Original subtitles

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

(dramatic music)

I'm Christopher Clark,

and I'm traveling the world to discover its true treasures,

the UNESCO World Heritage sites.

I'm in Southeast Asia exploring the unique flora

and fauna in this corner of the world

and the roots of the deep spirituality

that shaped the local cultures.

It's impossible to separate the spectacular architecture

from the region's religious movements

or from the great empires that rose

and fell here throughout the centuries.

Southeast Asia has a very special kind of magic.

Its natural wonders and the secrets of the civilizations

that arose here over the centuries are a big part of that.

The diversity of peoples and languages,

of religions and temples, is absolutely fascinating.

This is where two major cultures meet,

the Indian and the Chinese.

Perhaps that's the reason

for the region's irresistible allure.

And that's what I hope to find out.

I want to show you this vast treasure of human heritage.

I'm setting out to explore its roots

and discover what remains today

and what needs to be preserved.

I will eventually had to Bali on this journey,

but first I'm traveling to a country

in the space between India and China.

I'll visit fascinating Vietnam

and practically unspoiled Laos.

But first, my journey takes me to Cambodia,

which was home to one of this planet's

most astounding civilizations.

(gentle music)

As we approached the ruins through the jungle,

I know how Frenchman Henri Mouhot must have felt

back in 1860 when he came to Angkor Wat.

His descriptions made it well known to the Western world.

Today, it's a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The famous Angkor Wat is not a palace,

it's a temple dedicated to the God, Vishnu.

Loosely translated, the name means

a city made into a temple.

And in fact, Angkor Wat is the largest

sacred structure ever built.

It's larger than St. Peter's Basilica

or the Inca temples of South America.

The apsaras, the temple dancers,

and the devatas, female guardians,

still watch over this holy place today.

Child monks still use the site for ceremonies and blessings.

The entire architectural complex

breathes the spirit of sacred rituals.

The visitor cannot help but feel small

before these immense structures.

Angkor Wat the temple is an artistic highlight

of the indigenous Khmer culture.

And Angkor the city was a center of the mighty Khmer empire.

Nowadays, these ancient buildings are taken over,

at least in the daylight hours,

by hoards of monkeys and tourists.

In the early hours of the morning,

we're lucky enough to have this enormous jungle

cathedral all to ourselves for a little while.

The towers designed to look like Lotus blossoms

and the long galleries represent the order of the cosmos.

The rulers of this place believed

that they were at the center of the universe.

Hinduism was the main religion of the Khmer.

The idea of the devaraja or God Kings comes from that faith.

The rulers saw themselves as incarnations of the God Vishnu,

and this meant that they were protectors of their people

and allowed them certain freedoms,

but could also demand complete devotion.

Religion was a tool of power for them

as so often in human history.

And these temples are evidence of that fact.

But who was behind all of this?

Which ruler placed himself on an equal footing with God?

There's an image of him in Angkor Wat

depicted in a relief.

King Suryavarman II ascended to the throne in 1,113

when he was no more than 20 years old.

He expanded the influence of Angkor,

then known as Cambodia, by waging war against its neighbors

and transforming the city around the temple

into a bustling metropolis.

(dramatic music)

The temple was a place of central importance to the Khmer.

This is where they all came together.

And these bas-reliefs were instruments

not only of religious instruction, but also of propaganda

and the projection of power.

They were supposed to edify a mostly illiterate people

to teach them how to live virtuously.

But they're also a platform for the emperor

to exhibit his power, his heroic feats,

and his enormous wealth.

The sheer size of ancient Angkor is astonishing.

The temple's layout was meticulously planned

by priests and astrologers.

Angkor was the leading global city of its era

and the largest pre-industrial settlement on earth.

Up to a million people are believed to have lived here.

But what do we really know about

the day-to-day life in Angkor?

Zhou Daguan, a Chinese diplomat

and a contemporary of Marco Polo,

was sent to Angkor in 1297

as part of an Imperial delegation.

He wrote down everything he saw,

and his notes are our only evidence

of what Angkor was like during its golden age.

So how did the people here live their lives,

and what does that tell us about their culture?

The people of Angkor lived in wooden houses,

only the temples were made of stone

built to last for eternity.

Every temple was reflected in a pool of water,

a symbol intended to evoke the primeval ocean.

