Champa (
Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
***Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
*Cham Albanian ...
: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ; km, ចាម្ប៉ា; vi, Chiêm Thành or ) were a collection of independent
Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
***Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
*Cham Albanian ...
polities
A polity is an identifiable political entity – a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any other group of p ...
that extended across the coast of what is contemporary central and southern
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
from approximately the 2nd century AD until 1832, when it was annexed by the
Vietnamese Empire
The Empire of Vietnam (; Literary Chinese and Contemporary Japanese: ; Modern Japanese: ja, ベトナム帝国, Betonamu Teikoku, label=none) was a short-lived puppet state of Imperial Japan governing the former French protectorates of Annam ...
under its emperor
Minh Mạng
Minh Mạng () or Minh Mệnh (, vi-hantu, 明 命, lit. "the bright favour of Heaven"; 25 May 1791 – 20 January 1841; born Nguyễn Phúc Đảm, also known as Nguyễn Phúc Kiểu) was the second emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of V ...
.
The kingdom was known variously as ''Nagaracampa'' ( sa, नगरचम्पः), ''Champa'' (ꨌꩌꨛꨩ) in modern
Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
***Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
*Cham Albanian ...
, and ''Châmpa'' () in the
Khmer inscriptions, ''Chiêm Thành'' in
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
and ''Zhànchéng'' (
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
: 占城) in Chinese records.
The Kingdoms of Champa and the Chams contribute profound and direct impacts to the history of
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
,
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
, as well as their present day. Early Champa, evolved from local seafaring Austronesian
Chamic
The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Achinese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) and in parts of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan, China. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of Malay ...
Sa Huỳnh culture
The Sa Huỳnh culture was a culture in modern-day central and southern Vietnam that flourished between 1000 BC and 200 AD. Archaeological sites from the culture have been discovered from the Mekong Delta to Quang Binh province in central Vietna ...
off the coast of modern-day Vietnam. The emergence of Champa at the late 2nd century AD shows testimony of early Southeast Asian statecrafting and crucial stage of the
making of Southeast Asia. The peoples of Champa had been established and maintained a vast system of lucrative trade networks across the region, connecting the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
and
Eastern Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...
, until the 17th century. In Champa, historians also witness the first and oldest native Southeast Asian language literature being
written down around 350 AD, predating first
Khmer,
Mon
Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to:
Places
* Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar
* Mon, India, a town in Nagaland
* Mon district, Nagaland
* Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India
* Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons
* An ...
,
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
texts by centuries.
The
Chams
The Cham (Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people (Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territo ...
of modern
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
and
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
are the major remnants of this former kingdom. They speak
Chamic languages
The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Achinese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) and in parts of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan, China. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of Mala ...
, a subfamily of
Malayo-Polynesian
The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...
closely related to the
Malayic
The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The most prominent member is Malay, which is the national language of Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia; it further serves as basis for Indon ...
and
Bali–Sasak languages. Although Cham culture is usually intertwined with the broader culture of Champa, the kingdom had a multiethnic population, which consisted of
Austronesian Chamic
The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Achinese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) and in parts of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan, China. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of Malay ...
-speaking peoples that made up the majority of its demographics. The people who used to inhabit the region are the present-day Chamic-speaking
Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
***Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
*Cham Albanian ...
,
Rade Rade may refer to:
* E De people, a people group in Southeast Asia also called "Rhade" or "Rade"
* places in Lower-Saxony, Germany:
** Rade, Neu Wulmstorf, a village in the district of Harburg
* places in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany:
** Rade, Stei ...
and
Jarai peoples in South and Central Vietnam and Cambodia; the
Acehnese from Northern
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, along with elements of
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The te ...
Bahnaric and
Katuic-speaking peoples in Central Vietnam.
Champa was preceded in the region by a kingdom called
Lâm Ấp
Lâm Ấp (Vietnamese pronunciation of Middle Chinese 林邑 *''liɪm ʔˠiɪp̚'', > standard Chinese: Linyi) was a kingdom located in central Vietnam that existed from around 192 AD to 629 AD in what is today central Vietnam, and was one of the ...
(Vietnamese), or Linyi (,
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
(
ZS): *''liɪm ʔˠiɪp̚''), that was in existence since 192 AD; although the historical relationship between ''Linyi'' and ''Champa'' is not clear. ''Champa'' reached its apogee in the 9th and 10th centuries AD. Thereafter, it began a gradual decline under pressure from
Đại Việt
Đại Việt (, ; literally Great Việt), often known as Annam ( vi, An Nam, Chữ Hán: 安南), was a monarchy in eastern Mainland Southeast Asia from the 10th century AD to the early 19th century, centered around the region of present-day ...
, the Vietnamese polity centered in the region of modern
Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
. In 1832, the Vietnamese emperor
Minh Mạng
Minh Mạng () or Minh Mệnh (, vi-hantu, 明 命, lit. "the bright favour of Heaven"; 25 May 1791 – 20 January 1841; born Nguyễn Phúc Đảm, also known as Nguyễn Phúc Kiểu) was the second emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of V ...
annexed the remaining Cham territories.
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
, adopted through conflicts and conquest of territory from neighboring
Funan
Funan (; km, ហ៊្វូណន, ; vi, Phù Nam, Chữ Hán: ) was the name given by Chinese cartographers, geographers and writers to an ancient Indianized state—or, rather a loose network of states ''(Mandala)''—located in mainla ...
in the 4th century AD, shaped the art and culture of the Cham Kingdom for centuries, as testified by the many Cham
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
statues and red brick temples that dotted the landscape in Cham lands.
Mỹ Sơn
Mỹ Sơn () is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples in central Vietnam, constructed between the 4th and the 14th century by the Kings of Champa, an Indianized kingdom of the Cham people. The temples are dedicated to the wo ...
, a former religious center, and
Hội An
Hội An (), formerly known as Fai-Fo or Faifoo, is a city with a population of approximately 120,000 in Vietnam's Quảng Nam Province and is noted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Along with the Cu Lao Cham archipelago, it is part o ...
, one of Champa's main port cities, are now
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
s. Today, many Cham people adhere to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
, a conversion which began in the 10th century, with the ruling dynasty having fully adopted the faith by the 17th century; they are called the Bani (''Ni tục'', from Arabic:
Bani
Bani may refer to:
Places Africa
*Bani Department, a department in the Séno Province of Burkina Faso
*Bani, Bani, Séno, Burkina Faso
* Bani, Bourzanga, Bam, Burkina Faso
*Bani, Gnagna, Burkina Faso
* Bani, The Gambia
*Bani River, a tributary ...
). There are, however, the Bacam (''Bacham'', Chiêm tục) who still retain and preserve their
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
faith, rituals, and festivals. The ''Bacam'' is one of only two surviving non-
Indic
Indic may refer to:
* Indic languages (disambiguation)
* Various scripts:
** Brahmic scripts, a family of scripts used to write Indian and other Asian languages
** Kharosthi (extinct)
* Indian numerals
* Indian religions, also known as the Dharmic ...
indigenous
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
peoples in the world, with a culture dating back thousands of years. The other being the
Balinese Hinduism
Balinese Hinduism ( id, Agama Hindu Dharma; Agama Tirtha; Agama Air Suci; Agama Hindu Bali) is the form of Hinduism practised by the majority of the population of Bali.McDaniel, June (2013), A Modern Hindu Monotheism: Indonesian Hindus as ‘P ...
of the
Balinese of
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
.
Etymology
The name ''Champa'' derived from the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
word (pronounced ), which refers to ''
Magnolia champaca
''Magnolia champaca'', known in English as champak (), is a large evergreen tree in the family Magnoliaceae. '', a species of flowering tree known for its fragrant flowers.
Recent academics however dispute the Indic origin explanation, which was conceived by
Louis Finot, a colonial-era board director of the
École française d'Extrême-Orient
The French School of the Far East (french: École française d'Extrême-Orient, ), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of Asian societies. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in wh ...
. In his 2005 ''Champa revised,''
Michael Vickery
Michael Theodore Vickery (April 1, 1931 – June 29, 2017) was an American historian, lecturer, and author known for his works about the history of Southeast Asia.
Life
Vickery was born on April 1, 1931, in Billings, Montana.
After acquiring a ...
challenges Finot's idea. He argues that the
Cham people
The Cham (Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people (Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territo ...
always refer themselves as ''Čaṃ'' rather than ''Champa'' (pa–abbreviation of ''peśvara'', ''Campādeśa'', ''Campānagara''). Most indigenous
Austronesian ethnic groups in Central Vietnam such as the
Rade Rade may refer to:
* E De people, a people group in Southeast Asia also called "Rhade" or "Rade"
* places in Lower-Saxony, Germany:
** Rade, Neu Wulmstorf, a village in the district of Harburg
* places in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany:
** Rade, Stei ...
,
Jarai,
Chru,
Roglai peoples call the Cham by similar lexemes which likely derived from ''Čaṃ.'' Vietnamese historical accounts also have the Cham named as ''Chiêm.'' Most importantly, the official designation of Champa in Chinese historical texts was ''Zhànchéng '' –meaning "the city of the Cham," "why not city of the Champa?," Vickery doubts.
Historiography
Sources
The
historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...
of Champa relies upon four types of sources:
* Physical remains, including ruins as well as stone sculptures;
* Inscriptions in Cham and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
on
stele
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
s and other stone surfaces;
* Chinese and Vietnamese annals, diplomatic reports, and other literature such as those provided by
Jia Dan Jia Dan (, 730 – 805), courtesy name Dunshi () and formally Duke Yuanjing of Wei (), was a Chinese cartographer, military general, and politician from Cangzhou, Hebei during the Tang dynasty.
Background
Jia Dan was born in 730, during the reign ...
;
* Historiography of modern
Cham people
The Cham (Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people (Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territo ...
.
