Ancient temples in Vietnam are inextricably linked to Indo-Pacific diplomacy. The efforts of the Indian government to help restore My Son Sanctuary have demonstrated that cultural heritage can strengthen current strategic partnerships. Personally, the project reveals insights into the fact that centuries-old relations between South and Southeast Asia continue to shape international relations even now.
Hidden within a lush valley in central Vietnam, the red-brick towers of My Son Sanctuary rise quietly from the forest floor. For centuries, these temples served as the spiritual center of the Champa Kingdom, where Hindu rituals dedicated to Shiva shaped the religious life of the region. Today, however, the site has taken on a new meaning: it has become a powerful symbol of cultural diplomacy between Vietnam and India. The sanctuary, built in the seventh to thirteenth centuries by the Kingdom of Champa, consists of a complex network of Hindu temples, mainly used to worship Shiva. My Son Sanctuary is a UNESCO World Heritage site that represents centuries-old cultural exchanges between the Indian subcontinent and maritime Southeast Asia. But the notion of sanctuary has evolved over recent decades: nowadays, it is seen as a significant location in contemporary heritage diplomacy between Vietnam and India.
Assimilating Architecture and Philosophy
The foundations of this relationship lie in the historical interaction between Indian religious culture and the Champa civilization. The Champa kings assimilated much Hindu philosophy, temple architecture, and ritualism, transmitted through maritime trade routes linking South and Southeast Asia. In My Son, architecture, including Linga-yoni altars, Sanskrit inscriptions, and a Champa-shaped tower of temples, which were developed under the influence of Indian religious culture, can testify to a significant role in the political and religious lives of the Champa. It is these former associations that constitute the symbolic background to the present cultural cooperation between Vietnam and India.
[Ancient Maritime Trade Routes] —-> Diffusion of Hindu Philosophy & Sanskrit Altars
[Modern Heritage Frameworks] —-> Cross-Border Bilateral Restoration & Geopolitical Trust
The preservation of heritage in My Son has also continued into the twenty-first century as a display of this relationship. In 2014, the Government of India launched a large-scale conservation project, which led to the development of a bilateral agreement with the Archaeological Survey of India. Between the years 2017 and 2022, Indian experts worked directly with representatives of Vietnamese descent to restore various groups of temples at the sanctuary, such as complex A, H, and K, to stabilize some of the compromised structures and find hundreds of Champa statues, which had been lost previously. These findings have contributed to the academic understanding of Champa architecture and ritual practice.
Civilizational Connections as Strategic Infrastructure
The partnership, together with technical and restoration work, represents examples of how restoration, itself as cultural diplomacy, can be deployed. The conservation processes are characterized by extensive cooperation among archaeologists, engineers, and conservation specialists in the two countries. The role of these contacts is professional training and the imparting of technical skills, as well as joint research and development with institutional contacts. Besides this, joint efforts at the diplomatic and educational levels have facilitated cultural collaboration and the development of tourism relations between Vietnam and India.
In this respect, heritage diplomacy underscores India’s overall policy of intensifying relationships in the Indo-Pacific region through common civilizational connections. Cultural cooperation projects, like My Son, show how India integrates historic relations with current diplomacy, making its presence in the country one of the region’s significant players.
In this way, the restoration of My Son is more than just an archaeological project; it also serves as a subtle yet effective form of cultural diplomacy. By conserving a shared historical tradition, Vietnam and India strengthen cultural ties that span generations and physical barriers. As restoration efforts continue, My Son Sanctuary highlights how heritage conservation can preserve historic cultural landscapes while also forging current international connections in the Indo-Pacific.
The author is from: Schwarzman Scholar, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China | NXT Fellow 2026