Holy sites were always designed in perfect symmetry,

and the tallest of the five towers

in the middle of the complex

represented the Holy Meru mountain,

the center of their world.

Angkor was not a sad place according to Zhou Daguan,

and the reliefs we can still find an Angkor today

around 800 years later bear out his observation.

Here is a cheerful market scene,

a pig roasting at an inn.

The imagery suggests that Khmer men were the ones

doing the cooking, the women performed other tasks.

(upbeat music)

The descendants of the Khmer

live in the surrounding villages,

where they cultivate grain and vegetables

and breed livestock.

They live together as extended families,

and even today you get the impression that the women

play the leading role as they did back in the era

of the old Khmer when the kings still reigned.

Not only do they raise the children,

they also organize the entire community

and tend to the animals.

In the late 13th century, a new king,

Jayavarman VII, also brought a new religion to Angkor.

Buddhism.

Even today, next to the Bayon temple

commissioned by the King, there's a monastery

inhabited primarily by child monks,

and benevolent Buddha faces carved into the towers

of the holy site smile down on all beneath them.

Jayavarman built his own temple,

and so did all the other rulers of Angkor,

which is why there's no shortage of them here.

(gentle music)

The reliefs on the exterior walls

depict the construction of the temples of Angkor

over the centuries.

They were very proud of this work.

There were great builders and engineers among the Khmer.

How was it even possible to erect these temples

in the middle of the Cambodian jungle?

The Khmer were gifted engineers

and they did a little trick.

They used laterite to construct the temple.

When the stone is wet, it's easy to work with.

It hardens quickly, and once it does,

it lasts for an eternity.

That's one reason why we can still admire Angkor Wat

and the other temples today.

Of course, this porous stone isn't particularly pretty.

So when the temple was complete,

a sandstone facade was added to the entire structure

to make it worthy of the God Vishnu.

(dramatic music)

Many vivid colors and a lot of gold

added to the spectacular power of this Holy place.

Since the city was abandoned,

nature has been reclaiming the territory

that the Khmer once wrested from the jungle's grasp.

This is particularly evident in Ta Prohm,

a temple the King commissioned for his mother.

Roots enfold the masonry like the tentacles

of an enormous kraken, compressing it as they grow.

Although this was a Buddhist temple,

we still find motifs from the time

when Hinduism dominated Angkor.

It's a connection between the eras and the religions

likely arising from the tolerance and respect

the Khmer held for their ancestors

who still worshiped the God Vishnu.

Strangler figs and silk cotton trees captured Ta Prohm.

Botanists have found more than 150 species of tree

in the temple complex alone.

Many devatas watch over the temple,

which was constructed in the late 12th century

as a monastery.

Over 12,000 people lived in the temple district.

The surrounding villages had to serve the King's mother

and her royal monastery.

To get a sense of the former size of the city of Angkor,

you really need to take to the skies.

We lifted off in a tethered balloon.

It wasn't until just a few years ago

that researchers discovered just how massive

Angkor actually was.

(dramatic music)

All of this was Angkor.

The extent of the city corresponded roughly

to the size of today's Berlin.

(gentle music)

Using laser satellite imagery,

a team of researchers from France and Australia

was able to determine just how big the largest metropolis

of the middle ages actually was.

And they made an exact map.

Every overgrown ruin,

every trace of human development was recorded.

It was a sensational project.

A carefully planned and well connected city became visible.

Every block was separated from the next

by a street or a canal.

The two enormous water basins are particularly eye-catching.

For the Khmer, they were more than just symbols

of the primeval ocean, they were also,

and perhaps more importantly, a reservoir

for irrigating rice fields.

Angkor's wealth came mainly from rice farming.

These immense waterworks, reservoirs, dams, and canals

were just as central to Khmer culture as their temples.

But their true dimensions really only become apparent

when you cross them by boat.

This eight kilometer-long water basin collected the monsoon

flood waters from the mountains for use in the fields.

And the entire city was supplied with water from here

via stone canals,

an impressive feat by the 12th and 13th century engineers.

They were incredibly creative architects.

The Khmer knew a lot about water management,

explains Hang Peou Byo, hydrologist of the region.

The water played the role very important

for the stability of the temple.

So it mean all the Khmer temple

built based on the water.

The Khmer don't have the technique to make the foundation.

And the soil, it's very soft soil,

this cannot support very heavy load.

So the way they discovered just to combine

the technique in between the sand and water.