The Cham have their written records in form of paper book, known as the ''
Sakkarai dak rai patao'', was a 5227-pages collection of Cham veritable records, documenting a history range from early legendary kings of 11th–13th century, to the deposition of
Po Thak The, the last king of
Panduranga
Vithoba, also known as Vi(t)thal(a) and Panduranga, is a Hindu deity predominantly worshipped in the Indian state of Maharashtra and Karnataka. He is generally considered as a manifestation of the god Vishnu, or his avatar Krishna. Vithoba is o ...
in 1832, reckoning in total 39 rulers of Panduranga from Adam, the tales of spread of Islam to Champa in 1000 AD, to
Po Thak The. The annals were written in
Akhar Thrah (traditional) Cham script with collection of Cham and Vietnamese seals imprinted by Vietnamese rulers. However, it had been dismissed for a long time by scholars until
Po Dharma
Po Dharma (9 October 1948–22 February 2019) was an activist of Vietnam. He was also a Cham cultural historian.
Po Dharma was a Cham, his birth name is Quảng Văn Đủ. He was born in Chất Thường Village (Cham: Palei Baoh Dana), Ninh P ...
. Cham literature also have been greatly preserved in approximately more than 3,000 Cham manuscripts and printed books dating from the 16th to 20th centuries. The Southeast Asia Digital Library (SEADL) at
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...
currently contains an extensive collection of 977 digitized Cham manuscripts, totaling more than 57,800 pages of multigenre content.
Overarching theories
![Shiva Kosa from Champa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Shiva_Kosa_from_Champa.jpg)
Modern scholarship has been guided by two competing theories in the historiography of Champa. Scholars agree that historically Champa was divided into several regions or principalities spread out from south to north along the coast of modern
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
and united by a common language, culture, and heritage. It is acknowledged that the historical record is not equally rich for each of the regions in every historical period. For example, in the 10th century AD, the record is richest for ''Indrapura''; in the 12th century AD, it is richest for
Vijaya
Vijaya may refer to:
Places
* Vijaya (Champa), a city-state and former capital of the historic Champa in what is now Vietnam
* Vijayawada, a city in Andhra Pradesh, India
People
* Prince Vijaya of Sri Lanka (fl. 543–505 BC), earliest recorde ...
; following the 15th century AD, it is richest for ''Panduranga''. Some scholars have taken these shifts in the historical record to reflect the movement of the Cham capital from one location to another. According to such scholars, if the 10th-century record is richest for Indrapura, it is so because at that time Indrapura was the capital of Champa. Other scholars have disputed this contention, holding that Champa was never a united country, and arguing that the presence of a particularly rich historical record for a given region in a given period is no basis for claiming that the region functioned as the capital of a united Champa during that period.
[Early colonial era scholars and later DRV and SRV authors treated Champa as a single, unified political body. New academic works on Cham studies begun in late 1980s revised this notion. The majority of scholarship now at least agree that Champa was a series of dynamic coexisting, overlapping polyethnic kingdoms and small principalities.][Previous histories of Champa such as ]Étienne Aymonier
Étienne François Aymonier (26 February 1844 – 21 January 1929) was a French linguist and explorer. He was the first archaeologist to systematically survey the ruins of the Khmer empire in today's Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and southern Vietnam ...
's 1889 ''Tschampa'' and Georges Maspero
René Gaston Georges Maspero (21 August 1872 – 21 September 1942) was a French sinologist.
He was the son of egyptologist Gaston Maspero and half brother of sinologist Henri Maspero.
A colonial governor of French Indochina, he was appointed r ...
's 1910 ''The Kingdom of Champa'' had provided the ground academic understanding of Champa for almost a century. Maspero represented Champa as a single, unified kingdom, with the Cham explicitly made up nearly entire of its demographics. He also presented a list of 14 presumably Cham dynasties dating back to the 2nd century.
History
Sources of foreign cultural influence
Through the centuries, Cham culture and society were influenced by forces emanating from
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
, China,
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
amongst others.
[The majority of colonial era scholarship had popularized a generic orientalist assumption that Southeast Asian history has always been profoundly driven by "external forces" from the civilizations of India and China. By this narrative, Champa was glimpsed as a merely shadow, "cultural zone" of Indian civilization.][Some of the colonial era scholars and Indologist often favored the "Champa kingdom" when it maintained strong affirmation with Indian influence such as Hinduism, and showed less interest when Indianized features in Champa began declining by the 11th century as the Cham appeared having tendencies toward localization and Islam. The shrink of Indian traces in Champa (''or'' the downfall of Cham civilization) was assumed through the eyes of some colonial-era French researchers (such as ]Jeanne Leuba
Jeanne Leuba (8 November 1882, Paris – 24 July 1979, Pettenbach) was a French journalist, writer and poet. Having spent many years in Indochina and Cambodia, she is considered one of the most impressive of the women colonial novelists.
Life ...
) as the corruption of pure Hinduism and Buddhism due to syncreticizing with local traditions. Leuba also took blame on Islam for the decline of Champa.[Along with a global renewal of Cham studies in the late 1980s, a group of French academics favored a reevaluation/redefinition the importance of Cham and ]indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
history in the making of Southeast Asia. This trend rejected earlier colonial-era scholarship's Eurocentric framework "externalist thesis" for denying and downplaying indigenous Southeast Asian civilizations, slamming them as deliberate attempts to justify colonialism. Lâm Ấp
Lâm Ấp (Vietnamese pronunciation of Middle Chinese 林邑 *''liɪm ʔˠiɪp̚'', > standard Chinese: Linyi) was a kingdom located in central Vietnam that existed from around 192 AD to 629 AD in what is today central Vietnam, and was one of the ...
, a predecessor state in the region, began its existence in AD 192 as a breakaway Chinese colony. An official successfully revolted against Chinese rule in central Vietnam, and
Lâm Ấp
Lâm Ấp (Vietnamese pronunciation of Middle Chinese 林邑 *''liɪm ʔˠiɪp̚'', > standard Chinese: Linyi) was a kingdom located in central Vietnam that existed from around 192 AD to 629 AD in what is today central Vietnam, and was one of the ...
was founded in AD 192. In the 4th century AD, wars with the neighbouring
Kingdom of Funan
Funan (; km, ហ៊្វូណន, ; vi, Phù Nam, Chữ Hán: ) was the name given by Chinese cartographers, geographers and writers to an ancient Indianized state—or, rather a loose network of states ''(Mandala)''—located in mainla ...
in
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
and the acquisition of Funanese territory led to the infusion of
Indian culture
Indian culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse India. The term al ...
into Cham society.
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
was adopted as a scholarly language, and
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
, especially
Shaivism
Shaivism (; sa, शैवसम्प्रदायः, Śaivasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the Supreme Being. One of the largest Hindu denominations, it incorporates many sub-traditions rangi ...
, became the state religion. Starting from the 10th century AD, the Arab maritime trade introduces Islamic cultural and religious influences to the region. Although
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
was the predominant religion among the Cham people until the 16th century, Islam began to attract large numbers of Chams, when some members of the Cham royalty converted to Islam in the 17th century. Champa came to serve as an important link in the
spice trade, which stretched from the
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
to
South China
South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...
, and later in the
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
maritime routes in
Mainland Southeast Asia
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
as a supplier of
aloe
''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Accessed on: 06 Nov 2022 The most wid ...
.
Despite the frequent wars between the
Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
***Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
*Cham Albanian ...
and the
Khmer, the two nations also traded and their cultural influences moved in the same directions. Since royal families of the two countries intermarried frequently. Champa also had close trade and cultural relations with the powerful maritime empire of
Srivijaya
Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...
and later with the
Majapahit
Majapahit ( jv, ꦩꦗꦥꦲꦶꦠ꧀; ), also known as Wilwatikta ( jv, ꦮꦶꦭ꧀ꦮꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦠ; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was ba ...
of the
Malay Archipelago
The Malay Archipelago (Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipe ...
, its easternmost trade relations being with the kingdoms of
Butuan
Butuan (pronounced ), officially the City of Butuan ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Butuan; Butuanon: ''Dakbayan hong Butuan''; fil, Lungsod ng Butuan), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the region of Caraga, Philippines. It is the ''de facto'' ca ...
and
Sulu
Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilāya sin Lupa' Sūg''; tl, Lalawigan ng Sulu), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago and part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamor ...
in the Philippines.
Evidence gathered from linguistic studies around
Aceh
Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a s ...
confirms that a very strong Chamic cultural influence existed in Indonesia; this is indicated by the use of the
Chamic
The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Achinese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) and in parts of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan, China. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of Malay ...
language
Acehnese as the main language in the coastal regions of Aceh. Linguists believe the Acehnese language, a descendant of the Proto-Chamic language, separated from the Chamic tongue sometime in the 1st millennium AD. Some argue that Acehnese originated from Chamic dispersal after a Vietnamese invasion in 982 AD.
Tsat, a northern Chamic language spoken by the
Utsul
The Utsuls ([]; ), are a Chamic languages, Chamic-speaking East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group which lives on the island of Hainan and are considered one of the People's Republic of China's Unrecognized ethnic groups in China, unrecognized ...
on the
Hainan
Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...
Island, is speculated to be separated from Cham at the time when contact between Champa and Islam had grown considerably, but precise details remain inadequate. Under Chinese language influence over Hainan, Tsat has become fully monosyllabic, while some certain shifts to monosyllabicity can be observed in
Eastern Cham (in contact with Vietnamese). Eastern Cham has developed a quasi-registral, incipiently
tonal system
The tonal system is a base 16 system of notation (predating the widespread use of hexadecimal in computing), arithmetic, and metrology proposed in 1859 by John W. Nystrom.Nystrom, John W.''Project of a New System of Arithmetic, Weight, Measure and ...
. After the fall of Vijaya Champa in 1471, another group of Cham and Chamic might have moved west, forming
Haroi, which has reversal
Bahnaric linguistic influences. However, scholarly views on the precise nature of Aceh-Chamic relations vary.
Founding legend
According to Cham folk legends, Champa was founded by
Lady Po Nagar :''See also Thiên Y A Na''
Lady Po Nagar/Yan Po Nagar (杨婆那加), was the founder of the Cham people according to legends. According to the myth of Pô Nagar, she was born from the clouds of the sky and the foam of the sea. Her physical form w ...
