Statues and Ornaments

 On our first morning walk in Hanoi, around the small lake near our hotel, we saw these topiary animals.

 On the other side of the lake we saw these two dragons carved out of shrubbery, next to a globe with Vietnam firmly marked in the center.  And we though we lived in the center of the world!

 The Vietnamese take delight in natural forms as much as in sculpture.  You can plant a mountain in your garden.

 We could never figure out whether statues like these were of what they call "unicorns" (not the Western unicorn with a long horn coming out of its forehead) or another type of protective being.

 This little dog, presiding over an altar, is on the Japanese bridge in Hoi An.

 Here's the dog's companion.  These are, of course, votive statures, but they're also decorative, and it's hard for the tourist to know how seriously people take these symbolic statues.

 This bronze basin is in a courtyard in the Emperor's citadel in Hue.  The monumental bronze work there is impressive both aesthetically and technically.

 The tourist boats in Hue all have these striking statues on their prows.  Of course we took a boat ride.  In fact, we took more boat rides in our two weeks in Vietnam than we took in the previous two years or more.

 These statues, almost life size, stand in a courtyard at the tomb of the second to last emperor of Vietnam, in Hue.

 On our way to the Mekong Delata from Saigon, our guide took us to a temple with two enormous votive statues.

To our eyes, this enormous statue is absolutely grotesque, but I assume that Vietnamese eyes see it differently - though I'm sure that people of good taste must be offended by the enormous amount of money that was invested in this idol.  I can't imagine that the Buddha would be pleased be it.