Huyen Tran

Huyen Tran ( _vi. Huyền Trân), was a princess during the Trần Dynasty in the history of Vietnam. She was the daughter of king Trần Nhân Tông and the younger sister of king Trần Anh Tông. In 1306, Trần Anh Tông married off princess Huyền Trân to the Champa king with the name Jaya Sinhavarman III (In Vietnamese: "Chế Mân") in return for the two provinces of Chau O and Chau Ly (or Chau Ri) (today these provinces are Quảng Bình Province, Quảng Trị Province and Thừa Thiên–Huế Province).

Overview

There is not much historical record on princess Huyền Trân's life profile. She was born in 1289 but her year of death is unclear. In 1293, king Trần Nhân Tông abdicated in favor of his son, Trần Anh Tông, in order to join a monastery in a pagoda on Mount Yen Tu in what is now Quảng Ninh Province. In 1301, the king's father, Trần Nhân Tông, visited the Champa kingdom and was given a red-carpet welcome by its king, Jaya Sinhavarman III. The visit trip lasted 9 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 to king Jaya Sinhavarman III even though the Cham King was already married and that Cham queen was a Javanese named Tapasi. Jaya Sinhavarman III thereafter sent many envoys to Đại Việt to urge the Trần King to carry out the marriage plan as Trần Nhân Tông promised but the Trần king refused. Among the king's men, only General Van Tuc Dao Thai and Minister Trần Khắc Chung supported the marriage. In 1306, Jaya Sinhavarman III offered to cede the two Cham provinces of Chau O and Chau Ly as a downry and king Trần Anh Tông finally agreed to give his sister in marriage to Jaya Sinhavarman III. Huyền Trân went to Champa but a year later, in May of 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. 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 took her back to Đại Việt by boat. The trip back took a year. Legends had it that Trần Khắc Chung fell in love with princess Huyền Trân and the two disappered from sight together but there are no historical proofs to back up this story.

Novels and poems on Huyền Trân

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.
* Music: "Epic of the Mandarin Road", "Farewell to Huyen Tran" by Đào Tiến Luyện, set to music by Phạm Duy, "Princess Huyền Trân" by musician Nguyễn Hiên, "Missing" by musician Châu Ky, "Love story of Huyền Trân" by Nam Lộc, "Hard life in Chiêm Thành" (folklore song).
* Poem: "Princess Huyền Trân" by Hoàng Cao Khải, "Farewell to Huyền Trân" by Đào Tiến Luyện