–the divide mother goddess of the kingdom. She came from the moon and arrived in Central Vietnam and found the kingdom, but a
typhoon
A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...
drifted her away and left her stranded on the coast of China, where she married a Chinese prince, and returned to Champa. The
Po Nagar
Po Nagar is a Cham temple tower founded sometime before 781 and located in the medieval principality of Kauthara, near modern Nha Trang in Vietnam. It is dedicated to Yan Po Nagar, the goddess of the country, who came to be identified with the ...
temple built in
Nha Trang
Nha Trang ( or ; ) is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the north by Ninh Hòa District, Ninh Hoà town, on the south by Cam Ranh city and on the west by Diên Khánh Distri ...
during the 8th century, and rebuilt in the 11th century. Her portrayal image in the temple is said dating from 965 AD, is of a commanding personage seated cross-legged upon a throne. She is also worshiped by the Vietnamese, a tradition dates back to the 11th century during the Ly dynasty period.
Formation and growth
The people of Champa descended from seafaring settlers who reached the Southeast Asian mainland from
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
about the time of the
Sa Huỳnh culture
The Sa Huỳnh culture was a culture in modern-day central and southern Vietnam that flourished between 1000 BC and 200 AD. Archaeological sites from the culture have been discovered from the Mekong Delta to Quang Binh province in central Vietna ...
between 1000 BC and 200 AD, the predecessor of the Cham kingdom. The
Cham language
Cham (Cham: ꨌꩌ) is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian family, spoken by the Chams of Southeast Asia. It is spoken primarily in the territory of the former Kingdom of Champa, which spanned modern Southern Vietnam, as well a ...
is part of the
Austronesian family. According to one study, Cham is related most closely to modern
Acehnese in northern Sumatra.
The
Sa Huỳnh culture
The Sa Huỳnh culture was a culture in modern-day central and southern Vietnam that flourished between 1000 BC and 200 AD. Archaeological sites from the culture have been discovered from the Mekong Delta to Quang Binh province in central Vietna ...
was an Austronesian seafaring culture that centered around present-day
Central Vietnam
Central Vietnam ( vi, Trung Bộ or ), also known as Middle Vietnam or The Middle, formerly known as by South Vietnam, and Annam under French Indochina, is one of the three geographical regions within Vietnam.
The name Trung Bộ was used by ...
coastal region. During its heyday, the culture distributed across the Central Vietnam coast and has commercial links across the South China sea to the other side in the Philippines archipelago and even with
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
(through
Maritime Jade Road
Philippine jade Culture or Jade Artifacts, made from white and green nephrite and dating as far back as 2000–1500 BC, have been discovered at a number of archeological excavations in the Philippines since the 1930s. The artifacts have been b ...
,
Sa Huynh-Kalanay Interaction Sphere
The Kalanay Cave is a small cave located on the island of Masbate in central Philippines. The cave is located specifically at the northwest coast of the island within the municipality of Aroroy. The artifacts recovered from the site were similar ...
), which now most archaeologists and scholars have consentient determined and no longer hesitant in linking with the ancestors of the Austronesian
Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
***Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
*Cham Albanian ...
and
Chamic
The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Achinese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) and in parts of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan, China. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of Malay ...
-speaking peoples.
While
Northern Vietnam
Northern Vietnam ( vi, Bắc Bộ) is one of three geographical regions within Vietnam. It consists of three administrative regions: the Northwest (Vùng Tây Bắc), the Northeast (Vùng Đông Bắc), and the Red River Delta (Đồng Bằng S ...
Kinh
The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt, lit=Viet people) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day Northern Vietnam and Southern China (Jing Islands, Dongxing, Guangxi). The native lang ...
people assimilated Han Chinese immigrants into their population, have a
sinicized
Sinicization, sinofication, sinification, or sinonization (from the prefix , 'Chinese, relating to China') is the process by which non-Chinese societies come under the influence of Chinese culture, particularly the language, societal norms, cul ...
culture and carry the
patrilineal
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
Han Chinese O-M7
haplogroup
A haplotype is a group of alleles in an organism that are inherited together from a single parent, and a haplogroup (haploid from the el, ἁπλοῦς, ''haploûs'', "onefold, simple" and en, group) is a group of similar haplotypes that share ...
,
Cham people
The Cham (Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people (Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territo ...
carry the patrilineal R-M17 haplogroup of
South Asian
South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, ...
Indian origin from South Asian merchants spreading Hinduism to Champa and marrying Cham females since Chams have no
matrilineal
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's Lineage (anthropology), lineage – and which can in ...
South Asian
mtDNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA ...
, and this fits with the
matrilocal
In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Thus, the female offspring of a mother remain l ...
structure of Cham families. Analysis of Vietnamese Kinh people's genetics show that within the last 800 years there was mixture between a
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
-like southern Asian and a Chinese ancestral component that happens to fit the time period in which Kinh expanded south from their
Red River Delta
The Red River Delta or Hong River Delta ( vi, Châu thổ sông Hồng) is the flat low-lying plain formed by the Red River and its distributaries merging with the Thái Bình River in northern Vietnam. ''Hồng'' (紅) is a Sino-Vietnamese wor ...
homeland in the ''
nam tiến
Nam, Nam, or The Nam are shortened terms for:
* Vietnam, which is also spelled ''Viet Nam''
* The Vietnam War
Nam, The Nam or NAM may also refer to:
Arts and media
* Nam, a fictional character in anime series ''Dragon Ball''
* ''NAM'' (video ...
'' (lit. 'southward advance') process, which also matches the event 700 years ago when the Cham population suffered massive losses. With the exception of Cham who are Austronesian speaking and Mang who are Austroasiatic speaking, the southern Han Chinese and all other ethnic groups in Vietnam share ancestry.
To the
Han
Han may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group.
** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...
Chinese, the country of Champa was known as 林邑 ''
Linyi
Linyi () is a prefecture-level city in the south of Shandong province, China. As of 2011, Linyi is the largest prefecture-level city in Shandong, both by area and population, Linyi borders Rizhao to the east, Weifang to the northeast, Zibo to ...
'' in Mandarin and ''Lam Yap'' in Cantonese and to the Vietnamese, ''Lâm Ấp'' (which is the
Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation of 林邑). It was founded in 192 AD.
[Historians like Vickery criticize the use of Chinese and Vietnamese sources uncritically in reconstructing the history of Champa.]
![Po Nagar temple Cham inscription](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Po_Nagar_temple_Cham_inscription.jpg)
Around the 4th century AD, Cham polities began to absorb much of
Indic influences, probably through its neighbor,
Funan
Funan (; km, ហ៊្វូណន, ; vi, Phù Nam, Chữ Hán: ) was the name given by Chinese cartographers, geographers and writers to an ancient Indianized state—or, rather a loose network of states ''(Mandala)''—located in mainla ...
.
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
was established as Champa began to create Sanskrit stone inscriptions and erect red brick
Hindu temple
A Hindu temple, or ''mandir'' or ''koil'' in Indian languages, is a house, seat and body of divinity for Hindus. It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together through worship, sacrifice, and devotion.; Quote: "The Hind ...
s. The first king acknowledged in the inscriptions is
Bhadravarman,
who reigned from 380 to 413 AD. At
Mỹ Sơn
Mỹ Sơn () is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples in central Vietnam, constructed between the 4th and the 14th century by the Kings of Champa, an Indianized kingdom of the Cham people. The temples are dedicated to the wo ...
, King Bhadravarman established a linga called Bhadresvara, whose name was a combination of the king's own name and that of the
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
god of gods
Shiva
Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...
. The worship of the original god-king under the name Bhadresvara and other names continued through the centuries that followed.
Being famously known as skillful sailors and navigators, as early as the 5th century AD, the Cham might have reached India by themselves. King
Gangaraja
Gangaraja was a king of early Champa. He was the founder of Gangaraja dynasty (often known as the Simhapura dynasty or the Gangeśvara).
Gangaraja was an intelligent and brave person, and was expected to ascend the throne of Champa. He ruled for ...
(r. 413–?) of Champa was perhaps the only known Southeast Asian ruler who traveled all the way to India shortly after his abdication. He personally went on pilgrimage in the
Ganges River
The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
,
Northeast India
, native_name_lang = mni
, settlement_type =
, image_skyline =
, image_alt =
, image_caption =
, motto =
, image_map = Northeast india.png
, ...
. His itinerary was confirmed by both indigenous Cham sources and Chinese chronicles.
George Coedès
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd President ...
notes that during the 2nd and 3rd century, an influx of Indian traders, priests, and scholars travelled along the early East Asia–South Asian subcontinent maritime route, could have visited and made communications with local Chamic communities along the coast of Central Vietnam. They played some roles in disseminating Indian culture and Buddhism. But that was not sustained and decisive as active "Indianized native societies," he argues, or Southeast Asian kingdoms that had already been "Indianized" like Funan, were the key factors of the process. On the other hand,
Paul Mus
Paul Mus (1902–1969) was a French writer and scholar. His studies focused on Viet Nam and other South-East Asian cultures.
He was born in Bourges to an academic family, and grew up in northern Viet Nam (Tonkin). In 1907 his father opened the Col ...
suggests the reason for the peacefully acceptance of Hinduism by the Cham elite were likely relating to the tropical
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
climate background shared by areas like the
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...
, coastal
mainland Southeast Asia
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
all the way from Myanmar to Vietnam. Monsoon societies tended to practice
animism
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...
, most importantly, the creed of earth spirit. To the early Southeast Asian peoples,
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
was somewhat similar to their original beliefs. This resulted in conversions to Hinduism and Buddhism peacefully in Champa with little sort of resistance.
Rudravarman I
Rudravarman I (r. 529–572 AD; Chinese: 高式 律陁羅跋摩; pinyin: ''Gāoshì Lütuóluóbámó'', Early Middle Chinese: ''*lɔ-dɑ-lɑ-bɑt-mɑ'') was a king of early Champa.
Rudravarman was a descendant of king Manorathavarman (Fàn Wé ...
of Champa (r. 529–572), a descendant of Gangaraja through maternal line, became king of Champa in 529 AD. During his reign, the temple complex of Bhadresvara was destroyed by a great fire in 535/536. He was succeeded by his son
Sambhuvarman
Jaya Sambhuvarman of Champa ( Chinese: 商菩跋摩 / Shang-bèi-bá-mā), personal name Fan Fanzhi ( Chinese: 范梵志), was the king of Lâm Ấp from 572 to 629 AD.
