The 28m-high Po Nagar North Tower with its terraced pyramidal roof, vaulted interior masonry and vestibule, is a superb example of Cham architecture. One of the tallest Cham towers, it was built in AD 817 after the original temples here were sacked and burned. The raiders also carried off a linga made of precious metal. In AD 918 King Indravarman III placed a gold mukha-linga (a carved phallus with a human face painted on it) in the North Tower, but it too was taken, this time by the Khmers.
This pattern of statues being destroyed or stolen and then replaced continued for some time until 965, when King Jaya Indravarman I replaced the gold mukha-linga with the stone figure, Uma ( shakti, or a feminine manifestation of Shiva), which remains to this day. Above the entrance to the North Tower, two musicians flank a dancing four-armed Shiva, one of whose feet is on the head of the bull Nandin. The sandstone doorposts are covered with inscriptions, as are parts of the walls of the vestibule. A gong and a drum stand under the pyramid-shaped ceiling of the antechamber. In the 28m-high pyramidal main chamber, there is a black stone statue of the goddess Uma with 10 arms, two of which are hidden under her vest; she is seated and leaning back against some sort of monstrous animal.
|
