Tomb of Tu Duc

An emperor sits in a pavilion above the water. Towers and trees lie reflected in the still lake, and green pines and quiet hills stand all around. In his hand is a brush. Before him lies paper. The emperor is writing poetry.

That emperor is Tự Đức, the fourth ruler of the Nguyễn dynasty. It was Vietnam's last royal dynasty, which reigned from 1802 to 1945. He held the throne longer than any other emperor of the dynasty: 36 years, from 1847 to 1883. Yet he was also the loneliest of emperors. He had no children of his own. Smallpox had left him frail since childhood. And on his shoulders rested a court that was tottering as the French invasion advanced. He poured all that grief into poetry. By common estimate, he left thousands of poems. He wrote them in classical Chinese and in Nôm, an old character script for writing Vietnamese.

Khiêm Lăng is the official name of the tomb of Tự Đức. It lies about 5 kilometers south of central Hue. It is one of 15 representative monuments in the Complex of Hue Monuments. UNESCO added the complex to its World Heritage List in 1993.

But before the tomb itself comes the story of its name. In 1864, Tự Đức was 36 years old and knew full well that he had no children. He called up 3,000 soldiers and laborers to build a palace complex for himself. It would be a place to rest while he lived, and his tomb after his death. He named it Vạn Niên Cơ, meaning a foundation to last for all time. The forced labor was crushing, and the people and the workers suffered.

In 1866, men of the Đoàn family led the people and the workers in revolt. Among the leaders were the brothers Đoàn Hữu Trưng and Đoàn Tư Trực. Using lime pestles as weapons, they surged into the imperial palace. History records the event as the Chày Vôi uprising, the revolt of the lime pestles. The uprising was crushed, and its leaders were severely punished. What stands out is how the emperor responded next. He changed the name from Vạn Niên Cơ to Khiêm Cung, the humble palace. He also eased the forced labor and granted favors to the people. From then on, nearly 50 buildings at the tomb carried the word Khiêm in their names. Khiêm means humble. Each name was a reminder for the emperor to keep a humble heart.

Inside Khiêm Lăng today, what strikes a visitor first is its poetic beauty. The tomb of Emperor Minh Mạng is majestic and symmetrical. The tomb of Emperor Khải Định shimmers with inlaid ceramic and porcelain. Khiêm Lăng is like neither. This is a landscape closer to nature. The layout is not strictly symmetrical. It follows the natural shape of the land, and water and greenery live in harmony with the buildings.

The most striking part is Lưu Khiêm Lake. In the middle of the lake lies Tịnh Khiêm island. The emperor once kept rare animals there and grew flowers to admire. On the lake stands Xung Khiêm Tạ, a pavilion over the water with a wooden floor and a curved roof. Here the emperor read, drank tea and wrote poetry. You can sit quietly here for a while and watch the green pines reflected in the water. It is easy to sense a poet's loneliness here. Late in the age of the monarchy, an emperor sat in this very spot and bore it, while France was taking the country step by step.

Hòa Khiêm Hall is where the emperor worked when he came to the tomb. After Tự Đức died, the hall became a shrine to him and to Empress Lệ Thiên Anh. Behind it stands Lương Khiêm Hall. It honors Empress Dowager Từ Dũ, the emperor's mother, who was famous for her virtue.

Yet the most remarkable thing at Khiêm Lăng is neither the lake nor the halls of worship. It is the stele in the stele pavilion.

The Khiêm Cung Ký stele, the Record of the Humble Palace. It weighs about 20 tons. It is carved with about 5,000 Chinese characters. And above all, the text is in the emperor's own hand. Of all the Nguyễn tombs, it holds the only life story an emperor left in his own writing. In it, the emperor recounts his achievements. But he also frankly admits his faults. He did not judge people well, and he gave posts to people unworthy of them. He also wrote of the misfortunes and illnesses of his life. An emperor raised a stone to confess his own failings. That is rare in the history of the monarchs of Vietnam or China.

The emperor's grave lies in the area called Bửu Thành. But there is a legend here, and it is only a legend, never fully confirmed by any historical source. It says that after the burial, the true grave of Tự Đức was hidden in another, secret place within the tomb, to keep grave robbers away. To this day, no one knows for sure where the emperor's body lies.

The secondary area of the tomb holds two more tombs. One belongs to Empress Lệ Thiên Anh, the principal wife of Tự Đức. She stayed by his side all his life. The other belongs to his adopted son, Emperor Kiến Phúc. He came to the throne in 1883. He reigned for only eight months, and died at just 15.

At Khiêm Lăng, a lonely, gifted and troubled man designed, with his own hand, a space for his life and a space for his death. Into it he put the sorrow of his poetry and the faults he could not escape. A stone of about 20 tons, bearing the emperor's confession in his own hand. That is the spiritual legacy of Khiêm Lăng.