Today we went to a place called My Son. On the way there, we saw a lot of cows with rings in their noses. When we got there we saw a lot of broken down temples and columns that had bullet marks in them. It was very interesting. My Son was created in the 4th century, so the place is 1,700 years old. The city temple was built at the base of a holy mountain. The people believed that their prayers could only get to the gods if their temples were at the bottom of a mountain or at the very top.
The people who lived there were called the Champa. These people followed the Hindu religion so lots of the gods you see on the buildings are Hindu gods like the elephant god named Ganesh, and the god with lots of arms (I don't know his name.)
When I first saw the buildings it reminded me of Indiana Jones because everything was broken down and had lots of plants growing on it. It was really cool. The guy who was telling us about the temples was a bit of a character. He was really funny and wacky. He told us all of the buildings were built by slaves, and the temples used to have gold roofs, but not anymore. My favourite temple was one with live bats on the ceiling.
Lots of the heads of statues are gone because the French archaeologists took them in the 1920's and put them in the museums in France.
There was a really weird sculpture of something they called a "Linga". (Ronato's words: this was somewhat embarrassing to Pippin - but I am sure you can see that the shape is a male phalus. Fertility symbolism was huge all over the temple complex)
This is sculpture where Kai is standing with another one without a head that the French archaeologists took. It was really stupid that they took them.
These are rice paddies that we saw when we were going to My Son. They were really cool because we don't see them in Canada. They were a beautiful lime green colour.
This is a picture of Ni and I when she made my traditional Chinese dress. I chose the silk fabric. I love my new dress. She was very nice.
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