Emperor's Tombs

The DMZ (De-Militarized Zone Tour) we'd booked on was unfortunately cancelled, but this meant we were able to do visit the tombs of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945) instead. They were built to house the Emperors during their last few years, and are extremely impressive buildings. There's a huge emphasis on death and burial in the Buddhist religion because they believe in reincarnation...so the better "send-off" a person gets, the more likely they will return as something better in the next life.




The Khai Dinh tomb was probably my favourite...it had a really impressive Honour Courtyard filled with concrete mandarins (like guards or servants), horses and elephants. I was trying to fit in.

Next we went to the Minh Mang tomb (the oldest one), and finally Tu Duc tomb. This guy had 104 wives, and not a single child!! Serves him right....







On the way back we stopped at a temple and pagoda, and saw some very colourful incense sticks!