Po Rome Tower belongs to Hau Sanh village, Phuoc Huu commune, Ninh Phuoc district, Ninh Thuan province, being considered the imperfect copy of Poklongarai Tower.

The whole construction includes two towers: the main tower worshipping Po Rome King – one of the kings that are sacrificed by Cham people and the second one worshipping the Queen. Nowadays, the Cham people usually implement rituals for the tower in their festivals and ceremonies.

The tower is about 8m high, the bottom is nearly 8m wide, and the statue of Po Rome King inside is estimated 1.2m. Besides the king statue, there is a half-body statue of a woman which the Cham call statue of Po Bia Sancan Queen, is about 0.75m high. The statue of Sucih Queen stands outside the tower.

The main side of the tower faces the East. The tower has three floors built based on the ancient pattern. On each floor, there are four corner towers; the shape of fire appears on four corners. The top of each corner tower is decorated by a rocky lotus bud. In each fake cavity, there is the image of a god sitting and clasping hands in praying posture. In the corner of the tower’s entrance, there is the statue of God of cow Nadin carved from a black stone. The construction built behind the tower is the place worshipping the queen. The tomb of Po Rome King is very close to this sub-construction, being the burial place chosen by Po Rome King himself.    

About the architectural type, Po Rome is the last tower of the Cham which is made from brick and also the last big tower of Champa kingdom. Despite of being big tower architecture, Po Rome Tower’s size and shape are much coarser and poorer than the older remaining towers’.  However, although the tower is not as elegant and sophisticated as the older ones, it is great and majestic brick architecture of the Cham which is strongly valuable in architecture art. Currently, Po Rome Tower has only the main tower, the sub-tower has collapsed.

Translated by H.N.M

Source: NTO