And we can experience by ourselves

to know how strong it is about the sand and water

when we go on the beach.

When we go on the beach,

you can walk through the path where the sand is very solid.

Your foot never sink.

But the part that's in dry, your foot will be sink.

So they used a kind of a technique

to support our heavy temple.

One of the last Khmer rulers is rumored to have said,

"When the water around this temple disappears,

our city's end is nigh."

The powerful empire collapsed in the early 15th century.

Climate change was one of the reasons why the Khmer

had to leave this wonderful place

they'd created for themselves.

But megalomania and extensive human destruction

of the surrounding natural world

were also part of the problem.

Angkor is a reminder of our own impermanence.

My next destination is Cambodia's neighbor, Laos,

and the city of Luang Prabang,

a UNESCO World Heritage site.

(dramatic music)

The vast Mekong River will carry me there.

At more than 4,000 kilometers,

it is Southeast Asia's longest river

and the region's lifeline.

The river peacefully winds its way through jungle landscapes

and steep canyons into Laos,

the former kingdom established in the 14th century.

Even here on the river,

it already feels like we're traveling

into another world and another era.

100 years ago when British explorer James McCarthy

first saw the temple roofs of the city

of Luang Prabang from afar,

he thought for a few seconds that he was witnessing

a celestial phenomenon.

Yet when he docked his boat and entered the city,

he was filled with a deep melancholy,

because even then he realized that this was a world

that belonged to the past.

And yet it still exists today.

In Luang Prabang we can experience another era.

UNESCO named Luang Prabang a World Heritage site

because it is actually one of the only cities

in Southeast Asia that has been so well-maintained

and preserved through turbulent centuries.

Over the last 25 years,

the temples and houses have been painstakingly restored

using traditional techniques,

all under the strict supervision of UNESCO.

The buildings here are constructed

in a highly distinctive style.

(upbeat music)

The richness of Luang Prabang architecture

reflects the mix of styles and materials in this region.

The restoration has breathed new life

into this remarkable place.

The people in Luang Prabang are still proud that their city

was once the Royal residence and the capital of Laos.

But during the civil war of the 1960s and 70s,

communist troops entered the city and carted the Monarch

and his family off to a reeducation camp.

It's believed that the King and his wife died there.

Today, life is tranquil in the secluded Mekong Valley

where Luang Prabang is nestled.

Mass tourism hasn't yet transformed

this corner of the world, but Chinese tourism is growing,

and Laos is at risk of slowly losing

its distinctive character.

It's hard to imagine that this place

was once a Southeast Asian powerhouse.

Serpent symbols can be found everywhere in Laos.

They are believed to protect the inhabitants of buildings.

And the elephants are referenced

to the name of the ancient empire.

Luang Prabang was the capital of Lang Xang,

the powerful empire of the million elephants

and the seat of the kings of Laos for centuries.

The country was founded by Fa Ngum.

The son of royal rulers, Fa Ngum was born with 33 teeth.

Consequently, he was thought to be cursed

and was abandoned on the Mekong River.

A Khmer king found him and raised him as his own.

As a young man, Fa Ngum returned to his homeland,

conquered all the small principalities in this region,

established the kingdom of Laos,

and spread the word of Buddha.

(dramatic music)

Buddhism still dominates the atmosphere

in Luang Prabang today.

(gong ringing)

The gong dictates the pace of the monks' lives,

the beginning and end of their work, prayers, and meals.

There are about 40 Buddhist monasteries here,

but this one, Wat Xieng Thong, is the most important.

It's centered on an ordination hall built in 1560.

Frowning eaves sweep low to the ground.

We're speaking with a young monk.

How did Buddhism come to this place in Laos?

(Pha speaking in foreign language)

Buddhism arrived with King Fa Ngum

in the 14th century, and with him came the prabang,

the most important likeness of Buddha in Laos.

It gave the city its name

and is still in our monastery today.

(Christopher speaking in foreign language)

(gong ringing)

(gentle music)

Wat Xieng Thong means temple of the golden city.

This is where the kings of Laos were crowned,

and today it is the country's most sacred

Buddhist Holy site.

The temple was founded by King Setthathirat.

It survived all the wars of conquest, lootings,

and pillages Luang Prabang has seen over the centuries.

Many Buddhist believers are convinced

that the serpent God who resides where the Mekong

and Nam Can Rivers meet protects the sanctuary.

