Princess Huyền Trân was a princess during the Trần Dynasty in the history of Vietnam

History of Vietnam

The history of Vietnam covers a period of more than 2,700 years. By far Vietnam's most important historical international relationship has been with China. Vietnam's prehistory includes a legend about a kingdom known as Van Lang that included what is now China's Guangxi Autonomous Region and...

. She was the daughter of Emperor Trần Nhân Tông and the younger sister of Emperor Trần Anh Tông. In 1306 Trần Anh Tông married off princess Huyền Trân to the Champa

Champa

The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...

 King Jaya Sinhavarman III (Vietnamese: Chế Mân, 制旻) and as queen Paramecvariin of Champa, in return for the two provinces of Chau O and Chau Ly (or Chau Ri)

Thuận Hóa

Thuận Hóa is a commune and village in Tuyên Hóa District, Quang Binh Province, in Vietnam....

 (today these provinces are Quảng Bình Province

Quang Binh Province

Quảng Bình , formerly Tiên Bình under the reign of Le Trung Hung of the Lê Dynasty, this province was renamed Quảng Bình in 1604) is a province in the North Central Coast of Vietnam....

, Quảng Trị Province

Quang Tri Province

Quảng Trị is a province on the North Central Coast of Vietnam, north of the former imperial capital of Huế.-Geography:Located in North Central Vietnam, Quang Tri Province is surrounded by Quang Binh Province on the north, Thua Thien-Hue Province on the south, Savannakhet Province of Laos on the...

 and Thừa Thiên–Huế Province

Thua Thien-Hue Province

Thừa Thiên-Huế is a province in the North Central Coast of Vietnam, approximately in the center of the country. It borders Quang Tri Provice to the north and Da Nang City to the south, Laos to the west and the South China Sea to the east. The province has 128 km of coastline, 22,000 ha of...

).

Overview

There are few details in the historical record about princess Huyền Trân's life. She was born in 1289 but her year of death is unclear. In 1293 Emperor 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

Quang Ninh Province

Quảng Ninh is a large province located along the northeastern coast of Vietnam. The province is home to Ha Long Bay, a World Heritage Site. The provincial capital is Ha Long. Nearly 80 per cent of the province is mountainous with abundant land, forest water and mineral resources. Nearly 90 per...

. In 1301, the Emperor's father, Trần Nhân Tông, visited the Champa

Champa

The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...

 kingdom and was given a lavish royal welcome by King Jaya Sinhavarman III. 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 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 had promised but the Emperor refused. Among the Emperor'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 dowry and Trần Anh Tông finally agreed to give his sister in marriage to the Cham king. Princess 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. 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 Princess Huyền Trân and the two disappeared from sight together but there is no historical proof 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
  Pham Duy
  Pham Duy is a prolific Vietnamese songwriter. He, along with Van Cao and Trinh Cong Son, is widely considered one of the three most salient figures of modern Vietnamese music. Pham Duy's musical career spans fifty years...
  
  , 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
  Hoang Cao Khai
  Hoàng Cao Khải was a viceroy of Tonkin , the northernmost of the three parts of Vietnam under French colonial rule. He is best known for his role in helping the French authorities to hunt down Phan Đình Phùng, the leading Vietnamese revolutionary of the time.-External links:*...
  
  , Farewell to Huyền Trân by Đào Tiến Luyện

Most cities in Vietnam have named major streets after her.