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JULY 2023
CONTENT
The coastline of Central Vietnam: a land of bays, lagoons, ruins, islands, and white sand beaches.
Khmer statuary: a small digression.
About the Mesopotamian marshes.
ANNOUNCEMENT
We are delighted to welcome Prof. Jean-Michel Filippi. He will be supporting the Secret Indochina editorial team with topics on Khmer art and history, old Hanoi, Saigon the Pearl of the Orient, Vietnamese linguistics and other spellbinding subjects.
During the Covid pandemic, Secret Indochina extended its research and expertise into Southwest Asia, in parallel with its studies of Southeast Asia. The two regions are culturally linked by sea routes along the Persian coast, the Arabian Gulf, the Indian and Pacific oceans, from Sumer to Angkor, then Funan to Champa.
Following the example of Secret Indochina’s research and in the spirit of its “Last Frontiers” concept, the approach is to explore invisible or unseen treasures – little-known spaces, remote and forgotten regions – to highlight them and honor their venerable memory. These extend along an axis stretching from Arabia to southeastern Persia: between the Nabataean kingdom, Mesopotamia, Elam, Gedrosia and Carmania, through ancient cities, deserts, steppes, djebels, wadis, oases, marshes, sandy shores, and enchanting islands.
We begin with the legendary Mesopotamian Marshes.
Best regards,
The Secret Indochina editorial team.
THE COASTLINE OF CENTRAL VIETNAM
A LAND OF BAYS, LAGOONS, RUINS, ISLANDS, AND WHITE SAND BEACHES
In this edition, we return to the central Vietnamese coast between the provinces of Ha Tinh and Quang Nam. This area boasts a superb array of bays, lagoons, promontories, islands, windy beaches, coconut groves, fishing villages, Cham ruins, and old harbor towns, including the famous Hoi An.
Once known as Annam, the area is delineated by Cape Mui Ron Me and the Cua Khua River estuary to the north, with Hon Son Duong and Con Chim islands emerging closer to the open sea. Its southern regions extend to the mouth of the Song Gianh River, which meanders from its source in the Ke Bang range foggy heights (Phong Nha).
Near Dong Hoi, the Annamite Chain approaches the coastline, which is flanked by the Kien Giang River and bucolic backcountry. At the 17th parallel (the former demilitarized zone), there are long, white-sand beaches and lagoons dotted with fishing villages; this area is dominated in the south by Cape Mui Lay, the location of the famous Vinh Moc tunnels. Further to the south, there is another great sandy expanse that is cut by the mouth of the Cua Viet River bordering Quang Tri city.
Arriving at Hue, the former imperial capital, the coastline is characterized by a set of lagoons (Tam Giang, “the three rivers”), a sinuous landscape formed by estuaries, river mouths, marshes, mangrove swamps, fishponds, salt pans and small windy ports.
About 50 km long and 4 km wide, the lagoons are divided into two parts: the western lagoon (Pha Tam Giang) and the eastern lagoon (Da Ham Trung and Dam Thuy Tu). To the south, they feed Dam Cau Hai Bay. Between the lagoons and the ocean lies a sandy strip with fishing villages, including Thai Duong Ha, Cu Lai, My Quan and Hien Ha in the south. To the west, the lagoons border the suburbs of Hue and the mouths of the three rivers that feed them: the Song Bo, the Song Lau and the legendary Song Huong (the Perfume River).
The 300,000 fishermen of the lagoon have adapted their techniques to its peculiarities.
They use immense networks of nets and various traps laid out according to the tides or the seasons. Their pirogues are longer and more curved; from afar, the small boats look like bamboo leaves floating on the water, a characteristic that allows them to better pass the high bars of the ocean. In the 17th and 18th centuries, during the time of the Nguyen lords, the lagoon formed a natural protective barrier and defended eastern access to the citadel of Hue. Fierce fighting took place there during the Vietnam War, particularly in 1968; thereafter, the lagoons were “departure points” for boat people fleeing the new regime.
South of the lagoons at the foot of Cape Mui Chan May Dong lies Chon May Bay, a maritime extension of the Annamite Chain whose peak, Dong Nhut, reaches 585m. Continuing down the coastline lies Vung An Cu lagoon and its beach, better known as Lang Co, with a bay surrounded by a wooded peninsula and an island with a lighthouse perched on top (Hon Son Cha).
Its southern side dominates Danang Bay, which is itself flanked by the Son Tra peninsula – a site classified as a nature reserve that is dominated by the eponymous mountain (693m) and where langurs abound. Son Tra is extended by a second small peninsula (Tiensha or Mui Da Nang) and its lighthouse; the southern part of the peninsula is distinguished by a rocky cape known as the “point of the imp.” To the southwest, there are remnants of a former French cemetery and its small chapel (Y Pha Nho) and the remains of a former American base (Monkey Mountain Camp).
