Classroom » Multimedia
Stone dragon hand rail by stairs inside Imperial City at Hue
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- May 1997
- Location
- Hue, Vietnam
- License
- This photograph copyright ©1997. Terms of use
See this photograph in context
- Northern and coastal Vietnam: Waterway settlements and Chinese influences: Photographs and text tell the story of fishing, trade, and Chinese influence on the history and culture of Vietnam. (Page 13)
Related media
Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for carvings, China, Citadel, dragons, emperors, Forbidden City, Hue, Imperial City, kings, political symbolism, and Vietnam.
In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
This carved stone dragon serves as one of the hand rails for stairs inside the Imperial City at Hué. The design of the large-eyed, scaly dragon is similar to those found in Chinese art. Throughout East and part of Southeast Asia, dragon images represent power and protection.
Most of the original buildings and ornaments in Hué’s Imperial City date to ambitious efforts by Nguyen dynasty rulers in the 1800s to control both the north and south of Vietnam from a centrally located capital. The architectural plan and decorative style of Hué’s walled Imperial City was designed as a near replica of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.