There are patterned teak wood pillars supporting the roof.

They are stenciled in gold on red or black lacquer

with floral motifs, animals,

scenes of daily life, and Buddhist tales.

On one of the walls, a depiction of the heavens

with the Buddha and several deities,

the earth, with people and trees.

Sitting on an elaborate pedestal

is the principal image of Buddha in the Bhumisparsha mudra,

his right hand touching the earth.

A very special exception has been made for us.

We've been permitted to attend a religious service

for the monastery's monks and initiates.

Many male Laotians join a monastery

for at least some period of their lives.

At an early age, they learn Buddhist rituals

such as the ancient chants and the sutras,

but they also attend a regular school.

In fact, for many of them, joining a monastery

is their only option for education,

especially if they come from rural areas.

And life far away from home is not easy for the novices.

Most of them can visit their families only once a year.

It's impossible to imagine Southeast Asia without Buddhism.

Buddhism sets the pace of life in this part of the world,

and that's especially palpable here in Luang Prabang.

Since its founding in the 14th century,

the city has been a religious center for all Buddhists.

And you can't help but feel that Buddha,

who influences every aspect of life here,

has been elevated to the status of a God.

Although he never saw himself that way.

(gentle music)

At daybreak, monks from all the city's monasteries

head out to participate in a Buddhist ritual.

This tradition has lived on in Luang Prabang for centuries.

The ritual is known as tak bat.

The monks walk the streets barefoot

accepting rice from the city's residents.

The donors acquire spiritual merit

and feel closer to Buddha.

(upbeat music)

In a part of the world where mass tourism

has for the most part swept everything before it,

Luang Prabang really is an intact enclave from another time.

As I leave Laos,

I become aware of the fragility of these places

and of the spirit that breathes life into them.

My journey through the infinite diversity

of Southeast Asia continues.

My next destination is the world's largest

island nation, Indonesia.

The island of Bali in the Indian ocean

is also part of this country.

It's home to an overwhelmingly Hindu society

in a predominantly Muslim state.

This is a world of volcanoes, lush rainforests,

and carefully cultivated rice terraces.

Rice cultivation was invented in China

at least 8,000 years ago,

and it made its way to the Indonesian islands

via trading routes.

Even in the earliest documents discovered in Bali,

rice cultivation is mentioned

as a vital source of subsistence for the island.

The fertile volcanic soil offers ideal conditions,

but rice still needs abundant water to grow.

And water is sacred to the Balinese.

(people chanting)

The ceremonies held in the days before the Balinese

new year festivities are a living example of this belief.

Immersion in water is believed to purify the soul

and to free it from sin.

The sea is one source of purification and healing.

And in the Balinese hills,

an ancient system of cascading terraces and dykes,

known as subaks, captures rain and spring water,

preserving, controlling, and distributing it

for the rice terraces used by the farming cooperatives.

But the subaks are more than an irrigation system.

They are a form of communal social organization,

bound together with shared duty and festivities.

An entire culture evolved around this idea

centered on the meticulous joint management

of a precious natural resource.

And today, the subaks of Bali

are a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Pulau dewata, the island of the gods,

is what the Balinese call their home.

And they say that the gods provide the water

that flows in abundance on this island.

The islanders make rich offerings to their gods

to ensure their favor so that the springs never run dry.

You can find temples at many of the springs

and water reservoirs on the island,

more than 20,000 in total.

Temples to local deities, state temples of former kingdoms,

and temples dedicated to animal gods

like the holy monkey king, Hanuman.

For Indian Hindus, too,

Hanuman is one of the reincarnations of Shiva

is among the most important deities.

The bat temple Pura Gow Lawah

is considered one of Bali's most important holy sites.

At its heart is a cave that is home to thousands of bats.

According to Balinese belief,

the cave that leads deep into the mountain

forms a connection with the underworld.

Since the 11th century,

the Balinese have held ceremonies here

in the hope of making contact with the souls

of their departed ancestors.

As we can see, the temples of Bali

are more than just relics of a past era.

They are the site of opulent celebrations

where countless offerings are carried to the temple

protected by ceremonial parasols.

The ceremonies perform the idea of harmony

between the worshipers, gods, nature,

and the whole of humanity.

The offerings consist of up to 300

different types of plants and fruits.

First they're presented to the deities in a procession,

then served up on the altars.

