Places to Visit in Vietnam: The Hindu Temples Most Travellers Miss
For roughly a thousand years, a Hindu kingdom called Champa ruled the coast of what is now central and southern Vietnam. Its holiest site, My Son, was a valley of more than 70 brick temples built to Shiva from the 4th century onwards. American bombing in the Vietnam War destroyed most of it in days. Since 2017, the Archaeological Survey of India has been putting three of its temple groups back together. You can visit, and it is an hour from Hoi An.
Most Indians go to Vietnam for Ha Long Bay, the food and the beaches. Almost nobody arrives knowing that Shiva was worshipped on that coast for nine centuries, that Sanskrit inscriptions are carved into its temple doorposts, or that Indian stonemasons are working there right now.
This is that story, and how to see it for yourself.
There Was a Hindu Kingdom on the Vietnamese Coast for 1,000 Years
Indian traders had been sailing east for centuries before Champa existed, carrying not only goods but language, script and religion. Along the central Vietnamese coast, those ideas took root in a group of principalities that became the Champa kingdom.
The Cham adopted Sanskrit as a sacred language, took Indian royal titles, and built temples to Shiva, Vishnu and Ganesha. Their kings named themselves in the Indian style, and their inscriptions read like something from a temple wall in Tamil Nadu. This was not conquest or colonisation. It was a civilisation that chose Indian religious culture and then made something entirely its own out of it, in red brick, on a coastline 4,000 kilometres away.
UNESCO's own description of My Son puts it plainly: the site represents a phase of history showing the region's confluence with India.
My Son: Where Shiva Was Worshipped for Nine Centuries
In the 4th century, King Bhadravarman chose a narrow valley ringed by mountains, about 70 km from modern Da Nang, as the kingdom's sacred capital. He dedicated the first temple there to Bhadreshvara, a form of Shiva combining the king's own name with the god's.
What followed is remarkable. For roughly 900 years, successive Cham kings kept building in the same valley. Each dynasty added towers, shrines and gateways, so the site grew into more than 70 structures spanning the entire life of the kingdom, from the 4th to the 13th centuries. Nowhere else in Southeast Asia does a single site record one civilisation so continuously.
The principal object of worship was the linga, and the temples follow a plan any visitor to a South Indian temple would half-recognise: a main tower housing the sanctum, a gateway tower, a hall for offerings, subsidiary shrines for the guardians of the directions.
Why the temples have names like A1 and B5
French archaeologists reached the valley in 1885, and Henri Parmentier surveyed it in the early 1900s. Faced with dozens of structures and no surviving names for most of them, they grouped the ruins by cluster and lettered them A through to K, numbering the buildings within each group. UNESCO today records eight groups containing 71 standing monuments. The letters stuck, which is why a 10th-century Shiva temple is now known as A1.
How a Week of Bombing Erased What a Millennium Had Built
After the 14th century Champa declined, the valley emptied, and the jungle took the temples back. That, oddly, protected them. What did not protect them was the 20th century.
My Son was damaged during the Second World War and the First Indo-China War. The catastrophe came during the Vietnam War, when fighters used the ruins as cover and the valley was bombed. Group A, and above all the great tower A1, was destroyed. A1 had stood for around a thousand years and was the tallest structure in the sanctuary, the only one with doorways facing both east and west, surrounded by six small shrines for the guardians of the directions.
Today it is a foundation, a scatter of brick, and craters you can still see in the ground around it. Of more than 70 temples, roughly 20 survive in recognisable form.
Why Indian Archaeologists Are Working in a Vietnamese Jungle
In 2014, India and Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding on conserving My Son. The Archaeological Survey of India was given responsibility for three temple groups: A, H and K. An ASI team worked on site from 2017, and the Embassy of India in Hanoi announced the completion and handover of the work in December 2022, after five years.
The choice of A is the poignant one. The group the bombing flattened is the group Indian conservators were asked to bring back.
The work also turned up objects rather than just masonry. During the restoration, the team uncovered a Shiva linga, a Shiva idol and a yoni altar that had lain buried in the rubble.
The road the kings walked, found again
Group K produced the biggest find. Indian archaeologists identified gateways on the east and west sides of Tower K, which pointed to something larger. Excavation then revealed an ancient entrance road running from Tower K into the heart of the sanctuary, dated to between the 10th and 12th centuries. Vietnamese archaeologists believe it was a sacred route, the path along which deities were carried and along which Champa kings and priests processed into the holy valley. Vietnamese reporting has described it as one of the country's most significant archaeological discoveries in modern times.
It had been under the soil for something like 800 years, and it was found because someone came looking for the gates.
Other countries have worked here too, and it is worth saying so. A Polish architect, Kazimierz Kwiatkowski, known locally as Kazik, devoted years to Vietnamese heritage including My Son. Italian conservators have worked on Group G since 1997. My Son's survival is an international effort, and India's part in it is one thread of several.
Po Nagar: The Temple Where Worship Never Stopped
My Son is a ruin you visit. Po Nagar, in Nha Trang, is something else: a Cham temple still in daily use, where incense burns and people pray, more than a thousand years after it was built.
The complex stands on a small hill above the Cai River, dating from before 781 through to the 13th century. The site may have been sacred far earlier. A stone inscription from 781 records King Satyavarman restoring a temple damaged by seaborne raiders who had stolen and broken a jewelled mukhalinga, a linga carved with the face of Shiva. He replaced it in 784.
The goddess, and who she is
The presiding deity is Yang Po Inu Nagar, the mother of the land, born in Cham myth from the clouds of the sky and the foam of the sea. Historians have long identified her with Bhagavati, the consort of Shiva, and with Durga.
