The center rear of the palace reveals the piece de resistance: a life-size bronze statue of the enthroned Emperor Khai Dinh, sitting under a concrete canopy decorated with a ceramic-and-glass mosaic. The statue was cast in France in 1920; the canopy weighs over a ton, belying its lacy appearance.
The Emperor’s successor Bao Dai completed the tomb in 1931, six years after Khai Dinh’s death. Not long after, World War II and the Cold War would turn the Nguyen Dynasty out of Hue; Bao Dai became the last ruling Nguyen emperor, for a time becoming a puppet head of state for the Japanese, then the French, then finally the South Vietnamese government based in Saigon. The end of the Nguyen dynasty also ensured that Khai Dinh’s would be the last royal tomb constructed in Hue.