Relation with Sui China
In 595 AD, Sambhuvarman sent tribute to the Sui dyn ...
(r. 572–629). He reconstructed the temple of Bhadravarman and renamed it Shambhu-bhadreshvara. In 605, the
Sui Empire
The Sui dynasty (, ) was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China that lasted from 581 to 618. The Sui unified the Northern and Southern dynasties, thus ending the long period of division following the fall of the Western Jin dynasty, and layi ...
launched an
invasion
An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...
of
Lam Ap
Lam or LAM may refer to:
Organizations
* Laguna Art Museum, California, US
* Lam Eng Rubber, a Malaysian manufacturer
* Lam Research, American semiconductor equipment company
* LAM Mozambique Airlines, flag carrier airline of Mozambique
* Librar ...
in 605, overrunning Sambhuvarman's resistance, and sacked the Cham capital at
Tra Kieu Tra or TRA may refer to:
Biology
* TRA (gene), in humans encodes the protein T-cell receptor alpha locus
* Tra (gene), in ''Drosophila melanogaster'' encodes the protein female-specific protein transformer
* Tra gene, a transfer gene
* Triple re ...
. He died in 629 and was succeeded by his son,
Kandarpadharma
Kandarpadharma was the King of the Simhapura dynasty of Champa. He ruled from 629 to an unknown date, when he was succeeded by his son, King Prabhasadharma.Prabhasadharma
Jaya Prabhasadharmavarman (?–645 CE) was the King of Champa.
He was the son of King Kandarpadharma. He sent embassies to the court of Emperor Gaozong of Tang
Emperor Gaozong of Tang (21 July 628 – 27 December 683), personal name Li Z ...
, who died in 645.
![My Son E group](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/My_Son_E_group.jpg)
Several granite tablets and inscriptions from
My Son
My or MY may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station
* Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe
* ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak
* ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon
Business
* Market ...
,
Tra Kieu Tra or TRA may refer to:
Biology
* TRA (gene), in humans encodes the protein T-cell receptor alpha locus
* Tra (gene), in ''Drosophila melanogaster'' encodes the protein female-specific protein transformer
* Tra gene, a transfer gene
* Triple re ...
,
Hue
In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called Color appearance model#Color appearance parameters, color appearance parameters) of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a Stimulus (physiology ...
,
Khanh Hoa dated 653–687 report a Cham king named
Jaya Prakāśadharma who ascended the throne of Champa as Vikrantavarman I (r. 653–686). Prakāśadharma had thoroughly knowledge of Sanskrit learning, Sanskrit literature, and Indian cosmology. He authorized many constructions of religious sanctuaries at My Son and several building projects throughout the kingdom, laying down foundations of
Champa art and architectural styles. He also sent many embassies regularly to the
Tang Empire
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
and neighboring Khmer. The Chinese reckoned Champa during the 7th century as the chief tributary state of the South, on a par with the Korean kingdoms of
Koguryŏ
Goguryeo (37 BC–668 AD) ( ) also called Goryeo (), was a Korean kingdom located in the northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula and the southern and central parts of Northeast China. At its peak of power, Goguryeo controlled most ...
in the Northeast and
Baekje
Baekje or Paekche (, ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BC to 660 AD. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla.
Baekje was founded by Onjo, the third son of Goguryeo's founder Jum ...
in the East — "though the latter was rivaled by Japan."
Between the 7th to 10th centuries AD, the Cham polities rose to become a naval power; as Cham ports attracted local and foreign traders, Cham fleets also controlled the trade in spices and silk in the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...
, between China, the
Indonesian archipelago
The islands of Indonesia, also known as the Indonesian Archipelago ( id, Kepulauan Indonesia) or Nusantara, may refer either to the islands comprising the country of Indonesia or to the geographical groups which include its islands.
History ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. They supplemented their income from the trade routes not only by exporting ivory and aloe, but also by engaging in piracy and raiding. However, the rising influence of Champa caught the attention of a neighbouring
thalassocracy
A thalassocracy or thalattocracy sometimes also maritime empire, is a state with primarily maritime realms, an empire at sea, or a seaborne empire. Traditional thalassocracies seldom dominate interiors, even in their home territories. Examples ...
that considered Champa as a rival, the Javanese (
Javaka
Zabag ( Indonesian: ''Sabak''; Chinese: 阇婆 or 闍婆 "''She-bó''"'','' "''Shepo''"; Sanskrit: ''Javaka''; Tamil: சாவகம் "''Savakam''"; Arabic: الزابج "''Zabaj''"; Latin: Jabad) is thought to have been an ancient kingdom loca ...
, probably refers to
Srivijaya
Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...
ruler of Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Java). In 767, the Tonkin coast was raided by a
Javanese fleet (Daba) and Kunlun pirates,
Champa was subsequently assaulted by Javanese or
Kunlun
The Kunlun Mountains ( zh, s=昆仑山, t=崑崙山, p=Kūnlún Shān, ; ug, كۇئېنلۇن تاغ تىزمىسى / قۇرۇم تاغ تىزمىسى ) constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending for more than . In the bro ...
vessels in 774 and 787.
In 774 an assault was launched on Po-Nagar in Nha Trang where the pirates demolished temples, while in 787 an assault was launched on Virapura, near
Phan Rang Phan may refer to:
* Phan (surname), a Vietnamese family name
* Phan District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand
* Phan River, Bình Thuận Province, Vietnam
* Phan (tray)
Phan ( th, พาน, ) is an artistically decorated tray with pedestal. It ...
.
The Javanese invaders continued to occupy southern Champa coastline until being driven off by
Indravarman I
Indravarman I ( km, ឥន្រ្ទវរ្ម័នទី១) was a ruler of Khmer Empire who reigned from Hariharalaya between 877/78 and 889/890 CE.
Indravarman's ancestors
According to the inscriptions of the Práḥ Kô temple, consec ...
(r. 787–801) in 799.
In 875, a new Buddhist dynasty founded by
Indravarman II
Indravarman II ( km, ឥន្ទ្រវរ្ម័នទី២) was the ruler of the Khmer Empire, son of Jayavarman VII.Higham, C., 2001, The Civilization of Angkor, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, There is some dispute regarding the actual ...
(r. ? – 893) moved the capital or the major center of Champa to the north again. Indravarman II established the city of
Indrapura, near
My Son
My or MY may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station
* Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe
* ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak
* ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon
Business
* Market ...
and ancient
Simhapura
Sinhapura ("Lion City" for Sanskrit; IAST: Siṃhapura) was the capital of the legendary Indian king Sinhabahu. It has been mentioned in the Buddhist legends about Prince Vijaya. The name is also transliterated as ''Sihapura'' or ''Singhapura'' ...
.
Mahayana Buddhism
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing bra ...
eclipsed Hinduism, becoming the state religion. Art historians often attribute the period between 875 to 982 as the Golden Age of Champa art and Champa culture (distinguish with modern Cham culture). Unfortunately, a Vietnamese invasion in 982 led by king
Le Hoan of
Dai Viet
Dai may refer to:
Names
* Dai (given name), a Welsh or Japanese masculine given name
* Dai (surname) (戴), a Chinese surname
Places and regimes
* Dai Commandery, a commandery of the state of Zhao and in early imperial China
* Dai County, in Xinz ...
, and following
Lưu Kế Tông
Lưu Kế Tông or Lưu Kỳ Tông (?–989) ( chữ Hán: 劉繼宗; Chinese: Liu Ji-zong), was the king of Champa from 986 to 989.
After the Vietnamese invasion in 982 led by Lê Hoàn that devastated the northern region of Champa, the new Cha ...
(r. 986–989), a fanatical Vietnamese usurper who took the throne of Champa in 983, had brought mass destruction in Northern Champa. Indrapura was still one amongst major centers of Champa until being surpassed by
Vijaya
Vijaya may refer to:
Places
* Vijaya (Champa), a city-state and former capital of the historic Champa in what is now Vietnam
* Vijayawada, a city in Andhra Pradesh, India
People
* Prince Vijaya of Sri Lanka (fl. 543–505 BC), earliest recorde ...
in the 12th century.
Afterwards, during the 1000s,
Rajah
''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested fr ...
Kiling, the Hindu king of the Philippine kingdom of the
Rajahnate of Butuan
Butuan also called the Butan Rajanate and the Kingdom of Butuan (; Butuanon: ; ; ) was a precolonial Philippine polity centred on the northern Mindanao island in the modern city of Butuan in what is now the southern Philippines. It was known f ...
instigated a commercial rivalry with the Champa Civilization by requesting for diplomatic equality in court protocol towards his Rajahnate, from the
Chinese Empire
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the ''Book of Documents'' (early chapter ...
, which was later denied by the Chinese Imperial court, mainly because of favoritism over the Champa civilization. However, the future Rajah of Butuan, Sri Bata Shaja later succeeded in attaining diplomatic equality with Champa by sending the flamboyant ambassador Likanhsieh. Likanhsieh shocked the
Emperor Zhenzong
Emperor Zhenzong of Song (23 December 968 – 23 March 1022), personal name Zhao Heng, was the third emperor of the Song dynasty of China. He reigned from 997 to his death in 1022. His personal name was originally Zhao Dechang, but was changed ...
by presenting a memorial engraved on a gold tablet, some
white dragon
The white dragon ( cy, Y Ddraig Wen) is a symbol associated in Welsh mythology with the Anglo-Saxons.
Origin of tradition
The earliest usage of the white dragon as a symbol of the Anglo-Saxons is found in the ''Historia Brittonum''. The releva ...
(''Bailong'' 白龍)
camphor
Camphor () is a waxy, colorless solid with a strong aroma. It is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. It is found in the wood of the camphor laurel ('' Cinnamomum camphora''), a large evergreen tree found in East Asia; and in the k ...
,
Moluccan
Moluccans are the Austronesian-speaking and Papuan-speaking ethnic groups indigenous to the Maluku Islands (also called the Moluccas), Indonesia. The region was historically known as the Spice Islands, and today consists of two Indonesian provin ...
cloves, and a
South Sea slave at the eve of an important ceremonial state sacrifice.