To the south, majestic white sand beaches stretch all the way to Hoi An (Faifo or Phai Pho) and the Song Thu Bon estuary. This region – close to My Son, the Cham capital – has many ruins, towers, and sanctuaries, notably towards the village of Qua Giang, Bo Mung (built in 889 under King Indravarman, 21 km south of Danang) and Tra Kieu, the legendary Sinhapura.
In the sparkling blue waters off the coastline there are a string of heavenly islands, including Hon Chu (Cu), Hon Co (Ca), Hon Cu Lao Cham, Hon Mo and Hon Tai.
The final section of Song Cua Dai joins the Song Truong Giang, where it has a particular course as a result of its peculiar combination of half lagoon and half river and skirts the large southern beach of Hoi An. About 50 km further down the coast lie the Truong Giang lagoon, Vung Dung Quat Bay, Mount De Vian Ka (Mui Tui), and finally Cape Nam Tram (Nui Nam Cham, 138m). Various groups of Cham towers are located in the hinterland of this area, including Khuong Mi and Chiang Dang group.
The southern shore of Quang Ngai consists of approximately 50 km of long, white beaches crossed by various estuaries, notably Song Tra Khuc and Song Ve. At the level of Phu Khuong (Thuy Thach), the coastal strip narrows, and the foothills of the South Annamite Chain come closer, conferring a dramatic appearance to the coastline. A series of bays and small sandy peninsulas run up to the delta of the Song Lai Giang River, at Bong Son (Hoai An). Bong Son was established in 1471 by King Le Thanh Tong and became one of the three administrative centers of the present Binh Dinh province. In 1945, the town was the scene of an uprising against the French, a movement involving about 8,000 people led by Trinh Hong Ky. During the Vietnam War, the area was subject to severe fighting, particularly in 1968.
Dam Tra O, another splendid bay, lies south of Bong Son, with Tortoise Island just off the coast. The relief then rises abruptly via Nui Mieu (518 m) and the imposing Nui Trop Tre mountains, whose southeast buttresses border Nuoc Ngot Bay. Its northern part is protected by a beautiful sandy and windy peninsula with Vinh Loi, an old fishing village with coconut woods and salt flats at the end.
On the opposite side emerges Buffalo Island (Hon Con Trau), a rocky atoll beaten by the Pacific typhoons.
The coastline continues with a long sandy stretch up to the peninsula closing the north of Lang Mai Bay (Quy Nhon). The Bang Chau towers, an ancient Cham capital known for its “Golden Towers, Copper Towers and Silver Towers,” stands out.
Twenty-six km south of Quy Nhon is Cha Ban, a Champa capital and the northern border of the “Palm Coast” region, another inviting destination to which we will return...
© Illustration credit: Henri Mège
KHMER STATUARY
A SMALL DIGRESSION
A visit to the National Museum in Phnom Penh or the Guimet Museum, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2023, easily convinces us of the importance of Khmer statuary.
For more than a century, it was fashionable to speak of Hindu, Indian, or even Indianized art to evoke both statuary and the forests of temples that the Khmer builders bequeathed to us. Then, it was convenient to forget that the famous mountain temples – translations of an essential aspect of the Hindu Dharma – were not erected in India, but in Cambodia. And yet it is not for lack of having been warned, among others by Tagore: “I see India everywhere, but do not recognize it.”
What if the Khmer world had reinvented India? This is a question that deserves to be asked when Indian gods are embodied in statuary whose forms have no equivalent in India. The names of the gods are indeed Indian, but the identity stops there because the faces are Khmer: from the outset, the lips bend slightly upwards, and the almond-shaped eyes with protruding irises present a ghost of a smile which, with essential precision, stand apart from any emotion.
The bodily forms of this statuary show a world of restraint very far from Hindu exuberance: A slight swaying of the hips destined to disappear and combined with a progressive weakening of anatomical realism end up translating the body of the gods into increasingly stylized forms. Here we are now, in a universe where sensuality is subject to a strict coding.
Can we therefore speak of austerity? Far from it, because if the Khmer sculptors distance the bodies of the gods from humanity, they will also, and paradoxically, do everything to humanize the representation: Radiance of the folds of the garment, suggestion of barely perceptible movements, and beautiful belts…
A final point will be of paramount importance. The statuary representations generally include high-relief statues, statues with supports, and sculpture in the round. Thus, in the Indian world itself, the high relief is in the spotlight for obvious reasons: To represent the episodes of the life of the gods, quarrels, and loves. On the other hand, a statue with supports or a sculpture in the round symbolizes a divinity cut off from his mythological environment and intends to emphasize its characteristic attributes.
