Художественное оформление "Кала" в Чампе (Решения по привлечению посетителей к объектам древнего искусства Вьетнама)

When Tra Kieu was identified as the Simhapura citadel of Champa, the excavations found many more artifacts, including the stylised terracotta antefixes with various shapes and sizes.

Most of the Champa architectures that have survived to this day are the Kalan temples and shrines to worship the gods, kings, and mothers of the country. The civil architecture works are all gone. Theories all say that they are built from less sustainable materials such as wood, bamboo, leaves, etc., affected by time and other causes, leading to absolute disappearance. With the antefixes artifacts, it has been shown that the architecture in the Simhapura citadel used them to decorate the roof fringes on mansions and houses. Tiles and decorative elements on tile are important material components in a complete architectural work. The presence of roof tiles shows the existence of wooden rafters that lift the quite heavy roof tiles, which are often used in administrative centres, royal palaces, religious temples... Thes decoration on the tile adds to making the architecture more beautiful and solemn. Unlike the glazed tiles of China and Dai Viet, the Cham tile head is decorated and baked raw.

Tiles in Tra Kieu are found in two types: tubular roof tiles and imbrex tiles. Imbrex tiles has a pointed end, elongated shape. Tubular tile is also known as yin - yang tile, trough-shaped tile. The yang tile (tube tile) is shaped like a bamboo tube or a bamboo tube, while the negative tile (ban tile) has a trough shape. When roofing, the pipe tile is faces down to match the roof tile part. The part of the tile facing the outside of the top of the yin and yang pipe tile is decorated with vivid patterns. On the top of the tubular tile, there are two types: one where the top of the tile is round

in shape, and one where the top of the tile is in the shape of a semi-circle, with the shape of a trough. The name of yin and yang tile describes the position of the tile used in the last row of the architectural roof which link two yin tiles together and solve drainage for the entire roof set. This style of the yin and yang tile is still seen in the architectural works of Hue citadel, temples, pagodas, and old town today. 

Different from the decorations on the tiles of other neighboring dynasties at the same time, the Kala decorative tile is a characteristic of Champa culture. Japanese researcher Nishimura believes that the Kala face motif found in Tra Kieu represents a religion that originated in India at the beginning of the process of Indianization affecting the capital of Linyi.

In general, the Kala face decoration motifs are shown in the frontal view with many different variations. Champa pipe tile heads also have many different sizes. The smallest diameter is 12cm and the largest is 30cm, and the thickness of these tiles is also not uniform, possibly due to the process of shaping by hand or using a rudimentary mold.

The image of Kala's face on the top of the tile in Tra Kieu (Quang Nam) is vividly shown with full details of clear eyes, nose and mouth, strong and sharp expressions. The circle around the face is a jagged, wavy, or dotted shape. The face shows the eyes, nose, mouth with many features of a lion, bared teeth with the shape of each grain quite evenly, on the forehead there is a third eye like a fire with three branches. Another style shows high cheekbones, wide mouth, large nose bridge, big and slanted eyes, hair and beard stylized with floating veins, spreading evenly around...