Cham merchants then immigrated to what is the now the
Sultanate of Sulu
The Sultanate of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Kasultanan sin Sūg'', كاسولتانن سين سوڬ; malay language, Malay: ''Kesultanan Sulu''; fil, Sultanato ng Sulu; Chavacano: ''Sultanato de Sulu/Joló''; ar, سلطنة سولك) ...
which was still Hindu at that time and known as
Lupah Sug
In the Philippine history, the ''Lupah Sug'' ( Jawi: سوگ; ''Sūg'') was a predecessor state before the establishment of Sultanate of Sulu.
History
Hindu principality of Maimbung
Sulu that time was called ''Lupah Sug'' and ruled by the Ind ...
, which is also in the Philippines. The Cham migrants were called Orang Dampuan. The Champa civilization and the port-kingdom of
Sulu
Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilāya sin Lupa' Sūg''; tl, Lalawigan ng Sulu), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago and part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamor ...
engaged in commerce with each other which resulted in merchant Chams settling in Sulu from the 10th-13th centuries. The Orang Dampuan were slaughtered by envious native Sulu Buranuns due to the wealth of the Orang Dampuan. The Buranun were then subjected to retaliatory slaughter by the Orang Dampuan. Harmonious commerce between Sulu and the Orang Dampuan was later restored. The Yakans were descendants of the Taguima-based Orang Dampuan who came to Sulu from Champa.
![Le Bayon (Angkor Thom) (2334986747)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Le_Bayon_%28Angkor_Thom%29_%282334986747%29.jpg)
The twelfth century in Champa is defined by constant social upheavals and warfare, with
Khmer invasions were frequent. The
Khmer Empire conquered Northern Champa in 1145, but were quickly repulsed by king
Jaya Harivarman I
Jaya Harivarman I (? – 1167) was a Cham noble and King of Champa. Rising to power during the 12th Century Khmer–Cham wars, he spent much of his rule consolidating his control over Champa. He was succeeded by his son, Jaya Harivarman II.
Bio ...
(r. 1148–1167). Another Angkorian invasion of Champa led by
Suryavarman II
Suryavarman II ( km, សូរ្យវរ្ម័នទី២), posthumously named Paramavishnuloka, was a Khmer king from 1113 AD to 1145/1150 AD and the builder of Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world which he dedicated t ...
in summer 1150 also was quickly stalled, and Suryavarman died en route. Champa then plummeted into an eleven-year civil war between Jaya Harivarman and his oppositions, which resulted in Champa reunified under Jaya Harivarman by 1161. After having restored the kingdom and its prosperity, in June 1177
Jaya Indravarman IV
Jaya Indravarman IV was the king of Champa, a former region located within modern-day Vietnam, from 1167–1192. He probably was the same person as Panduranga ruler, Po Klong Garai. A usurper, "he called himself Jaya Indravarman on Vatu and said h ...
(r. 1167–1192) launched a surprise naval assault on
Angkor
Angkor ( km, អង្គរ , 'Capital city'), also known as Yasodharapura ( km, យសោធរបុរៈ; sa, यशोधरपुर),Headly, Robert K.; Chhor, Kylin; Lim, Lam Kheng; Kheang, Lim Hak; Chun, Chen. 1977. ''Cambodian-Engl ...
, capital of Cambodia, plundering it, slaying the Khmer king, leading to Cham occupation of Cambodia for the next four years.
Jayavarman VII
Jayavarman VII, posthumous name of Mahaparamasaugata ( km, ជ័យវរ្ម័នទី៧, c. 1122–1218), was king of the Khmer Empire. He was the son of King Dharanindravarman II (r. 1150–1160) and Queen Sri Jayarajacudamani.
He was ...
of Angkor launched several counterattack campaigns in the 1190s (1190, 1192, 1194–1195, 1198–1203), conquering Champa and made it a dependency of the
Khmer Empire for 30 years.
![Map of the Kingdom of Champa (1380) during the reign of King Che Bunga](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Map_of_the_Kingdom_of_Champa_%281380%29_during_the_reign_of_King_Che_Bunga.png)
Champa was subjected for Mongol
Yuan invasion in 1283–1285. Before the invasion,
Qubilai Khan ordered the establishment of a mobile secretariat (''xingsheng'') in Champa for the purpose of dominating the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean trade networks. It demonstrated the strategic importance of Champa as a naval juggernaut of medieval maritime Eurasia. The Yuan campaign led by General Sogetu against the Cham began in February 1283 with their initial capture of
Vijaya
Vijaya may refer to:
Places
* Vijaya (Champa), a city-state and former capital of the historic Champa in what is now Vietnam
* Vijayawada, a city in Andhra Pradesh, India
People
* Prince Vijaya of Sri Lanka (fl. 543–505 BC), earliest recorde ...
forcing the Cham king
Indravarman V
Indravarman V, Harideva, or Jaya Simhavarman, was a king of Champa whose reign began in 1257 when he assassinated his uncle Jaya Indravarman VI, but waited until 1266 for his coronation. Declining to submit himself in person to the Mongol Khan, K ...
(r. 1258–1287) and
Prince Harijit to wage a guerrilla resistance against the Yuan for two years, together with
Dai Viet
Dai may refer to:
Names
* Dai (given name), a Welsh or Japanese masculine given name
* Dai (surname) (戴), a Chinese surname
Places and regimes
* Dai Commandery, a commandery of the state of Zhao and in early imperial China
* Dai County, in Xinz ...
, eventually repelled the Mongols back to China by June 1285. After the Yuan wars ended decisively in 1288, Dai Viet king
Trần Nhân Tông
Trần Nhân Tông (7 December 1258–16 December 1308), personal name Trần Khâm, temple name Nhân Tông, was the third emperor of the Trần dynasty, reigning over Đại Việt from 1278 to 1293. After ceding the throne to his son Tr ...
spent his retirement years in Northern Champa, and arranged marriage between his daughter, Princess
Huyền Trân
Princess Huyền Trân (, 玄 珍 公 主) (1289-1340) was a princess of the Trần Dynasty of Đại Việt, who later married to King Jaya Simhavarman III of Champa and titled queen consort Parameshvari of Champa from 1306 to 1307.
Biography
Sh ...
, with Prince Harijit–now reigning Jaya Simhavarman III (r. 1288–1307) in 1306 for exchanging of peace and territory. From 1307 to 1401, not even a single surviving indigenous source exists in Champa, and almost of its 14th-century history have to rely on Chinese and Vietnamese sources. Engraving Sanskrit inscription, the prestige language of religious and political elites in Champa, stopped in 1253. No more granduer temple and construction project was built after 1300. These marked the beginning of Champa's decline.
From 1367 to 1390, according to Chinese and Vietnamese sources,
Che Bong Nga, who ruled as king of Champa from 1360 to 1390, had restored Champa. He launched six invasions of Dai Viet during the deadly
Champa–Đại Việt War (1367–1390), sacking its capital in 1371, 1377, 1378, and 1383, having nearly undermined the Dai Viet to its inevitable collapse. Che Bong Nga was only stopped in 1390 on a naval battle in which the Vietnamese deployed firearms for the first time, and miraculously killed the king of Champa, ending the devastating war.
After
Che Bong Nga, Champa seemingly rebounced to its status quo under a new dynasty of
Jaya Simhavarman VI (r. 1390–1400). His successor
Indravarman VI
Indravarman VI, Ba Dich Lai, Chang-pa-ti-lai, Virabhadravarman, or Ngauk Klaung Vijaya was a king of Champa, ruling from 1400 to 1441. He took the regnal name Indravarman when crowned in 1432.
Reign
Vr̥ṣu-Viṣṇujāti Virabhadravarman or Vr ...
(r. 1400–1441) reigned in the next 41 years, expanding Champa's territory to the
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta ( vi, Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long, lit=Nine Dragon River Delta or simply vi, Đồng Bằng Sông Mê Kông, lit=Mekong River Delta, label=none), also known as the Western Region ( vi, Miền Tây, links=no) or South-weste ...
amidst decline of the
Angkorian Empire. One of Indravarman's nephews, Prince
Śrīndra-Viṣṇukīrti Virabhadravarman, became king of Champa in 1441. By the mid 15th century, Champa might have been suffering a steady dooming decline. No inscription survived after 1456. The Vietnamese under strong king
Le Thanh Tong launched an invasion of Champa in early 1471, decimating the capital of Vijaya and most of northern Champa. For early historians like
Georges Maspero
René Gaston Georges Maspero (21 August 1872 – 21 September 1942) was a French sinologist.
He was the son of egyptologist Gaston Maspero and half brother of sinologist Henri Maspero.
A colonial governor of French Indochina, he was appointed r ...
, "the 1471 conquest had concluded the end of the Champa Kingdom." Maspero, like other early orientalist scholars, by his logics, arbitrated the history of Champa only become "worthy" subject for their study when it adapted and maintained "superior" Indian civilization.
Decline
![1801 Cary Map of the East Indies and Southeast Asia signifying Champa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/1801_Cary_Map_of_the_East_Indies_and_Southeast_Asia_signifying_Champa.png)
In the
Cham–Vietnamese War (AD 1471), Champa suffered serious defeats at the hands of the Vietnamese, in which 120,000 people were either captured or killed. 50 members of the Cham royal family and some 20–30,000 were taken prisoners and deported, including the king of Champa
Tra Toan, who died along his way to the north in captivity. Contemporary reports from China record a Cham envoy telling to the Chinese court: "Annam destroyed our country" with addition notes of massive burning and looting, in which 40 to 60,000 people were slaughtered. The kingdom was reduced to a small enclave near
Nha Trang
Nha Trang ( or ; ) is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the north by Ninh Hòa District, Ninh Hoà town, on the south by Cam Ranh city and on the west by Diên Khánh Distri ...
and
Phan Rang Phan may refer to:
* Phan (surname), a Vietnamese family name
* Phan District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand
* Phan River, Bình Thuận Province, Vietnam
* Phan (tray)
Phan ( th, พาน, ) is an artistically decorated tray with pedestal. It ...
with many Chams fleeing to
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
.