(upbeat music)

Gods and departed ancestors descend from heaven

to the earthly temples to be celebrated.

After 10 days, they return to heaven.

(gentle music)

With these tributes received,

the gods of Bali will continue to ensure

that the monsoons keep the rice fields fertile

and the sacred water never stops flowing from the springs.

This Balinese approach to life is thousands of years old,

but today it is more modern than ever

because it treats nature not as a reserve to be exploited

and consumed, but as a force in its own right,

and an equal partner.

The island worlds of Southeast Asia,

where the Pacific and Indian oceans meet,

are among this planet's greatest natural wonders.

I'm on my way to Vietnam, to Ha Long Bay

with its spectacular limestone formations

that rose from the water over 300 million years ago.

(gentle music)

Lush vegetation blankets these uninhabited islands,

some of which jut hundreds of meters out of the water.

A number of the dense jungles are home

to plants that can only be found here.

But the idyllic atmosphere is deceptive.

Storms and hurricanes have sunk many ships

and claimed many lives.

The bay can be dangerous,

but its strangeness and beauty are breathtaking.

The Vietnamese love myths and legends,

and the story of this bay is no exception.

Ha Long means something like the dragon from the mountains.

As the story goes, this dragon saved the Vietnamese people

when they were once again under threat

from Northern invaders.

The Vietnamese were facing defeat in a sea battle

when the Jade Emperor God sent a whole family of dragons

to assist them in the bay.

The dragons rained fire on their enemies

and spat enormous jagged emeralds into the bay,

driving off the invaders.

Those emeralds became the 3000 islands we now see here.

I'm looking for the families of the fishermen

who make their home on Ha Long Bay.

They live on houseboats connected to one another by planks

to create a floating village.

The Vietnamese authorities would prefer to

relocate these fishermen to dry land,

but the villagers love the freedom of living on the water,

and they have done for hundreds of years.

Each village is an independent entity.

This particular community does not admit tourists,

and visitors are a rarity.

(gentle music)

The floating villages are their own little world.

A fisherman's family has invited us in.

We're only meeting the men.

The women are too shy.

Smartphones are rare here,

and televisions are nowhere to be found.

When they aren't out fishing,

they tell each other stories or play cards.

(Christopher speaking in foreign language)

And what about the next generation?

Your little boy, for example.

Will the next generation of your family

be able to live on the water as you have?

Life here isn't easy, but we love it.

And I hope my children and grandchildren will feel the same.

When you are away from this place, you miss it.

We used to live in Bahang,

but the fishing grounds are better here.

We hope that future generations will

be able to make a living here.

(gentle music)

As we leave, I have to wonder how much longer

this archaic floating world will actually survive.

Because the bay is under threat.

Modern Vietnam could really use those dragons again today

for an entirely different rescue mission.

The bay is currently under threat from extreme pollution.

In the floating village, the fishermen told me

that they often catch more plastic garbage

than fish in the nets.

And untreated wastewater from industrial plants

and ships flows directly into the bay.

I'm speaking to Tran Van Hien

from the Ha Long Institute for Environmental Research

to find out what's being done to solve these problems.

We want to preserve the magic

of Ha Long Bay for generations to come.

So there's only one strategy.

We need to place very strict limits

on the number of ships allowed into the bay,

as well as on the locations that tourists

are permitted to visit.

UNESCO named the bay a World Heritage site

and has commissioned a range of programs

to support the efforts to rescue this unique ecosystem.

We can only hope that they'll succeed.

Ha Long is also a world of caves and grottoes

that formed in the limestone karsts over millions of years.

Many legends have grown up around

these often enormous caves,

stories of good and evil spirits said to live in them,

and of the Mandarin who held young girls captive

in his grotto.

(gentle music)

It's just a little eerie all alone in this cave.

There are thousands of such caves around Ha Long Bay.

And in many of them, you can hear the same sound.

Can you hear it?

(cave rumbling)

It's like the rumor of distant drums.

And legend has it that these are the echoes

of ancient battles of which there've been

so many in Vietnamese history.

During the last Vietnam war,

Vietnamese soldiers would often hide in such caves

to protect themselves from American air raids.

And Central Vietnam is the home of the world's

largest cave complex, the Hang Son Doong cave,

which was discovered in 1990.

Today it's a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site.

The cave is located in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park

in a wild, primeval mountain landscape.

