Honor Guards

Stone mandarin honor guards watching over the hillside tomb of Emperor Khai Dinh in Chau Chu vilage outside of Hue. The architecture of the tomb is a mixture of Vietnamese and European styles (see Tomb of Khai Dinh), and the faces on the statues exhibit a similar mixture of Asian and European features. This is thought to be symptomatic of the decline of Vietnamese culture during the colonial period. [NOTE: Emperor Khai Dinh worked closely with the government of France, and by the end of his reign he was considered by many to be nothing more than a salaried employee of the French government].