Right after being crowned (1802), Emperor Gia Long built the esplanade in An Ninh village in 1803. A few years later, the Court left that position and had new terraces built in Dương Xuân village in the south of Huế Citadel (the remains have been preserved).
The Esplanade construction commenced on 25th March, 1806. In early 1807, Gia Long’s Court organized its first worship of Heaven ceremonies (Tế Giao ceremony) there.
Nam Giao Esplanade is an open-air monument. The model of architecture bears both the religious and political significance of Oriental feudalism. Nam Giao Esplanade is connected with the Confucian dogma of heaven. Nam Giao Esplanade also shows the concepts derived from ancient thoughts on the universe: circular heaven and square earth.
Nam Giao Esplanade faces south. Its surrounding stone wall has four big open doors acing the four directions. In front of each door is a very big screen (12.5 meters wide, 3.2 meters high and 0.8meters thick). During Tết holidays, big flags with various colors hung on all these doors: black flag on the north door, blue on the east, red on the south and white on the west.
Nam Giao Esplanade has three terraces of diminishing size in its structure, sumbolizing the oriental theory of three agents: Heaven, Earth and Man. Each terrace had its own color and significance: circular heaven, square earth, blue heaven, yellow earth. The topmost called Viên Đàn is circular, symbolizing Heaven. The surrounding parapet is painted blue. On the day of the ceremony, people built on this layer a conical tent with blue cloth called Thanh Ốc. The next below is a square terrace called Phương Đàn, representing the Earth. The surrounding parapet is painted yellow. For the ceremony, a square house with yellow cloth roof smaller than the one above called Hoàng Ốc was built. The lowest layer is square. The surrounding parapet is painted red, symbolizing Man. At this year, 128 students and dancers performed during the ceremony. The three layers are 4.65 meters high in total. The architecture of Nam Giao Esplanade followed the principles of Yin and Yang and the five basic elements (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth).
From Gia Long’s time (1802-1819), the ceremony was annually organized in the first weeks of the second month in the lunar calendar (March of the solar year). From 1880, Emperor Thành Thái realized that each ceremony was too costly so he decided to organize it once every three years. It took the Protocol and Administration Ministries months to prepare for the ceremony. For each ceremony, the emperor came to the Fasting Palace (Trai Cung) to stay there for three days prior to the ceremony. In Bảo Đại’s time, the duration was reduced to one day. The emperor came from the citadel (Đại Nội) to Trai Cung accompanyied by a procession including from 1,000 to 5,000 people. The king sat on the sedan-chair (Ngự Liễn) carried by royal soldiers in the middle path. The main ceremony began officially at 2a.m. and lasted nearly 3 hours.
All the sacrificial offering terraces of the Lý, Trần and Lê Dynasties (from the 11th to 18th centuries) no longer exist. Nam Giao Esplanade of the Nguyễn Dynasty is the only one left relatively undamaged. Visiting it, tourists can have an opportunity to understand more about many aspects of the cultural and spiritual life of Vietnamese feudalism.
Source: vietnamnow.org
