Wealthy Vietnamese lavish money on tombs so their relatives can ‘live’ in style

Welcome to the City of Ghosts, where the dead rest in luxury: Wealthy Vietnamese lavish money on tombs so their relatives can ‘live’ in style
An Bang, outside ancient capital Hue, has become bizarre tourist attraction
Fishermen compete to build lavish and colourful tombs for their ancestors
Majority has wealthy relatives living in the US who send money home
Tombs are built in various style: Buddhist, Gothic, Christian and Hindu
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A quiet fishing village outside Vietnam's ancient imperial capital Hue has become an off-the-beaten-track tourist attraction for its bizarre graveyard, featuring colourful and lavish tombs.
Fishermen in the tiny fishing town of An Bang compete to build increasingly taller and elaborate resting places, which significantly more opulent than the humble homes of the villagers.
Families in the community pour up to $70,000 into magnificent mausoleums for their ancestors - a serious luxury in a country where the annual per capita income is $2,000.
Some 90 percent of the villagers have wealthy overseas relatives, mostly living in the US, who send money home to build the tombs.

Workers decorate a family tomb at the graveyard. Some new tombs in the 250 hectare site rise up to 10m high and every inch is meticulously decorated
Built on white sand, the brilliantly coloured structures line up along the side of the road for 3km.
Vietnam has been deeply influenced by Confucius and Buddhist thought, despite decades of communist rule. Many people take ancestor worship seriously.
'Our cemetery is unique,' retired fisherman Dang Thien told AFP proudly as he gave reporters a tour of his family's enormous 400 square metre tomb.
'It is for the children to be able to pay their respects to the ancestors,' he said, adding that a well-cared for tomb will also bring the family good fortune.
'It will be there forever.'


His ornate structure - 6m high and covered with colourful dragons carved into pillars - is now dwarfed by more recent additions.

Some new tombs in the 250 hectare site rise up to 10m high and every inch is meticulously decorated.

Tombs in the cemetery are built in various style: from Buddhist temples to Gothic tombs, with a hefty sprinkling of Roman-esque columns.

Traditional Vietnamese dragon carvings are popular, but some graves also appear to draw inspiration from Hindu imagery, or featuring Christian and Islamic symbols.

While traditional Vietnamese dragon carvings are popular, some graves also appear to draw inspiration from Hindu imagery, with others featuring Christian or Islamic symbols
Some of them could be mistaken for mansions, with regal stone lions and glittering dragons adorning the roof-ridges.
A few of the tombs stand empty -- villagers have built them in advance of their own deaths, including one that was completed in 2005 and is waiting for its owner to shuffle off his mortal coil.
According to local policeman Hoang Khang, the lavish graves are largely bankrolled by relatives of the villagers who live abroad, mostly in the United States.
'Being well-off, they send money back home, which is invested in building tombs, graves, and the village temple,' he told AFP.
Hue lies close to the line that divided Vietnam's communist north and US-backed South during the country's bloody war, and the area was battered by bombs during the decades-long conflict.
In the years after the fall of Saigon and reunification in 1975, hundreds of thousands of people fled communist orthodoxy and grinding poverty in hopes of better lives overseas.

Workers build a $40,000 family tomb at An Bang's cemetery. The influx of foreign cash has triggered a competitive building spree in the village

Many of the so-called boat people died at sea and others ended up in camps in Hong Kong. But some of the more fortunate found their way to Australia or the US.

In An Bang, an influx of foreign cash from such relatives has triggered something of a competitive tomb building spree, with families eager to build the most extravagant grave in the plot.


As the cemetery has grown, it has become increasingly famous throughout Vietnam, putting the local communist leadership in a tough spot.

'Local authorities don't encourage giant tombs,' said local official Hoang Dinh Xuan Thinh.

Authorities have run multiple 'communication campaigns' to discourage locals from expanding the graves, but to no avail.

When AFP visited, construction work was ongoing on a two-story high tomb.

'Personally, I think it's a waste of money,' said Thinh.