In the Cham kingdoms, neighbors of the Khmer empire, high relief statues are also predominant.
The Khmer world, for its part, categorically rejected high relief from the outset, unless the scene to be represented makes it necessary. Thus, Krishna lifting Mount Govardhana is the only high-relief motif in Cambodia. In “statue,” there is the idea of standing, just as with “stable” and “state.” Therefore, the theme of prominence emerges, and for the Khmers, it is precisely this prominence that can in no way be compatible with the support of a wall.
In sum, the history of Khmer sculpture is the result of a long journey that will slowly free the statue from its supports to create statues in the round, the only statuary worthy of the name!
ABOUT
THE MESOPOTAMIAN MARSHES
Located between southeast Iraq and southwest Iran, the Mesopotamian Marshes are the largest lacustrine ecosystem in Western Eurasia. The marshes once covered more than 15,000 km2, an area nearly twice that of the original Everglades. Mesopotamian marshes are sometimes referred to as the “Garden of Eden.”
Sir Wilfred Thesiger described the spirit of the marshes in his 1964 book
The Marsh Arabs
:
… firelight on a half-turned face, the crying of geese, duck flighting into the feed, a boy’s voice singing somewhere in the dark, canoes moving in procession down a waterway, the setting sun seen crimson through the smoke of burning reedbeds, narrow water-ways that would still deeper into the Marshes. A naked man in a canoe with a trident in his hand, reed houses built upon water, the croaking of frogs, canoes coming home at evening, peace and continuity, the stillness of a world that never knew an engine.
The marsh region is the land of the “people of the reeds,” also known as Marsh Arabs or Madan. They are organized into confederations or groups, the most notable being the Madan in the center, the Al Bu Muhammad in the north, the Muntifi in the southwest, the Bassad in the south, and the Shadda towards the east and the Iranian border. Most are Shiite Muslims.
The “people of the reeds” live in vaulted reed houses that average a little over 2m by 6m long and a little less than 3m high and are built either on the water’s edge or artificial reed islands (the
kibasha
or
dibin
). The houses have two entrances at both ends; one end is used as a dwelling and the other, the
sitra
, is used to shelter animals in bad weather. The traditional boats, the
mashoof
and
tarada
, are used as a means of transportation and a network of waterways dot the swamps.
In 1984, the marshes were the scene of the Battle of the Marshes, a bloody engagement of the Iraq-Iran war. Iran launched a surprise amphibious offensive in Hawizeh marsh (north of the marshes), followed by a series of counter-offensives. The Iraqis used artillery, tanks, air strikes, gunboats, and helicopter gunships to push the Iranian forces back through the marshes, with about 40,000 Iranians dying in the fighting. The Iranians also used combined helicopter, gunboat and speedboat operations Fatima al-Zahra and Kheibar.
Between the 1950s and 1990s, the marshes were drained for agricultural purposes, oil exploitation, and to expel the Shiite Arabs. The marshes ended up dried to 10% of their original surface. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, they have been partially restored, but the drought and construction and operation of dams up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers hinder the process. In 2016, the marshes were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Mesopotamian Marshes are divided into four distinct areas: the northern marshes of Al Hawizeh, the central marshes of Abu Kelam, the southern marshes of Al Hammar and the Iranian Hawizech marshes.
The Hawizeh Marsh (the ancient Samargha and Samirda marshes) is a transboundary lacustrine expanse centered on the lower Tigris River before it joins with the Euphrates at Basra. The main plants are the common reed or broom reed (Phragmites australis, the sagne), the scripe (Schoenoplectus), the submerged cornice (Ceratophllum demersum), the verticillate water milfoil (Myriophyllum verticillatum), the sago pondweed (Stuckenia pectinata), the qat (Polygonum senegalense), the water primrose (Jussiaea diffusa), the shining pondweed (Potomogeton lucens), and the coco-grass (Cyperus rotundus).
The Hawizeh Marsh area is a biodiversity site of priority conservation importance. It is home to threatened species such as the reed warbler (A. crocephalus griseldis), the Euphrates softshell turtle (Rafetus euphraticus), and the smooth-haired otter (Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli). More than 40 species breed in summer and more than 90 in the winter in the marshes. The area is a recovery and feeding site for migrants passing between Western Siberia, Central Asia and Africa. Before the 1930s‒1950s, the marshes were the haunt of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), the golden jackal (Canis aureus), and the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena). The main fish species are the himri (Carasbarsus luteus), the Tigris or Mesopotamian asp (Leuciscus vorax), and the binni (Mesopotaichthys sharpeyi).
