Princess Huyền Trân (, 玄珍公主) (1289-1340) was a princess of the

Trần Dynasty The Trần dynasty, ( Vietnamese: Nhà Trần, chữ Nôm: 茹陳）also known as the House of Trần, was a Vietnamese dynasty that ruled over the Kingdom of Đại Việt from 1225 to 1400. The dynasty was founded when emperor Trần Thá ...

of Đại Việt, who later married to King Jaya Simhavarman III of Champa and titled queen consort Parameshvari of

Champa Champa ( Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ; km, ចាម្ប៉ា; vi, Chiêm Thành or ) were a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is contemporary central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd ...

from 1306 to 1307.

Biography

She was the daughter of Emperor Trần Nhân Tông and the younger sister of Emperor

Trần Anh Tông Trần Anh Tông ( vi-hantu, 陳英宗, 17 September 1276 – 12 December 1320), personal name Trần Thuyên (陳烇), courtesy name Nhật Sủy (日煃) or Nhật Sáng (日㷃/日𤊞), was the fourth emperor of the Trần dynasty, reigning ov ...

. There are few details in the historical record about Huyền Trân's life. In 1293, Trần Nhân Tông abdicated in favor of his son, Trần Anh Tông, in order to become a monk in a pagoda on Mount Yên Tử in what is now Quảng Ninh Province. In 1301, the Emperor's father, Trần Nhân Tông, visited the Kingdom of Champa and was given a lavish royal welcome by King Jaya Simhavarman III (Vietnamese: ''Chế Mân'', 制旻). The visit lasted nine months. When Trần Nhân Tông left Champa for Đại Việt (the name of Vietnam at the time), he promised to give his daughter in marriage, even though the Cham king was already married to a Javanese woman named Tapasi. Jaya Simhavarman III thereafter sent many envoys to Đại Việt to urge the Trần emperor to carry out the marriage plan as Trần Nhân Tông had promised but the Emperor refused. Among the Emperor's men, only General Văn Túc Đạo Tái and Minister Trần Khắc Chung supported the marriage. In 1306, on orders of Trần Anh Tông, Huyền Trân was married to the Champa king as Queen Parameshvari of Champa, in return for the two provinces of Châu Ô and Châu Lý (or Châu Rí) (today these provinces are Quảng Bình,

Quảng Trị Quảng Trị () is a district-level town in Quảng Trị Province in the North Central Coast region of Vietnam. It is second of two municipalities in the province after the provincial capital Đông Hà. History The Sino-Vietnamese name Qu ...

and Thừa Thiên–Huế). Huyền Trân went to Champa but a year later, in May 1307, Jaya Sinhavarman III died and the crown prince sent an ambassador to Đại Việt to offer white elephants as gifts and announced the death of his king. According to Cham tradition, all of the royal wives would be cremated with the dead king. Trần Anh Tông ordered a general named Trần Khắc Chung to go to Champa to officially attend the funeral but the real mission was for Trần Khắc Chung to rescue Huyền Trân and take her back to Đại Việt by boat. The trip back took a year. Legends had it that Trần Khắc Chung fell in love with Huyền Trân and the two disappeared from sight together but there is no historical proof to back up this story.

Huyền Trân in art

The sacrifice of princess Huyền Trân (well known in Vietnamese literature and history as "Huyền Trân Công Chúa") has become an attractive topic for poems and arts and music in Vietnamese

chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ; ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters ('' Chữ Hán'') to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represent ...

. Her marriage is also proverbial. * Play: ''Huyên Trân công chúa'' (Princess Huyền Trân) by Đoàn Thanh Ái * Literature: ''Hermitage Among the Clouds'' by Thích Nhất Hạnh * Poems: ''Princess Huyền Trân'' by

Hoàng Cao Khải Hoàng Cao Khải (, ; 1850, Đức Thọ District – 1933) was a viceroy of Tonkin (locally known as Bắc Kỳ), the northernmost of the three parts of Vietnam under French colonial rule. He is best known for his role in helping the French autho ...

, and ''Farewell to Huyền Trân'' by Đào Tiến Luyện * Music: ''Epic of the Mandarin Road'', **''Farewell to Huyền Trân'' by Đào Tiến Luyện, set to music by

Phạm Duy Phạm Duy (5 October 1921 – 27 January 2013) was one of Vietnam's most prolific songwriters with a musical career that spanned more than seven decades through some of the most turbulent periods of Vietnamese history and with more than one ...

, **''Princess Huyền Trân'' by musician Nguyễn Hiền, **''Missing'' by musician Châu Kỳ, **''Love story of Huyền Trân'' by Nam Lộc, *''Hard life in Champa'' (folklore song). Most cities in Vietnam have named major streets after her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huyen Tran 1289 births 14th-century deaths Trần dynasty princesses Vietnamese Buddhist nuns History of Champa Deified Vietnamese people 14th-century Buddhist nuns 13th-century Vietnamese women 14th-century Vietnamese women Queens consort