PoNagar Temple Tower in Nha Trang

PoNagar is a temple tower of Cham people, situated on a small hill with a height of about 10-12 meters above sea level, at the mouth of the Cai River ( Nha Trang River ) in Nha Trang, about 2 kilometers from the city center. This temple was built during Hindu was being in prosperous period called "Hoan Vuong Quoc" so that the statue has the shape of Umar - the wife of Shiva.

Made of baked brick. The tower was built into 4 floors, each floor has a door, statues and stone animals, in the 4 corners have 4 small towers that create highly original contours. The biggest tower worships Goddess Ponagar (Cham language mean country mother).
The statue was made of marble, the lotus shape lamp support was put on the stone pedestal, the statue's back against the large stones shaped leave. The statue has a height of 260 centimeters. The contours on the statue's body is vivid, strong. Full breasts is full of life and wrinkles on the stomach is heaving like the breath.


The overall architecture of PoNagar with 3 floors, from bottom to top.

Low floor: Equal ground is the gate of the tower which now no longer exists. From there there are stone steps leading up to the mesosphere.

Middle floor: This place is only two octagonal main colonnade of brick, each side has five columns with a diameter of more than 1 meter and a height of more than 3 meters . Based on this structure, they thought: this was a large building with tile roof, a place for pilgrims have a short break and prepare gift before offering to shrines. From this middle floor, there is a range of brick stairs leading the top floor.

Top floor: Where the towers were built, right in front of the main tower.



According to the legend, Po Ina Nagar is a goddess created by the clouds in the sky and sea foam. She created the earth, produced valuable woods, trees and rice. She has 97 husbands, in which Po Yan Amo who was respected the best. She has 38 daughters, all transformed into the goddesses, including three who were chosen as the land protection god for Cham people and worshiped to this day: Po Nagar Dara - Goddess Kauthara ( Khanh Hoa province); Po Rarai Anaih - Goddess Panduranga ( Ninh Thuan provinve) và Po Bia Tikuk - Goddess Manthit (Phan Thiet province).