Tam Giang Lagoon

About this audio guide

This guide to Tam Giang Lagoon near Hue follows an old fishing custom: when a whale washes ashore dead, the fisherman who finds it does not simply bury it. He is adopted overnight as its son, bound to a mourning ritual that lasts years. You will hear where the custom comes from, a legend involving the Goddess of Mercy and a storm-battered coast, and how a whole lagoon community still marks the difference between an ordinary catch and a stranger owed a funeral.