Vietnam An Bang City of Ghosts

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An Bang Cemetery CITY OF GHOSTS
AN BANG City of Ghosts
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An Bang village is a small fishing village in
Hue, also known as City of ghosts or The land
where the dead live situated at about 30 km from
the Hue city
The cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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In the small village An Bang the inhabitants have
built numerous and magnificent tombs. The ghost
town stretches over 40 hectares
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After Vietnamese reunification in 1975, many
residents of An Bang Village emigrated to Europe
and the USA. From here, they sent money back to
their relatives who stayed behind, making it one
of the wealthiest villages in Vietnam. The town
of An Bang is affluent even compared to western
standards
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An Bang cemetery
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Construction began in earnest in 1995 and since
then local villagers have started to build more
and more extravagant graves for their deceased
family members, and even prematurely for
themselves. There is a challenge between
villagers to make even more grandiose graves
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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These structures are often two or three stories
tall, decorated with sculptures of gold and
dragons and mythical creatures, and fully
functional bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens
An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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Each tomb at An Bang Cemetery is build for an
entire family, not for just one person
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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All religions are represented from Buddhism
through Christianity without forgetting Taoism
and Islam. This not only reflects the lifestyle
of the locals, but also their deep belief in life
after death and the importance of paying homage
to their ancestors. According to the villagers
beliefs, having a meticulously cared for and
decorated tomb will bring the family good
fortune, and if the village of An Bang is
anything to go by, their extensive efforts seem
to have paid off!
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An Bang cemetery
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Some tombs look like temples and above all, they
do not all have the same architecture
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery is the biggest cemetery in
Vietnam. This is already quite impressive the
tombs are decorated with colorful mosaics,
dragons and towers
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In this part of the world, dragons bring rain,
essential for agriculture, but they are also
symbols of prosperity, the power of the nation,
the universe, existence and growth
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The costs of the tombs they are building here can
be as much as 50,000 (GBP) extraordinary when
you experience the poverty that is so common
throughout most of Vietnam
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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An Bang cemetery
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Commented by the Daily Mail (UK) as a strange,
colorful and lavish cemetery An Bang cemetery
covers an area of about 250 hectares (2.5 square
kilometers) with an amount over 3000 tombs.
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Second Indochina War ended in a tragedy that was
unprecedented in history. Three million
Vietnamese were wounded and one and a half
million were killed. And in the neighboring
countries Laos and Cambodia, the death toll
amounted to two million dead and wounded.
Indochina is therefore littered with war
cemeteries. (Of the three million Americans who
served in Vietnam, 58,000 died, 153,000 were
wounded and 2,387 remain missing)
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An Bang cemetery
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The majority of Vietnamese do not follow any
organized religion, instead observing one or more
Vietnamese folk religion
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Folk religions were founded on endemic cultural
beliefs and historically affected by Confucianism
and Taoism from China, as well as by a long and
strong tradition of Buddhism. These three
teachings or tam giáo were later joined by
Christianity which has become widespread
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Vietnam is also the home of two indigenous
religions of syncretic Caodaism and
quasi-Buddhist Hoahaoism origins
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Though Vietnam is officially an atheist state
thanks to its communist rulers, the country has
been deeply influenced by Confucius and Buddhist
thought, and many people take ancestor worship
seriously
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Text and pictures Internet All copyrights belong
to their respective owners Presentation Sanda
Foisoreanu
2021
Sound Bao Yen- Missing Hue ancient town
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The religious experience in Vietnam is not only
deeply embedded in daily life, but also complex
because besides animism and ancestor worship,
also elements of the Tam Giao or the three
religions are intertwined Buddhism, Taoism and
Confucianism. City of ghosts always makes
tourist shock by regal stone lions abound and
glittering mosaic dragons which adorn the
roof-ridges, mixture of different architectures
such as Catholicism, Vietnamese, Chinese and
Western. Even many tombs there are the copies
of Nguyen Kings tombs and Hue royal citadel
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Da Nang
Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture
Hue
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Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture
Da Nang Dragon bridge
Hue
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Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture
Da Nang Son Tra Lady Buddha
De la Hue la Hoian