four ceremonial pillars in an Indian Buddhist style. Here, in a single tomb, East Asian, Western and Indian cultures leave their mark together.

And then comes the Thiên Định Palace.

Inside, the walls and columns are inlaid with millions of pieces of ceramic and glass, imported from China, Japan and France. Each small piece was set by hand. Together they form dragons, phoenixes and sacred beasts that glint in the light. This is the finest inlay work of the Nguyễn dynasty.

The central room holds the Bửu Tán, a golden canopy that weighs about 1 ton. It too is inlaid with fine pieces of ceramic. Beneath it, a bronze statue of Khải Định sits on a throne. The statue was not cast in Vietnam. It was ordered from France and made by a French sculptor. It is the only bronze statue of an emperor in all the Nguyễn tombs.

Overhead, the ceiling holds three huge murals called Cửu Long Ẩn Vân, nine dragons hidden in clouds. They are considered among the largest ceiling paintings in Vietnam, the work of the artisan Phan Văn Tánh. Legend says he painted them with long brushes while standing on the floor, with no scaffolding. That is only a legend. No historical source records exactly how he worked. Whatever his method, the nine dragons, with their clouds and lightning across three ceilings, are an extraordinary artistic legacy.

Emperor Khải Định lies beneath your feet, 9 meters underground. The tombs of Minh Mạng and Tự Đức each keep the grave apart, inside a separate enclosure called Bửu Thành. Here there is none. The emperor's coffin was laid to rest directly beneath the Thiên Định Palace.

From the highest terrace, the whole tomb lies below, and it is small. Half a hectare. Yet it holds millions of ceramic pieces, a bronze statue cast in France, and murals of national stature. Ứng Lăng is the last of three great tombs that visitors usually see together. After the classical tomb of Minh Mạng and the poetic tomb of Tự Đức, this is the tomb of an age of transition. Here East and West are woven together in a small space on a mountainside in Hue.

Twenty years after Khải Định died, in 1945, Vietnam declared its independence. His son, Bảo Đại, abdicated. The Nguyễn dynasty came to an end. Ứng Lăng remains the last witness of an era.