The limestone karst formed 400 million years ago.

It's one of the oldest in Asia.

The landscape is dominated by dense tropical jungles

and little rivers.

(mysterious music)

Hang Son Doong cave is nine kilometers long

and up to to 200 meters high at some points.

You could fit Cologne Cathedral inside it.

Enormous stalactites alternate with cave pearls

formed by dripping water.

(gentle music)

A local man discovered the cave in 1991

when he was collecting wood in the jungle.

He noticed steam curling out of a crack in the rock

and assumed there must be a hollow space behind it.

As he moved deeper into the jungle,

he eventually discovered the entrance,

not knowing of course that he had just found

the largest cave in the world.

Exploration of the cave is still far from complete,

and it may turn out to be connected to

other caves in the national park.

Some of the neighboring caves were sacred to the Cham people

who lived here in the ninth and 10th centuries.

Remnants of altars where the Cham worshiped their gods

have been found here.

And it's easy to understand why they chose these spots.

Everything here feels otherworldly.

It's amazing how little is yet known

about the plant life in Hang Son Doong.

Plants have been discovered that only exist here,

ferns, palms, and other jungle species

that have never been seen before.

When you leave the cool, mysterious and musty world

of the Vietnamese caves,

it's a relief to be back in the sunlight.

But at the same time, you want to go back,

because you have the feeling that there might have been

something new to discover just around the next corner.

After the solitude of the caves,

I'm actually looking forward to a bit of city life.

I'm traveling to the old Imperial town of Hue,

famous for its gardens and its palaces.

(upbeat music)

You can sense that this forbidden city

used to be a seat of power.

In a stunning location on the Song Hurong,

the Perfume River, this city was suddenly jolted

from its sleepy provincial existence

when it was named the capital.

Emperor Gia Long of the Nguyen dynasty

commissioned the construction of a fortress in 1802.

It took 30 years to build.

The Emperor's family and a select group of elites

were the only ones permitted to enter the inner city.

For 150 years, the Nguyen dynasty

played little Beijing here in the Hue citadel.

Their forbidden city is modeled closely

in a more modest register on the forbidden city

of the Chinese emperors in Beijing,

and the Nguyen too saw themselves as sons of heaven.

It's not unlike those lesser German princes

who modeled their 18th century courts

on the Versailles of the French Sun King.

The courtly life of the Nguyen was correspondingly lavish,

and it remained so even after the Vietnamese emperors

became little more than puppets

of the French colonial rulers.

And in old photos, the Emperor and his court

really do look like marionettes displaced from time.

The emperor's ornate gold throne remains

as if he and his retinue might return here at any moment.

Even as the French extended their control across Indochina,

a highly distinctive courtly culture evolved here.

(upbeat music)

The citadel was a world within a city.

There were temples, buildings for the Royal household,

ornamental gardens, shady paths,

and long, airy passageways.

Everything was designed in strict accordance

with the ancient rules of Chinese architecture.

The structures were intended to radiate harmony,

but also to project power.

And in 1968 during the Vietnam War,

American and South Vietnamese troops fought bitterly

with the Vietcong on this exact spot.

Mr. Nguyen, do you remember the American attack on Hue?

At that time, I stayed here in this city.

In the Tet Offensive in 1968,

the whole city was in the area of bomb runs

from American aircrafts and artillery coordinates.

The whole city, from the forbidden city

to Jonduk Gate, Jantai Gate,

and the whole Imperial palace was located in the coordinates

of bombs dropped and shots fired.

How horrible it was.

The war heavily devastated.

There was a lot of damage in citadels and palaces.

One third of all construction units

that were magnificent buildings and palaces of the past

were devastated.

There are 300 construction units

and structures remaining with heavy damage.

What an unfortunate fate.

The Battle of Hue in January, 1968

was one of the bloodiest of the Vietnam War.

Hue and the old Imperial residents

were attacked and occupied by the Vietcong.

The South Vietnamese Army, assisted by the Americans,

attempted to recapture them.

The battle involved brutal urban warfare

and bombings and napalm attacks by the Americans

on the citadel.

The Americans and the South Vietnamese Army

were ultimately victorious, and they raised the flag

of South Vietnam over the entrance gate.

(dramatic music)

I begin to realize what an important symbol this place is.

Militarily, the Battle of Hue was a victory

for the Americans and the South Vietnamese.