The vast central marshes in Abu Kelam extend northwest of the lower Tigris and north of the city of Chibayish, its northern part bordered by Mijar Al Kabir and Qalat Salih. The area used to be the heart of the marshes; it consists of several individual marshes, most notably Hawr Daymah, Al Binni, Hawr Zikri, Hawr Jaraisha, Hawr Juwawin, Hawr Fatimah, and Hawr Ruwaydah. In some places, the wetlands are dominated by reeds (Phragmites australis) and form spaces known as “rivers of grass.”
Historically, different Marsh Arabs groups inhabited the center. The Al Bu Muhammad and the Feraigat were located to the north, the Al Essa to the northwest, the Shadda to the west, the Madan and Shaghanba to the center, the Muntifi to the southwest, and the Bassad, Bani Umair, and Bani Assad to the south. Nowadays, global warming has forced these groups into various cities bordering the marshes.
The central marshland is known for Al Binni lake. With a diameter of 3.4 km, it could be an impact crater based on its almost circular shape, the slightly polygonal shape of its rim, and its contrasting shape to the other lakes in the area. The crater is estimated to be less than 5000 years old, or between 2000 and 3000 BC. Some associate this apparent impact site with the 2350 BC anomaly in the Middle East known as The Deluge. A tsunami caused by the impact would have devastated the coastal Sumerian cities, an event that may provide another origin for the 2.6 m layer of sediment discovered during an excavation of Ur city by British archaeologist Leonard Woolley (1922-1934). Descriptive passages from the Epic of Gilgamesh (1600‒1800 BC) could depict the impact and the tsunami, suggesting a link to the Sumerian and later Biblical flood.
...and the seven judges of hell, the Annunaki, raised their torches, lighting the earth with their livid flame. A stupor of despair rose to the sky as the god of the storm turned daylight into darkness, as he crushed the earth like a cup. For a whole day the storm raged, gathering fury as it went, it poured down upon the people like tides of battle; a man could not see his brother and the people could not be seen from heaven. Even the gods were terrified by the flood, they fled to the highest heaven, the firmament of Anu; they crouched against the walls, cowering like curses...
(from the Epic of Gilgamesh).
The Al Hammar (Al Jaza’ir) marsh constitutes the southern area of the Mesopotamian Marshes. It is bordered by the Euphrates to the north and the Shamiyaha desert (a route to Arabia) to the south. Al Hammar is made up of various marshy areas spreading out towards the Shatt al Arab, the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.
Various bird species are recorded there, including the marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus), the purple heron (Ardea purpurea), the grey heron (Ardea cinerea), the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), the white stilt (Himantopus himantopus), the little egret (Egretta garzetta), the black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), the great black-backed gull (Larus canus), the common gull, least tern (Sternula albifrons), the great spotted grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis), the pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis), the white-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis), the white wagtail, and various sparrows and passerines. Coastal fish populations in the Persian Gulf use the southern marshes for spawning migrations, and the marshes also serve as breeding areas for penaeid shrimp (Metapenaeae).
Northeast of the southern marshes lie the ruins of the ancient Persian Gulf port Charax Spasinu ruins, capital of the Characene kingdom (Mesene) and also known as Charax Spasinou, Charax Pasinu, Spasinu Charax, Antioch in Susiana, Alexandria Antioch, or the fortress of Hyspaosines.
Finally, the far southwestern part of Iran forms the final frontier of the Mesopotamian Marshes. Their northern part is the eastern Hawizeh marsh extension (Hur al Azim), while the other marshes extend into southern Elam, around the Karun River and the deltas of the Shatt al Arab.
For further information, please contact us
© Photo credit: Ahmed Abdul Amiralem.
© Illustration credit: Ahoar Anasryh
.
© Marshes satellite image - NASA 2023
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They use immense networks of nets and various traps laid out according to the tides or the seasons. Their pirogues are longer and more curved; from afar, the small boats look like bamboo leaves floating on the water, a characteristic that allows them to better pass the high bars of the ocean. In the 17th and 18th centuries, during the time of the Nguyen lords, the lagoon formed a natural protective barrier and defended eastern access to the citadel of Hue. Fierce fighting took place there during the Vietnam War, particularly in 1968; thereafter, the lagoons were “departure points” for boat people fleeing the new regime.
On the opposite side emerges Buffalo Island (Hon Con Trau), a rocky atoll beaten by the Pacific typhoons.