Champa was reduced to the principalities of
Panduranga
Vithoba, also known as Vi(t)thal(a) and Panduranga, is a Hindu deity predominantly worshipped in the Indian state of Maharashtra and Karnataka. He is generally considered as a manifestation of the god Vishnu, or his avatar Krishna. Vithoba is o ...
and
Kauthara at the beginning of the 16th century. Kauthara was annexed by the Vietnamese in 1653. From 1799 to 1832, Panduranga lost its hereditary monarchy status, with kings selected and appointed by the Vietnamese court in
Huế
Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...
.
The last remaining principality of Champa, Panduranga, survived until August 1832, when
Minh Mang
{{Orphan, date=December 2021
Minh (Chữ Nôm: 明) is a popular unisex given name of Vietnamese origin, written using the Chinese character (明) meaning "bright", and is also popular among other East Asian names. The Chinese name Ming has the sa ...
of Vietnam began his purge against rival
Le Van Duyet's faction, and accused the Cham leaders for supporting Duyet. Minh Mang ordered the last Cham king and the vice-king to be arrested in Hue, while incorporating the last remnants of Champa into what are
Ninh Thuan and
Binh Thuan provinces. Two widespread Cham revolts against the court of Minh Mang's oppression arose in 1833–1835, the latter led by khatib
Ja Thak Wa–a Cham Bani cleric–which was more successful and even briefly reestablished a
Cham state in short period of time, before being crushed by Minh Mang's forces.
The unfortunate defeat of the people of Panduranga in their struggle against Vietnamese oppression also sealed their fate and remnant of Champa. A large chunk of the Cham in Panduranga were subjected to
forced assimilation
Forced assimilation is an involuntary process of cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups during which they are forced to adopt language, identity, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality, perceptions, way of lif ...
by the Vietnamese, while many Cham, including indigenous highland peoples, were indiscriminate killed by the Vietnamese in massacres, particularly from 1832 to 1836, during the Sumat and Ja Thak Wa uprisings. Bani mosques were raze the ground. Temples were set on fire. Cham villages and their aquatic livelihoods were annihilated. By that time, the Cham totally lost their ancestors' seafaring and shipbuilding traditions.
Minh Mang's son and successor
Thiệu Trị
Thiệu Trị (, vi-hantu, 紹 治, lit. "inheritance of prosperity"; 6 June 1807 – 4 November 1847), personal name Nguyễn Phúc Miên Tông or Nguyễn Phúc Tuyền, was the third emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. He was the eldest son of Em ...
however reverted most of his father's strict policies against Catholic Christians and ethnic minority. Under Thiệu Trị and
Tu Duc, the Cham were reallowed to practice their religions with little prohibition.
Only a small fraction, or about 40,000 Cham people in the old Panduranga were remaining in 1885 when the French completed their
acquisition of Vietnam. The French colonial administration prohibited Kinh discrimination and prejudice against Cham and indigenous highland peoples, put an end to Vietnamese cultural genocide of the Cham.
Government
King
The
King of Champa
King of Champa is the title ruler of Champa. Champa rulers often use two Hinduist style titles: ''raja-di-raja'' ( " king of kings"; written here in Devanagari since the Cham used their own Cham script) or ''po-tana-raya'' ("lord of all territ ...
is the title ruler of Champa. Champa rulers often use two
Hinduist style titles: ''raja-di-raja'' ( "
raja
''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested f ...
of rajas" or ''
king of kings
King of Kings; grc-gre, Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων, Basileùs Basiléōn; hy, արքայից արքա, ark'ayits ark'a; sa, महाराजाधिराज, Mahārājadhirāja; ka, მეფეთ მეფე, ''Mepet mepe'' ...
'': written here in
Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...
since the Cham used their own
Cham script
The Cham script is a Brahmic abugida used to write Cham, an Austronesian language spoken by some 245,000 Chams in Vietnam and Cambodia. It is written horizontally left to right, just like other Brahmic abugidas.
History
The Cham script is a ...
) or ''pu po tana raya'' ("lord of all territories"). They would be addressed by style ''ganreh patrai'' (his Majesty). Officially, the king was the patron of art and construction. Majestic temples and shrines were built dedicating in honor of the king of kings, his ancestors, and their beloved gods (usually Śiva). Some charismatic Cham kings declared themselves ''Protector of Champa'' in celebrating royal ceremony and coronation (''abhiseka'') which involves supernatural and spiritual rituals to demonstrate the king's authority.
The
regnal name
A regnal name, or regnant name or reign name, is the name used by monarchs and popes during their reigns and, subsequently, historically. Since ancient times, some monarchs have chosen to use a different name from their original name when they ac ...
of the Champa rulers originated from the Hindu tradition, often consisting of titles and aliases. Titles (prefix) like: Jaya ( "victory"), Maha ( "great"), Sri ( "glory"). Aliases (stem) like: Bhadravarman, Vikrantavarman, Rudravarman, Simhavarman, Indravarman, Paramesvaravarman, Harivarman... Among them, the suffix -varman belongs to the
Kshatriya
Kshatriya ( hi, क्षत्रिय) (from Sanskrit ''kṣatra'', "rule, authority") is one of the four varna (social orders) of Hindu society, associated with warrior aristocracy. The Sanskrit term ''kṣatriyaḥ'' is used in the con ...
class and is only for those leaders of the Champa Alliance.
The 13th century Chinese gazetteer account ''
Zhu Fan Zhi
''Zhu Fan Zhi'' (), variously translated as '' A Description of Barbarian Nations'', ''Records of Foreign People'', or other similar titles, is a 13th-century Song Dynasty work by Zhao Rukuo. The work is a collection of descriptions of countrie ...
'' (c. 1225) describes the Cham king 'wears a headdress of gold and adorns his body with strings of jewels' and either rides on an elephant or being lifted on a 'cloth hammock by four men' when he goes outside the palace. When the king attends the court audience, he is encircled by 'thirty female attendants who carry swords and shields or betel nuts'. Court officials would make reports to the king, then make one prostration before leaving.
The last king of Champa was deposed by
Minh Mạng
Minh Mạng () or Minh Mệnh (, vi-hantu, 明 命, lit. "the bright favour of Heaven"; 25 May 1791 – 20 January 1841; born Nguyễn Phúc Đảm, also known as Nguyễn Phúc Kiểu) was the second emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of V ...
in 1832.
Administration
During the reign of the king
Prakasadharma (r. 653–686 AD), when Champa was briefly ruled by a strong monarch, the territories of the kingdom stretch from present-day
Quảng Bình to
Khánh Hòa. An internal division called
viṣaya (district) was first introduced. There were at least two viṣaya: Caum and Midit. Each of them has a handful number of local ''koṣṭhāgāras'' –known as 'source of stable income to upkeep the worship of three gods.
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, northern Champa was consisted by several known districts (viṣaya, zhou 洲): Amaravati (
Quảng Ngãi
Quảng Ngãi () is a city in central Vietnam. It serves as the capital city of Quảng Ngãi Province. Quảng Ngãi City borders Tư Nghĩa District to the south and west, Sơn Tịnh District to the northwest and Bình Sơn District to the n ...
), Ulik (
Thừa Thiên–Huế), Vvyar (
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 Quả ...
),
Jriy (southern
Quảng Bình), and Traik (northern
Quảng Bình). Other junctions like Panduranga remained quietly autonomous.
Federation or absolutism?
![Indochina_map_(1770s)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Indochina_map_%281770s%29.jpg)
The classical narrative of 'the Champa Kingdom' brought by earlier generations of scholarship,
Georges Maspero
René Gaston Georges Maspero (21 August 1872 – 21 September 1942) was a French sinologist.
He was the son of egyptologist Gaston Maspero and half brother of sinologist Henri Maspero.
A colonial governor of French Indochina, he was appointed r ...
and
George Coedes
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd President ...
, created the illusion of a unified Champa. Recent revisionist historians in the 1980s, for example
Po Dharma
Po Dharma (9 October 1948–22 February 2019) was an activist of Vietnam. He was also a Cham cultural historian.
Po Dharma was a Cham, his birth name is Quảng Văn Đủ. He was born in Chất Thường Village (Cham: Palei Baoh Dana), Ninh P ...
and
Trần Quốc Vượng, refuted the concept of single Champa. Chinese historical texts, Cham inscriptions, and especially the Cham annals, the ''
Sakkarai dak rai patao'', both confirm the existence of multi-Campa scenarios. Po Dharma argues that Champa was not a single kingdom or centralized in the manner of Đại Việt but likely a confederation of kingdom(s) and individual city-states for most of its history. For several periods from the 700s to 1471, there was the king of kings or the overlord based out of the most significant powerful cities like
Indrapura and
Vijaya
Vijaya may refer to:
Places
* Vijaya (Champa), a city-state and former capital of the historic Champa in what is now Vietnam
* Vijayawada, a city in Andhra Pradesh, India
People
* Prince Vijaya of Sri Lanka (fl. 543–505 BC), earliest recorde ...
, who wielded more power, influence, and sense of unity over the other Cham kings and princes, and perhaps those minor local kings and princes (Yuvarāja – not necessary mean crown prince) or regional military commander/warlords (senāpati) were from local that had no connection with the dominant ruling dynasty or could be a member of that royal lineage within the perimeter of the mandala. Mandala is the term coined by
O. W. Wolters
Oliver William Wolters (8 June 1915 – 5 December 2000) was a British academic, historian and author. He was also a Malayan civil servant and administrator. At his death, he was the Goldwin Smith Professor of Southeast Asian History Emeritus ...
describing the distribution of state power among small states within large kingdoms in premodern Southeast Asia.
Two notable examples of this multi-centric nature of Champa were the principalities of Kauthara and
Pāṇḍuraṅga. When Northern Champa and Vijaya fell to the Vietnamese in 1471, Kauthara and Pāṇḍuraṅga persisted existing untouched. Kauthara fell to the Vietnamese 200 years later in 1653, while Panduranga was annexed in 1832. Pāṇḍuraṅga had its full list of kings ruled from the 13th century until 1832, which both Vietnamese and European sources had verified. So Pāṇḍuraṅga remained autonomous and could conduct its foreign affairs without permission from the court of the king of kings.
