Tomb of Thoai Ngoc Hau

At the foot of Núi Sam, a tomb tells its story through its space, not through a signboard.

It stands in Châu Đốc, in An Giang. Its grounds lie in Vĩnh Tế ward, inside the Núi Sam national tourist area. The tomb is also called Sơn Lăng. Here rests Nguyễn Văn Thoại, a famous official of the Nguyễn dynasty, Vietnam's last royal dynasty, which reigned from 1802 to 1945. He is known by his title, Thoại Ngọc Hầu. He was born on November 25, 1761, in Diên Phước, in Quảng Nam, and he died on June 6, 1829. His service is tied to the largest efforts to open new land in the southwest, early in the 19th century. The most notable was his work organizing the digging of two canals, the Thoại Hà and the Vĩnh Tế.

The tomb was built in the early 19th century. In 1997 it was ranked a national monument of history and culture. It is one of five such national monuments in the Núi Sam area.

Inside the grounds, the plan of three main graves is clear at once. The grave of Thoại Ngọc Hầu lies at the center. To the right is his wife, Châu Thị Tế, and to the left is his secondary wife, Trương Thị Miệt. The arrangement tells more than the story of one family. It reflects the etiquette of the Nguyễn court, and the lifelong bond of people who stood side by side in opening the land. In front of the Long Đình stand two cement deer and two large half-moon gates. A wall three meters high and one meter thick closes in the grounds, and the space is solemn and enclosed.

In the Long Đình area stand copies of two steles, the Thoại Sơn stele and the Vĩnh Tế Sơn stele. The national tourism authority states that these are copies, not the originals. The two originals belong to the story of the canal and the history of the frontier, and they are precious records. The copies let visitors read the words even without standing before the originals.

Behind the graves stands the main temple. It holds a half-length statue of Thoại Ngọc Hầu, his spirit tablet, paired couplets and old ritual objects. The temple is a quiet place. Every year the people of An Giang, and visitors from far away, still come to offer incense and remember the man who served this land.

One part of the tomb is mentioned less often, the area of nameless graves. It gathers many graves with no name, most of them tied to the laborers who died digging the Vĩnh Tế Canal. Along the whole course of the digging, so many people went into the earth without leaving a name. This area is the most human part of the monument. It is a reminder that behind great works there are always quiet sacrifices.

The Vĩnh Tế Canal runs about 170 kilometers, from Châu Đốc all the way to the sea at Hà Tiên. It is one of the largest water works that the Vietnamese ever organized and dug by hand. The canal was dug from 1819 to 1824. It irrigated farmland, and it also marked the border and served as a strategic line of defense. Today, standing in the grounds and looking out toward Châu Đốc, a visitor can feel how deeply the tomb at the foot of the mountain is bound to the history of a whole wide land.