Old-Time Vietnam – The Citadel and the Imperial Palace
I woke at 7:30 and had breakfast at the hostel. Breakfast was an egg pancake (they called it an omelet), a bread roll, some fruits and coffee with milk. At that point in my trip I still wondered, at every Vietnamese meal, why it was that no matter how simple the meal was, it always tasted so heavenly. Surely that it was the best breakfast, but perhaps I would only have one egg from then on.
When I asked about transportation to the Imperial Palace, the lady told me to walk. On Google Map it said 22 minutes, but I wanted to take a grab bike. I anticipated lots of walking within the sites, and I should preserve my energy for the most worthy cause.
There was no bike around so I headed out on foot. About ten minutes later a driver hollered and I got on the bike right away.
The ride to the Citadel was so cool. To get to the entrance at the Noon Gate (Ngo Mon), we had to ride on a bridge. The Citadel gradually came into view, dreamily, like in a filming lens. My imagination fused into the reeling rolls of time. At this morning hour the sun was behind us. Against the bright morning rays the Citadel was black. Its brazen darkness seemed to bespeak the rise and fall of Vietnam in modern history, from a dynastic beginning to colonialism; from a war of ideology to the uneasy peace under communist rule. The Citadel stood proud and strong against the tides of history, and within an all-around moat called the Golden Water Canal, the imperial enclosure welcomed the visitors with its glory and its wounds, both of which were amply visible, and authentically so.
At this very flag tower, the U.S. national flag once flew, albeit only momentarily. The U.S. marines reclaimed control of Hue (only with hard-fought battles) following the Tet Offensive of 1968. In an act of defiance, a soldier hoisted the United States flag here. The U.S. officials ordered the national flag to be taken down very soon after.
At Ngo Mon, the Noon Gate, I entered into the Imperial Enclosure. It was a beautiful day and women in traditional Vietnamese ao dai posed for photographs.
Construction of the Noon Gate completed under the reign of Emperor Minh Mang in 1833. As with all other gates in Vietnam, only the Emperor may enter through the central entrance. The smaller gates on the two sides were for the mandarins. This practice has remained so today, meaning that all of the central gates of imperial structures are shut. There is no longer an Emperor to speak of for Vietnam. I, of course, entered via the side gates.
Photo: The central gate of the Noon Gate at the Imperial Enclosure remains shut.
Emperor Gia Long was the founding emperor of the Nguyen (the Vietnamese pronounce this surname as “Win”) Dynasty. In 1802, he ordered the construction of the Citadel. The structures of Hue’s Imperial Palace would model after the Forbidden City in Beijing. Construction completed in 1833. The result was a magnificent palace compound with 300 original buildings. War and natural disasters have done irreversible destruction on the structures. By now, only 80 of the original 300 buildings remained. And even the 80 structures were in ruins.
I first visited the Palace of Supreme Harmony. A tour guide was giving an introduction to a group in Mandarin. The Vietnamese Emperor used to receive the mandarins here in the throne room. In the middle of the Hall, all goods on display were the original, with the exception of the top décor, what used to be a golden canopy. The French took everything of value when they left. They took not the royal sedan, but the golden canopy above the throne. The canopy on display now has 2kg’s worth of plated gold. The royal sedan chair, on the other hand, was rather small. This would comport with the fact that Vietnamese Emperors of those days were men of short statures.
According to the Lonely Planet, the Vietnamese Emperor actually rarely showed himself to his officials, “thus feeding the aura of mystery so closely associated with imperial power.”
With regards to restoration, the nonexistence of blueprints for the buildings made it exceedingly difficult. Also, because it was an imperial residence, few pictures, if any, existed.
The tour guide also said certain things about Vietnamese history of which I could not be sure. He said that Vietnam was always divided north-south (since the 16th century). Only until Ho Chi Minh, who with his communist campaigns called for a united, independent and sovereign Vietnam, did Vietnam become one country.
It would become relevant again in a later entry, when I would be touring the Vietnamese Emperor’s reading room. The tour guide also told the group that there were no written word of Vietnamese in all of ancient Vietnam. The written word then was always Chinese (as shown in the Emperor’s reading room). The first written Vietnamese appeared in 1651, and only until the French romanized it in the 19th century did it become a systematically written language.
That was all that I took from the tour guide by eavesdropping, but these were very much loaded historical facts to me. So I departed and went westward to visit the Emperor’s Mother’s quarter, Dien Tho.
Photos: The Palace of Supreme Harmony (Thai Hoa Palace) and its front courtyard.
Source
The Lonely Planet on Vietnam.