[Vickery conjectures that by the 1100s, North (Indrapura, Amaravati, Vijaya) and South Champa (Kauthara, Panduranga) had become quite separate.][However, there were two exceptional periods in Cham history when multiple Cham and foreign sources firmly indicated that there was only single king exercising strong authority over the whole Cham realms during given period. They were ]Jaya Harivarman I
Jaya Harivarman I (? – 1167) was a Cham noble and King of Champa. Rising to power during the 12th Century Khmer–Cham wars, he spent much of his rule consolidating his control over Champa. He was succeeded by his son, Jaya Harivarman II.
Bio ...
of the mid-12th century and the Virabhadravarmadevas (Indravarman VI
Indravarman VI, Ba Dich Lai, Chang-pa-ti-lai, Virabhadravarman, or Ngauk Klaung Vijaya was a king of Champa, ruling from 1400 to 1441. He took the regnal name Indravarman when crowned in 1432.
Reign
Vr̥ṣu-Viṣṇujāti Virabhadravarman or Vr ...
and Virabhadravarman) of the early 15th century.
According to the ''Huanghua Sidaji'' (皇華四達記, 800 AD?), which then was complied into the ''
Old Book of Tang
The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...
'', a Tang prime minister named
Jia Dan Jia Dan (, 730 – 805), courtesy name Dunshi () and formally Duke Yuanjing of Wei (), was a Chinese cartographer, military general, and politician from Cangzhou, Hebei during the Tang dynasty.
Background
Jia Dan was born in 730, during the reign ...
detailing his itineraries to Champa, begin with his arrival in a northern Cham state called
Huánwáng (環王國), probably is located in modern-day
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 Quả ...
that had invaded the Tang southernmost province of Annan in 803. The center of Champa by the late 8th and early 9th centuries was in the south, in Gǔdá Guó 古笪國 (Kauthara), Bēntuólàng 奔陀浪洲 (Pāṇḍuraṅga). Chinese texts from 758 to 809 referred whole Champa as Huánwáng, but it must be a convenient way for the Chinese to assume the name of a state that had deployed diplomacy and war with them to be the toponym for all territories of the Cham confederation. The Chinese barely defeated the Cham and recovered lost regions in 809.
Harivarman I
Harivarman I was the king of Champa from around 802 to 817. During the period from 758 to 859 AD, mandala Champa was collectively called as Huánwáng by the Chinese, which obviously was not the proper name of Champa.
Harivarman was the brother ...
(r. 803–?) left a document in
Po Nagar
Po Nagar is a Cham temple tower founded sometime before 781 and located in the medieval principality of Kauthara, near modern Nha Trang in Vietnam. It is dedicated to Yan Po Nagar, the goddess of the country, who came to be identified with the ...
Temple (
Nha Trang
Nha Trang ( or ; ) is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the north by Ninh Hòa District, Ninh Hoà town, on the south by Cam Ranh city and on the west by Diên Khánh Distri ...
) dating from 817, explaining his campaign in northern Champa to expel the Chinese ("''Cinas''" in the inscription, today ''lauv'' in modern Cham language) when they menaced to the northern territories.
Military
The Cham traditionally used large numbers of soldiers (''baol'') for their infantry and elephant corps. A typical Cham elite warrior (''haluwbilau''/''haluw bilang'', meaning "military officer") wore various types of armor such as rattan armor, leather armor, scale lamellar, chainmail, and buff coats. According to an article published by ''
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
'' in 2014, Champa's navy was considered unrivaled.
[ Their navy consisted of mostly large war boats powered by oars that could carry many marines to engage the Khmer and Vietnamese ships in close-quarters combat. However, after the gunpowder age, Chinese firearms - including rockets and handguns were imported and employed by most Southeast Asian rulers in Dai Viet, Lan Na, and Luchuan. But Champa and Ayutthaya failed to adopt this technology and suffered the consequences. In 1390, the powerful Cham ruler ]Po Binasuor
Po Binasuor (died 1390), Ngo-ta Ngo-che, Cei Bunga, Chế Bồng Nga (''Bunga'' is the Malay word for 'flower', and "Chế" is the Vietnamese transliteration of Cei, a Cham word that means "uncle" - and was, in the days of Champa, frequently used ...
died in a naval battle. The Vietnamese records (written in Chữ Hán
Chữ Hán (𡨸漢, literally "Chinese characters", ), Chữ Nho (𡨸儒, literally "Confucian characters", ) or Hán tự (漢字, ), is the Vietnamese term for Chinese characters, used to write Văn ngôn (which is a form of Classical Chinese ...
) attribute his death to the weapon called the Huochong
''Huochong'' () was the Chinese name for hand cannons. The oldest confirmed metal ''huochong'', also the first cannon, is a bronze hand cannon bearing an inscription dating it to 1298 (see Xanadu Gun, Xanadu gun).
By the time of the Ming Dynast ...
, long understood as referring to cannon but more probably a handgun. These new weapons technology helped shift the balance of power between the two kingdoms.
File: War Carriage, 11th-13th century, Binh Dinh - Museum of Cham Sculpture - Danang, Vietnam - DSC01459.JPG, Sculpture of Cham mounted archers on chariots. 11th–13th century.
File: Bayonnavalbat01.JPG, Depiction of a Cham–Khmer naval battle, stone relief at the Bayon
The Bayon ( km, ប្រាសាទបាយ័ន, ) is a richly decorated Khmer temple related to Buddhism at Angkor in Cambodia. Built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the state temple of the King Jayavarman VII ( km, ព្រះ ...
.
File: Various types of armor worn by 12th century Champa marines.jpg, 12th-century Champa marines wore various armor.
File:Bas-reliefs_du_Bayon_(Angkor)_(6912550571).jpg, Cham soldier in helmet fighting Khmer soldier, Bas-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
at Bayon
The Bayon ( km, ប្រាសាទបាយ័ន, ) is a richly decorated Khmer temple related to Buddhism at Angkor in Cambodia. Built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the state temple of the King Jayavarman VII ( km, ព្រះ ...
temple in Cambodia
Geography of historical Champa
Between the 2nd and the 15th centuries AD, Champa's territorial extent at times included the modern provinces of 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 Quả ...
, Thừa Thiên Huế, Da Nang
Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one ...
, Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi
Quảng Ngãi () is a city in central Vietnam. It serves as the capital city of Quảng Ngãi Province. Quảng Ngãi City borders Tư Nghĩa District to the south and west, Sơn Tịnh District to the northwest and Bình Sơn District to the n ...
, Bình Định, Phú Yên, Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận, and Bình Thuận, and most of the Central Highlands might have been lightly governed or influenced by coastal Cham.[Although evidence of an ancient Cham presence has been found as far north as Quảng Bình province, the group's present numbers in Vietnam are confined to small areas along the south-central coast (Bình Thuận and Ninh Thuận) and the Cambodian border.][The proximity of various highland peoples to the coastal areas, the linguistic and cultural ties some of them (notably the Rhadé, Jarai, Roglai, and Chru) shared with the Cham, and the scattered archaeological evidence of a historical Cham presence in the Central Highlands were all clearly recognized. In general, however, the French perceived these upland groups as at best peripheral to Champa proper, and they only appear in the narrative as hostile "barbarians" mentioned in certain Cham inscriptions.] Through Cham territory included the mountainous zones west of the coastal plain and (at times) extended into present-day Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
, for the most part, the Cham remained a seafaring people dedicated to trading and maintained few settlements of any size away from the coast. Scholarships also hold consensus that Champa, like Dai Viet, was always polyethnic and ethnic flexible, not just the Cham people alone, but also encompassed several different ethnic groups such as Jarai, Rhadé, and Bahnar/Bahnaric-speaking and Katuic-speaking peoples. It is clear that the Katuic-speaking and Bahnaric-speaking peoples of the Central Highlands in Vietnam and Central Laos had been engaged a long direct and complex contact with Chamic-speaking peoples, resulting in Chamic mutual lexical similarities of the two Austroasiatic ethnolinguistic groups, although it highly likely that most of these borrowings came to Katuics and Bahnarics via the Highland Chamics. Others argue that Cham rule once might have stretched as far west as the Mekong River
The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annuall ...
in the present-day Lao province of Campassak. However, boundaries between premodern Southeast Asian states in most of the cases were remote hinterlands, extreme mountains and limestones covered by thick jungles with few inland trade routes, and can not be accurately determined.
Historical Champa consisted of up to five principalities:
* Indrapura ("City of Indra
Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes/ref> I ...
", ''Foshi'', ''Phật thành/Phật thệ thành'') was the capital of Champa from about 875 to about 1100 AD. It was located at the site of the modern village of Đồng Dương, near the modern city of Da Nang
Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one ...
. Also found in the region of Da Nang is the ancient Cham city of Singhapura ("City of the Lion"), the location of which has been identified with an archaeological site in the modern village of Trà Kiệu
Trà Kiệu is a village in Duy Sơn commune, Duy Xuyên district, Quảng Nam province, Vietnam.
Geography
Trà Kiệu is located in the Thu Bồn river valley inland from Hội An, which has since moved putting the site on the southern bank ...
, and the valley of Mỹ Sơn
Mỹ Sơn () is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples in central Vietnam, constructed between the 4th and the 14th century by the Kings of Champa, an Indianized kingdom of the Cham people. The temples are dedicated to the wo ...
, where a number of ruined temples and towers can still be seen. The associated port was at modern Hội An
Hội An (), formerly known as Fai-Fo or Faifoo, is a city with a population of approximately 120,000 in Vietnam's Quảng Nam Province and is noted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Along with the Cu Lao Cham archipelago, it is part o ...
. The territory once controlled by this principality included present-day 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 Quả ...
, and Thừa Thiên–Huế provinces.
* Amaravati was located in present-day Châu Sa citadel of Quảng Ngãi Province. The earliest mention of Amaravati is from an AD 1160 inscription at Po Nagar.
