Having stopped at so many different Cham sites we felt compelled to head to the Cham Museum in Danang. Though it's one of the largest collections of Cham art, it's a relatively small museum. We sadly learned that 1. it started off as a Frenchman's dream of starting a garden of statues – hence all the statues were rounded up from Cham sites all over the country, instead of being preserved on site 2. many of the best statues are no longer in Vietnam, but exist in European private collections.
Huge stone slabs had been moved from their original locations and brought to this museum. However, the carvings no doubt been better preserved than many of the scattered Cham temples we've seen on our trip. Some of the carvings are somewhat similar to Khmer/Angkor Wat carvings (I'm getting a feeling of deja vu here...) – a mix of Hindu and Buddhist images with an array of lingas and breasts.
Yes, those breasts go all the way around.
Here we are admiring the incredible details and beautiful carvings...
Ari, you guys kind of look alike....
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