But in political terms, it marked the beginning

of the end of America's involvement in Vietnam

and in all of Indochina.

(gentle music)

Munitions like these from the Battle for Hue

during the Vietnam War are still lying

everywhere on the ground here.

They're traces of history.

Sites like this are places of memory.

They open a gate into the past.

Today, this war remains both a trauma

and a source of pride for the Vietnamese.

All the more reason to make sure

this ancient cultural heritage is preserved.

Under the supervision of UNESCO,

the Hue citadel and forbidden city are being restored,

including the last Emperor's library.

Thai Cong Nguyen is showing me how craftsman from Hue

are restoring everything.

The ancestors of some of the foremen

practiced these ancient techniques

as they worked on the old Imperial palace.

(gentle music)

This was the King's reading room.

This building was also damaged in the war,

and we couldn't start restoring it until now.

The craftsman here are practicing

a traditional Vietnamese trade.

It's called suntak, it's a type of lacquer painting.

And this lacquer can only be found in Vietnam.

It has existed for hundreds of years.

We want to make sure that the restoration

of these monuments is completely authentic.

(gentle music)

So much has been achieved here,

but much remains to be done.

The Summer Palace, close to the tomb of Emperor Tu Duc,

has survived wars and floods.

It too is now being restored to its original state.

(Mai speaking in foreign language)

We have found remaining patterns

on the walls and columns,

and we are now restoring them to preserve

the unique style of the whole site.

Imperial power began to wane in Vietnam

with Emperor Tu Duc, who ascended to the throne in 1847

but became a vassal of the French.

He preferred writing poetry in his pavilions

to the business of ruling.

The Emperor Tu Duc can't have been a particularly happy man.

This small, finely made individual

is said to have been prone to melancholy.

In an epitaph that he wrote for himself,

he does praise his own virtues and achievements,

but he also admits his many mistakes.

His reluctance to take the initiative

in the struggle against the French colonizers, for example,

or the fact that he and his empress

failed to produce an heir to the throne.

Perhaps he'd simply overexerted himself

with his 103 concubines.

Every summer, the emperor and a bevy of concubines

selected for their beauty would retreat to this

tomb complex which he had commissioned

3000 laborers to build for him.

Here he would recite his own mournful poems.

In the evenings, they would bring him a special tea

of dewdrops harvested from Lotus flowers.

And by the way, the concubines were expected to

remain faithful to him until death.

After his demise, they moved out of the forbidden city

to mourn and pray here until they eventually

went to their own graves.

The emperor's tomb in Hue city

is another World Heritage site.

It's a place of quite extraordinary grace.

(upbeat music)

This spirit screen was intended to protect the ruler

from wind and demons in his eternal rest.

Each ceramic shard is charged with meaning.

Emperor Tu Duc was a weak ruler, but he was a talented poet.

He wrote countless lines of verse during his rule.

One of his poems praises the city of Hue.

Oh, Hue, mournful girl.

Come here, forget reality.

And as he turned away from the world,

Tu Duc intensified his commerce with the gods,

who played an important role at the Imperial court of Hue.

Essential to the ritual life of the court

was a uniquely Vietnamese style of courtly music

that evolved from the 15th century, but reached a high point

under the Nguyen dynasty in the 19th century.

Today, nanak music is labeled as

intangible cultural heritage.

The instruments on which it's played

cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

(upbeat music)

This is a beautiful instrument, what's its name?

(man speaking in foreign language)

(man speaking in foreign language)

(upbeat music)

(man speaking in foreign language)

(upbeat music)

Southeast Asia has been plagued by war

for much of its history,

and repeatedly subjugated by foreign rulers.

The Chinese came to Vietnam in several waves of conquest,

followed later by the French,

and then the Japanese,

who were soon supplanted by the Americans.

The region's cultural heritage

is of all the more importance.

The treasures of Southeast Asia's ancient past

and the pride in its history can be a source of strength

in the face of an uncertain future.

Particularly here in Vietnam.

Losing oneself in the past is no solution

to the predicaments of the present.

The fate of Tu Duc reminds us of that.

But an awareness of the past

and of its traces in the present

can be a source of stability.

Others were here before us.

Of what they thought and built, much was destroyed,

and something has survived.

There is humility, and there is also hope in that insight,

and we shouldn't underestimate its power,

especially in times of rapid change.

(dramatic music)