What to Explore at The Champa Sculpture Museum?

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bao tang champaCham sculpture museum in Danang is an evidence of champa history in central Vietnam.There are various exhibitions that you will discover when you come here.This historical destination is a pride of our S-shaped country about diverse culture with mutiple ethnics. Nowadays, Cham-pa people do not exist in our country but the history still maintain with fascinating stories to learn and preserve. Do not hesitate travel here when you are in Danang.

1.Overview about Cham sculpture museum in Danang.

Cham museum was first introduced to visitors in 1919 after many years in construction. Fascinating histories have attracted locals and inernational travelers visit. Through the expansions and innovcations, the museum is the must to do list to discover Danang besides famous landscapes like beaches, pagodas, mountains, resorts, tropical hills, etc…The flourish history of Cham-pa people in Vietnam will impress your knowdge of ancient history.

The total square of Danang scuplture museum is 6,673 square meters, it represents as the largest exhibition of Champa cultural artifacts. This place has two important areas to discover such as 2,000 square meters for displaying the ancient relics, the rest area shows the collection of pictures and documents of Cham culture.

Note: This is one of the places included in Explore’s Da Nang 4 days itinerary

2.Where to find Cham sculpture museum in Danang?

Locating in the centre of Danang, it is very closed to Han River bank and situates in the corner of Bach Dang and Trung Nu Vuong streets. You will find the museum quickly when you enter this beautiful central coast. This attraction is one of the largest cham museums of Vietnam. Visitors have found many impressions of hard works from governmental authority to preserve this tourist attraction.

Location: No.02, 2/9 Street, Binh Hien Ward, Hai Chau District, Da Nang City, Vietnam

3.Champa kingdom history in central Vietnam

Vietnam has rich history with thousand years of civilization. It is interesting to learn and share the culture when we travel. Although our country nowadays develops with mordern infrastructures but the government never forget to maintain and presere ancient heritages for visitors.

Champa king dom appeared in Vietnam in 192 AD and had different names such as Lin-Yi, Huang Wang and Chang-Chen. It is stretched from south of Ngang Pass in Quang Binh province to the delta area of Dong Nai River in Binh Thuan province. With the influences of Hinduism, the Champa kingdom was a federation of several smaller states called Mandala and comprised several ethnic groups.

The most wonderful legacy that Champa kingdom are built by brick temples and towers which are scattered over the coastal lowlands and highlands. The structures date from between 7^th and 8^th centuries to the 16^th and 17^th centuries. They are concentrated in Quang Nam, Danang, Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan.

4.Historical highlights of Cham sculpture museum in Danang

The Cham museum in Danang was built in Cham architectural style, visitors will be impressed the hardwork to preserve this building from the local authority and labor workers. The museum displays a wide range of statue collection from the 7^th to 15^th centuries.

Although the construction began in 1915 offically but the government initially introduced to the public about the foundation of museum of cham sculptute at the end of 19^th century by Ecole Francaise d’Extreme Orient ( EFEO). The exhibition of artifacts were showed from Cham temples to towers streching throughout central Vietnam, from Quang Binh to Binh Dinh province. Then they were displayed at Le Jardin de Tourane park on a small hill by Han river.

Significant hightlights about the history of Cham scuplture museum in Danang below:

1915:

This is the first time that museum was officially in the construction with the purposes of maintaining and preserving the vestiges of Champa civilization.

1919:

The museum finally opened to the public for visitors came and explored Cham-pa culture.

1930:

The museum went through the first expansion due to the various of excavated antiquities. In addition, the galleries and sculptures also configured in names after locations.

2002:

The second expansion of museum began. It added a storage area, restoration workshop, research rooms and exhibition rooms.

2011:

Proudly, the museum was recognised as a “ first class museum” in Vietnam, It affirmed that the museum contributed to a rich historical preserve of Champa culture.

