Cham towers in Binh Dinh are considered invaluable heritages. Many wonder what did Cham people put in the towers.
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Banh It tower. Photo: Dao Tien Dat |
In his book “Les Tours kiames de la Province de Binh Dinh”, Ch.Lemire wrote that “inside the towers, there were statutes probably made of gold or silver, with germ eyes and diamond teeth. They were stolen first and then stone relievos”.
According to this source of information, French people took all of the statutes and relievos during their colonial domination over Vietnam. Banh It tower suffered the biggest losses of precious items.
“Statues were digged out to take off attached holy paintings. Banh It tower had lots of notable items; most of its statues were made of gold or gilt stone. The last statue at the tower’s dome was carried to France in 1886. Nearly 80 tonnes of the statues and relievos were loaded into Mekong ship under the care of Maurice PhD. They were expected to be displayed at Lyon Museum. The ship was wrecked in the Red Sea. Somalia pirates at that time wrongly thought that they had found a treasure. They took back to the shore majority of heavy trunks. It turned out that they found just stones.”
The mystery about the Mekong ship’s fate has challenged scientists, antique hunters and curious people for over the last 100 years.
Robert Stenout, a French professor is among the treasure hunters. After more than 30 years of studying with trips to hundreds of libraries, offices of archives, sea ports and shipping companies, in October 1995, he localized exactly the site of the shipwreck at Guadaqui Cape, Red Sea.
The Mekong ship was big, said R. Stenout. It was designed to carry passengers and goods as well. Yet, it still looked elegant. In its fatal voyage in 1906, it had 180 crew members and 66 passengers on board with tonnes of gold antiques and a secret hold of goods.
Primary surveys by divers of Scorbio ship whose captain was Campell revealed that there were hundreds of thousands of gold bars in the secret hold of the Mekong ship.
However, several days after the exact localization, operation to raise the sunken ship and collect the treasure couldn’t continue because of a strong dispute with a country who claimed sovereignty over the waters.
The antiques in the Mekong ship were taken by the French people from the towers over the land of Vijava (present day area stretches out from Quang Nam province to Binh Thuan province). Surely, this is not the only treasure of Cham Kingdom.
As above facts, the Cham antiques are still under the Red Sea. If this is true, a big legacy of Binh Dinh hasn’t brought into public. If not, Binh Dinh still has 8 of 14 ancient Cham towers. Binh Dinh, thus, owns part of human kind’s treasure.
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