In the Land of Kings

 The last imperial dynasty of Vietnam was the Nguyen Dynasty, lasting from 1802 to 1945.  Before the last emperor of that dynasty, it was polygamous.  One of emperors (not the last one) had something on the order of 500 wives and 147 children.  Our city guide, Van, told us that they tended to die early as they didn’t exercise at all, being carried on palanquins everywhere.  Except for the baby making it seems.  

This dynasty was moved from Hanoi to Hue in 1802 in an effort to unify the country, although gaining the throne was with the assist of the French military.  It was built on the concept of the Chinese concept of a Forbidden City where the sovereign lives, with separate areas for the administration and civilians.  Our guide told us that if someone wanted to send a message to the emperor, they were searched 3 times, and the message then passed to a eunuch who was the official message bearer.  Yellow is the emperor’s color and only he may enter through yellow doors, green is for the empress.  

They were unable to resist the French however, and in 1884 the French were granted land north of Hue and a year later they seized the city.  After that time, the monarchy was in name only, puppet emperors. More on the citadel and Imperial Palace in another post. 

First place to visit in Hue was one of the mausoleums of the 3rd emperor Thieu Tri, who died in 1847.  There are 2 distinct areas to this:  the temple, where gifts are presented to honor him, and the mausoleum which was damaged a couple years ago in a storm and is being repaired.  This being before the French occupation, the writings on the wall are in Vietnamese, but written in Chinese characters.  The conversion of Vietnamese into a Latin based alphabet occurred with the French occupation.  It is said by some that the orientation of the temple to the northwest was inauspicious, and this decision was the reason the country fell to French rule a few years later.  

There are several mauloleums around Hue for the Nguyen emperors, but that was the only one we visited.  

Prior to that we had a lovely lunch at a Buddhist monastery and were able to visit their temple as well.  Vietnamese Buddhism differs from that of Thailand, or India or Myanmar, in that the monks are more secluded, dress in robes that cover their arms.  The monastery temple is a beautiful place with several large altars with similar offerings to the smaller alters in homes and businesses, but even more so.