Tomb of Minh Mang

The gate stands more than 9 meters high and 12 meters wide. It has three passageways and 24 tiled roofs, rising tier upon tier. Yet that gate has opened exactly once.

This is Đại Hồng Môn, the main gate of Hiếu Lăng. Here, among the hills of Hue, Emperor Minh Mạng lies at rest. On August 20, 1841, the gate opened to carry the emperor's coffin into the tomb. Then it closed, and it has stayed closed ever since. Visitors today pass through the two side gates. They glance back at the silent doors and wonder who lies behind them, laid to rest with such ceremony.

His birth name was Nguyễn Phúc Đảm. He was the fourth son of Emperor Gia Long, the founder of the Nguyễn dynasty. This was Vietnam's last royal dynasty, which reigned from 1802 to 1945. He was born on May 25, 1791. In 1820 he came to the throne as Emperor Minh Mạng, the second emperor of the dynasty. During his 21 years on the throne, he divided the country into 30 provinces, plus Thừa Thiên, the prefecture around the capital. In 1838 he decided to change the country's official name from Vietnam to Đại Nam. Many historians judge him an able ruler, and his reign a prosperous time for the Nguyễn.

Emperor Minh Mạng had more children than any other monarch in Vietnamese history. There were 142 of them in all. Seventy-eight were princes and 64 were princesses.

On January 20, 1841, Emperor Minh Mạng died at the age of 49. He had chosen the site of his tomb himself, long before. He had people search for good land and weighed the choice for many years, and only then chose the hills around Cẩm Kê mountain as the place where he would lie.

Work on the tomb had begun in 1840, while he was still on the throne. His eldest son and successor, Emperor Thiệu Trị, carried it on to honor his father. The work lasted until 1843, and nearly 10,000 workers and soldiers were called up for it. It is easy to picture the vast site ringing with chisels on stone and workers calling out to one another, with brick dust drifting in the sunlight. In August 1841, the coffin of the late emperor passed through Đại Hồng Môn. Even then the builders kept on working. It took nearly two more years to finish the tomb.

The tomb covers roughly 20 hectares. About 40 structures, large and small, stand in perfect symmetry along an axis about 700 meters long. Every building on the left has a twin on the right. If a map of the tomb were folded along that axis, the buildings on the two halves would fit together like the wings of a butterfly.

Beyond the side gate, the Bái Đình courtyard opens out ahead. It measures 45 meters on each side and is paved with Bát Tràng brick. Two rows of stone statues stand in attendance on either side: civil mandarins, military mandarins, elephants and horses. Walking between the rows, with footsteps ringing on the brick, a visitor feels like someone passing through a royal audience that fell silent long ago.

Next comes the Bi Đình, the stele pavilion. Inside stands the Thánh Đức Thần Công stele. Emperor Thiệu Trị wrote it himself, in praise of the virtues and deeds of his father. This was a Confucian tradition that the Nguyễn emperors kept up for generations. Emperor Minh Mạng had once written such a stele for his own father, Gia Long. Now it was his son's turn to write one for him, a line of filial piety running from one reign to the next.

Further on lies Trừng Minh Lake. Trừng Minh means clear and bright. The lake is planted with lotus. Its still surface mirrors the sky. Three stone bridges cross it.

The Trung Đạo bridge, in the middle, was reserved for the emperor. The Tả Phù bridge, on the left, was for civil mandarins. The Hữu Bật bridge, on the right, was for military mandarins. Three bridges, three ranks, and no one was allowed to step onto the wrong one. It is classical Confucianism, cast in stone. Today, though, anyone may stroll across the Trung Đạo bridge at an easy pace, as a guest rather than a subject.

On the far side of the lake, Minh Lâu comes into view. Minh Lâu means the bright pavilion. It is a two-story building standing on the Tam Tài mound. The mound was built up in three earthen tiers, which stand for Heaven, Earth and Humankind. Seen from the foot of the mound, the pavilion seems lifted high into the sky.

Legend has it that Emperor Minh Mạng once said he would one day climb Minh Lâu to gaze at the moon and stars on summer nights. But he died at 49, before he ever had the chance to come and relax there, even once. So on every moonlit night, the bright pavilion still stands there, as if waiting for someone who never had the chance to come.

At the end of the axis lies Tân Nguyệt Lake. Tân Nguyệt means new moon, and the lake curves like a new moon, in the shape of a half-moon. Within that curve lies Bửu Thành, the round enclosure of the grave. The half-moon embraces the circle, like the moon embracing the sun. The lake is likened to yin, wrapping around and sheltering Bửu Thành, the yang.

Stand before Bửu Thành for a while, and then turn to look back toward the gate. The layout of the whole tomb is often compared to a person lying at rest. The head is pillowed on Kim Phụng mountain. The feet stretch out as far as the Bằng Lãng river fork. The two halves of Trừng Minh Lake, one on each side of the axis, are the two arms, lying loose at the sides.

Coming in from the Perfume River, the tomb is ringed by hills, and behind Bửu Thành stands a whole forest of dark green pines. Hiếu Lăng is often counted among the finest and most classically ordered tombs of the Nguyễn dynasty. The reason is not its size. It is so complete that there is nothing left to add, and nothing left to take away.

And at the start of the axis, Đại Hồng Môn stays closed. Its 24 tiled roofs rest silent under the Hue sky, keeping the promise to open only once.