2016:

The museum again went through rennovation periods rom the government, it is deisgned and maintained with orginal styles of Champa kingdom. The refurbished building displays with new amenities such as education center, reception hall, auditorium, thematic exhibition rooms, and a souvenir shop, etc…

5. Entrance Fee in Cham sculpture museum in Danang

Similar to other tourist attractions, you will have to purchase the entrance fee to enter Cham Scuplture museum. The price is 60,000 VNĐ ( 2,5 USD) per adult. Especially if you are a local student in vietnam you will get a discount so do not forget to bring your student card when you tend to visit the museum. Additionally, you should pay attention to openning hours at the museum, it offical welcome tourist from 7:30am to 5:00pm daily.

At Cham museum, you can book extra services such as audio guide or human guide at the ticket center. It will provide a memorable and comprehensive trip to your vacation.

Human guide:

At this destination, if you travel with a group more than 5 people, you can book a local guide to share you the knowledge when you enter to the museum. The languages which local guides can speak basically will be English or French. You can freely ask questions to the local guides directly.

Available hours are from 7:30am to 11:00am and from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. Kindly note that you should book at least 3 days in advance if your group requires a French or English Speaking Guide.

Audio guide:

Digital world is growing fast nowadays, and the government also has invested to audio guides with various languages to visitors who want to disover attraction by themselves. At Cham museum, you must follow 3 steps when you purchase an audio guide ticket below:

Step 1: You should log in museum’s wifi.

Step 2: Visit the domain: https://chamaudio.com

Step 3: Choose your preferrred language such as Vietnamese, English or French. Then, you can listen the history of Cham Museum by clicking on the image of the objects that rouses your curiousity. Or you even can scan the barcode attached to the ojects.

6.What to do in Cham sculpture museum in Danang

6.1 Discovering unique artifacts at museum.

French architectural designs influenced widely to Vietnam’s ancient buildings because of the history of colonization. Orginally, Cham museum was designed by two French architects, Delaval and Auclai. The museum constructed completely based on ideas and suggestions of Henri Parmentier, chairman of the Department of Archeology of the EFEO Instittution. The impression of Cham museum is the blend between classical Europen Gothic design and Cham traditional art.

The distinct pyramid-shaped roof is one of the hightlight influences from Champa temples. Although it has gone to some renovations but the museum still maintains many artifacts until today, even after 100 years. The rich of historical values at this attraction really fascinating and interesting to discover.

6.2. Visiting various exhibiion rooms

Various exhibition rooms provide large knowledge in past time of Champa ethnic in Vietnam to visitors. Nowadays, the museum maintain more than 2000 cultural artifacts but only 500 antiques are showed as the rest are carefully stored at the warelhouse.

The champa museum welcomes everyone to discover hundred of relics include national treasures. The materials to make scupltural works are sandstone, terracotta, metal, etc….The artifacts are widely showed with variations on several central themes of Hindu and Buddhist gods, which reflect a deverse cultural and religious life of ancient Champa people in central Vietnam.

6.3 Exploring national treasures

An excellent opportunity to visit Cham museum in Danang is learning and exploring national treasures. There are currently six antiques such as My Son E1 altar, Tra Kieu altar, Tara Bodhisattva statue, Dong Duong altar, Ghanesa statue, and Gajasimha. This is the pride achievements of the government to maintain and preserve these mystery arts.

How to get to Cham Sculpture museum?

Traveling to Cham Sculpture museum is easy because of the prime geographgy. There are several ways to visit this attraction such as motorbike, car, cyclo or even walking. It depends on your travel conditions; you definitely have to choose the best transfer method.

Traffic in Danang is not busltle like other big cities such ad Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city so you do not worry about the chaos. If you prefer to learn about the history and culture of Vietnam in general and Danang in particular, do not hestitate to book our tour Danang 4 days itinerary. We believe you will be guided of professional local guide with full of knowledge about Danang and central Vietnam.

Conclusion:

Champa Sculpture museum preserves the rich history of a special ethnic in Vỉetnam, you will regret if you miss this destination in Danang. The diversity of artifacts at the museum are waiting you to visit and learn about our ancient ethnic people. This division is easy for you to visit and easily recognize the unique features of Cham architecture in each locality.