Inside the main north tower sits a black stone statue of the goddess with ten arms, seated on a lotus pedestal and leaning back against a beast. Separately, carved above a shrine doorway, is a four-armed Durga standing in victory over the buffalo demon Mahisha. Two representations, one seated and one triumphant, of the same idea an Indian visitor recognises instantly.
Above the north tower's entrance, a four-armed Shiva dances between musicians, one of whom rests a foot on the head of Nandi. Elsewhere in the complex there are shrines associated with Shiva and with Ganesha.
This is a living temple, so dress for it
Po Nagar is not a museum. Vietnamese and Cham devotees worship here daily, and the goddess is also venerated in Vietnamese folk religion as Thien Y A Na, a syncretism that developed over centuries. Cover your shoulders and knees. Robes are usually available at the entrance if you need one.
How to Visit Both(My Son Sanctuary + Po Nagar Towers), from India
| My Son Sanctuary | Po Nagar Towers | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Duy Xuyen, Quang Nam. About 40 km from Hoi An, 70 km from Da Nang | Nha Trang, about 2 km north of the city centre |
| What it is | A ruined Shiva sanctuary, UNESCO World Heritage since 1999 | A working Hindu-origin temple, still in daily worship |
| Getting there | Grab, scooter, or a half-day tour from Hoi An. Roughly an hour each way | A short Grab ride from anywhere in Nha Trang |
| Entry | Around 150,000 dong, roughly ₹550. Includes the shuttle between the entrance and the temple groups, and a Cham dance performance | Around 30,000 dong, roughly ₹110 |
| Hours | Typically from around 6am. Go early | Typically 8am to 6pm |
| Time needed | At least two hours | About an hour |
Prices and hours change, so confirm before you travel.
Getting to central Vietnam
Da Nang is the gateway for My Son, and air links from India improved sharply this month. Following bilateral consultations on 17 and 18 September 2026, India and Vietnam agreed to increase air capacity, with the Vietnam News Agency reporting the weekly seat limit rising from 8,000 to 16,800. Airlines now have room to add services, so check schedules even if your city had no convenient option before.
Doing My Son properly
- Go at opening. The valley gets hot and the tour buses arrive mid-morning. The first hour is the quiet one
- Start with Groups B, C and D. These are the best preserved and give you the clearest sense of what a complete Cham temple looked like
- Then walk to Group A. Knowing what stood there changes how the empty foundation feels
- Don't skip Group K. The restored tower and the excavated royal road are the newest part of the story
- Visit the site museum near the ticket office first, for context before you see the ruins
- Carry water and cover up. There is little shade between the groups
Why This Trip Lands Differently for Indian Travellers
You will not need anyone to explain the iconography. You will see a linga and know what it is, recognise Nandi, and catch the Sanskrit rhythm in a king's name carved into a doorpost. Most visitors to My Son are reading an information board. You are reading something closer to family history, written in a language you half know, by people you never knew existed.
And then there is Group A: a 1,600-year-old Shiva sanctuary, destroyed in a war that had nothing to do with it, being rebuilt brick by brick by people who came from the place the idea came from.
Before You Go
My Son sits in a rural valley and Grab coverage thins out once you leave Hoi An, so arrange your return trip before you set off or keep your driver waiting. Offline maps are worth downloading for the whole Quang Nam area.
One quirk of the Vietnam eSIM
The Matrix Vietnam eSIM must be bought no more than 10 days before your travel date, the opposite of the usual buy-early advice. Validity runs 7, 15 or 30 days, and data pauses after 5 GB in a calendar day before resetting. Plans start from ₹999, and your Indian SIM stays in the phone for OTPs.
Browse Matrix Vietnam eSIM plans →
Read Next
- Best Time to Visit Vietnam — central Vietnam is wet from September to November, which matters for My Son
- Tet Festival Vietnam: A Complete Guide
- Vietnam eSIM vs International Roaming
- All Matrix eSIM plans by destination
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there Hindu temples in Vietnam?
Yes. The Champa kingdom built Hindu temples along the central and southern coast from the 4th to the 13th centuries. The most important is My Son Sanctuary near Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Po Nagar in Nha Trang is still in daily worship.
What was the Champa kingdom?
A Hindu kingdom that ruled the coast of present-day central and southern Vietnam for roughly a thousand years. The Cham used Sanskrit as a sacred language, took Indian royal titles, and worshipped Shiva, Vishnu and Ganesha.
Is India restoring temples in Vietnam?
Yes. Under a 2014 memorandum, the Archaeological Survey of India conserved and restored the A, H and K temple groups at My Son. The team worked on site from 2017, and the Embassy of India in Hanoi announced completion in December 2022.
What happened to My Son during the Vietnam War?
Fighters used the ruins as cover and the valley was bombed. Group A was destroyed, including A1, the sanctuary's tallest tower, which had stood for around a thousand years. Bomb craters are still visible on the site.
How do I get to My Son from Hoi An?
It is about 40 km, roughly an hour, by Grab, scooter or half-day tour. From Da Nang it is about 70 km. Arrange your return trip in advance, as ride-hailing is thin in the valley.
How much does My Son cost to enter?
Around 150,000 dong, roughly ₹550, which typically includes the shuttle to the temple groups and a Cham dance performance. Confirm the current price before you go.
Is Po Nagar still an active temple?
Yes. Vietnamese and Cham devotees worship there daily. The goddess is also venerated in Vietnamese folk religion as Thien Y A Na. Cover your shoulders and knees when visiting.
Can I visit both temples on one trip?
Yes, but they are far apart. My Son is near Hoi An and Da Nang in central Vietnam. Po Nagar is in Nha Trang, roughly 500 km further south, usually reached by a short domestic flight or an overnight train.