* Vijaya
Vijaya may refer to:
Places
* Vijaya (Champa), a city-state and former capital of the historic Champa in what is now Vietnam
* Vijayawada, a city in Andhra Pradesh, India
People
* Prince Vijaya of Sri Lanka (fl. 543–505 BC), earliest recorde ...
was located in present-day Bình Định Province
B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...
(Tumpraukvijaya). Early mention is made of Vijaya in an 1160 inscription at Po Nagar. The capital has been identified with the archaeological site at Cha Ban. The associated port was at present-day Qui Nhơn
Quy Nhon ( vi, Quy Nhơn ) is a coastal city in Bình Định province in central Vietnam. It is composed of 16 wards and five communes with a total of . Quy Nhon is the capital of Bình Định province. As of 2019 its population was 457,400. Hi ...
. Important excavations have also been conducted at nearby Tháp Mắm, which may have been a religious and cultural centre. Vijaya became the political and cultural center of Champa around the 1150s. It remained the center of Champa until 1471, when it was sacked by the Việt and the center of Champa was again displaced toward the south. In its time, the principality of Vijaya controlled much of present-day Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Bình Định, and Phú Yên (Aia Ru) Provinces.
* Kauthara was located in the area of modern Nha Trang
Nha Trang ( or ; ) is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the north by Ninh Hòa District, Ninh Hoà town, on the south by Cam Ranh city and on the west by Diên Khánh Distri ...
(Aia Trang) in Khánh Hòa Province
KH may refer to:
Places
* Cambodia (Kampuchea, Kambuja, ''Srok Khmer''), a sovereign state with ISO 3166-2 alpha code KH
** .kh, the Internet country code top-level domain for Cambodia
* Kutná Hora District, Czech Republic (vehicle plate code)
* ...
(Yanpunagara). Its religious and cultural center was the temple of Po Nagar
Po Nagar is a Cham temple tower founded sometime before 781 and located in the medieval principality of Kauthara, near modern Nha Trang in Vietnam. It is dedicated to Yan Po Nagar, the goddess of the country, who came to be identified with the ...
, several towers of which still stand at Nha Trang. Kauthara is first mentioned in a 784 AD inscription at Po Nagar.
* Panduranga
Vithoba, also known as Vi(t)thal(a) and Panduranga, is a Hindu deity predominantly worshipped in the Indian state of Maharashtra and Karnataka. He is generally considered as a manifestation of the god Vishnu, or his avatar Krishna. Vithoba is o ...
was located in the area of present-day Phan Rang–Tháp Chàm
Phan Rang–Tháp Chàm, commonly known as Phan Rang, is a city in Vietnam and the capital of Ninh Thuận Province. The community has a population of 161,000 (2004), of which 91,000 (2004) live in the main city.
The name ''Phan Rang'' is the V ...
(Pan Rang) in Ninh Thuận and Bình Thuận province. Panduranga with capital Parik, was the last of the Cham territories to be annexed by the Vietnamese. It was the most autonomous, sometimes independent, princedom/principality of Champa. Panduranga is first mentioned in an 817 AD inscription at Po Nagar.
Within the four principalities were two main clans: the "Dừa" (means "coconut
The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the ...
" in Vietnamese) and the "Cau" (means "areca catechu
''Areca catechu'' is a species of palm which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. The palm is believed to have originated in the Philippines, but is widespread in cultivation and is considered naturalized in sou ...
" in Vietnamese). The Dừa lived in Amravati and Vijaya, while the Cau lived in Kauthara and Panduranga. The two clans differed in their customs and habits and conflicting interests led to many clashes and even war. But they usually managed to settle disagreements through intermarriage.
Religion
Champa was a religiously tolerant kingdom, with many different faiths coexisted peacefully or have merged with indigenous Cham beliefs. Religiously and culturally, the Chams
The Cham (Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people (Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territo ...
were grouped into two major religio-cultural groups; the Balamon Chams (also called Cham Ahiér) that adhere to an indigenized form of Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
and Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
, and Bani Chams that adhere to an indigenized form of Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. These two groups mostly live in separate villages. Intermarriage was prohibited in former times, and remains rare even nowadays. Both groups are matrilineal
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's Lineage (anthropology), lineage – and which can in ...
and conform to matrilocal
In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Thus, the female offspring of a mother remain l ...
residence practice. Both Cham groups' common ancestor worship is known as ''kut'', characterized in the form of worshiping cemetery steles of dead ancestors. The Cham view the living world matters as just as transient one for a short-term existence, and eternity is the other world where ancestors, dead relatives and deities live.
Another northern group inhabiting around Bình Định and Phú Yên provinces is the Cham Hroi (Haroi), who practice Chamic animism
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...
. Under the previous Republic of Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
, they were considered a distinct ethnic group. Since 1979, they have been reclassified by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
government as a subgroup of the Cham.
Hinduism and Buddhism
The term "Balamon" derived from "Brahman
In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' ( sa, ब्रह्मन्) connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part X ...
" or "Brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
", one of Hindu caste of religious elite. Balamon Chams adhere to the old religion of their ancestor, an indigenized form of Hinduism that thrived since the ancient era of Kingdom of Champa in the 5th century AD. While today the Bacam (Bacham) are the only surviving Hindus in Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, the region once hosted some of the most exquisite and vibrant Hindu cultures in the world. The entire region of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
, in fact, was home to numerous sophisticated Hindu kingdoms. From Angkor
Angkor ( km, អង្គរ , 'Capital city'), also known as Yasodharapura ( km, យសោធរបុរៈ; sa, यशोधरपुर),Headly, Robert K.; Chhor, Kylin; Lim, Lam Kheng; Kheang, Lim Hak; Chun, Chen. 1977. ''Cambodian-Engl ...
in neighbouring Cambodia, to Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
and Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
in Indonesia. The Cham Sunni in the Mekong Delta often refer the Balamon as ''Kafir'' (Derived from Arabic ''Kāfir'' for infidels).
Before the conquest of Champa by the Đại Việt ruler Le Thánh Tông in 1471, the dominant religion of the Cham upper class (''Thar patao bamao maâh'') was Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
, and the culture was heavily influenced by that of India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. The commoners generally accepted Hindu influence, but they embedded it with much as possible indigenous Cham beliefs to become parts of the Ahier religion today. The Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
of Champa was overwhelmingly Shaiva
Shaivism (; sa, शैवसम्प्रदायः, Śaivasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the Supreme Being. One of the largest Hindu denominations, it incorporates many sub-traditions rangin ...
and it was liberally combined with elements of local religious cults such as the worship of the Earth goddess Lady Po Nagar :''See also Thiên Y A Na''
Lady Po Nagar/Yan Po Nagar (杨婆那加), was the founder of the Cham people according to legends. According to the myth of Pô Nagar, she was born from the clouds of the sky and the foam of the sea. Her physical form w ...
. The main symbols of Cham Shaivism were the lingam
A lingam ( sa, लिङ्ग , lit. "sign, symbol or mark"), sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism. It is typically the primary ''murti'' or devotional im ...
, the mukhalinga
In Hindu iconography, Mukhalinga or Mukhalingam (literally "''linga with a face''", ) is a linga with one or more human faces. The linga is an aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva. Mukhalingas may be of stone or can be made of a metal ...
, the ''jaṭāliṅgam'', the segmented '' liṅgam'', and the ''kośa''.
* A liṅga (or liṅgam) is black stone pillar that serves as a representation of Shiva. Cham kings frequently erected and dedicated stone lingas as the central religious images in royal temples. The name a Cham king would give to such a linga would be a composite of the king's own name and suffix "-iśvara", which stands for Shiva.
* A mukhaliṅga is a linga upon which has been painted or carved an image of Shiva as a human being or a human face.
* A jaṭāliṅga is a linga upon which has been engraved a stylised representation of Shiva's chignon hairstyle.
* A segmented liṅga is a linga post divided into three sections to represent the three aspects of the Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
godhead or trimurti
The Trimūrti (; Sanskrit: त्रिमूर्ति ', "three forms" or "trinity") are the trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism, in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified as a triad of de ...
: the lowest section, square in shape, represents Brahma
Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp. 21 ...
; the middle section, octagonal in shape, represents Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...
, and the top section, circular in shape, represents Shiva.
* A kośa is a cylindrical basket of precious metal used to cover a linga. The donation of a kośa to the decoration of a liṅga was a distinguishing characteristic of Cham Shaivism. Cham kings gave names to special kośas in much the way that they gave names to the liṅgas themselves.
The predominance of Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
in Cham religion was interrupted for a time in the 9th and 10th centuries AD, when a dynasty at Indrapura (modern Đồng Dương, Quảng Nam Province, Vietnam) adopted Mahayana
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing bra ...
Buddhism as its faith. King Indravarman II
Indravarman II ( km, ឥន្ទ្រវរ្ម័នទី២) was the ruler of the Khmer Empire, son of Jayavarman VII.Higham, C., 2001, The Civilization of Angkor, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, There is some dispute regarding the actual ...
(r. 854–893) built a giant Buddhist monastery, meditation halls, and temples for Champa's monks (Sangha
Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context t ...
), and celebrated the veneration of the Buddhist deity Lokeśvara under the name Laksmindra Lokeśvara Svabhayada in 875. Mahayana in Champa was blended with observable elements of Tantric Buddhism
Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...
, manifesting in many traces. For example, Indravarman's successor Jaya Simhavarman I
Jaya Simhavarman I was a king of mandala Champa, reigning from 897 to 904. He was preceded by his uncle Indravarman II (r. ?–893).
Simhavarman had many building projects during his reign: a Mahayana monastery named vihara Pramuditalokeśvara in ...
(r. 897–904) according to his verbatim in 902, Vajrapāṇi
(Sanskrit; Pali: Vajirapāṇi, meaning, "Vajra in ishand") is one of the earliest-appearing bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism. He is the protector and guide of Gautama Buddha and rose to symbolize the Buddha's power.
Vajrapāni is also c ...
is the Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood.
In the Early Buddhist schools ...
capable of leading humans into the "path of the Vajra." The Buddhist art
Buddhist art is visual art produced in the context of Buddhism. It includes depictions of Gautama Buddha and other Buddhas and bodhisattvas, notable Buddhist figures both historical and mythical, narrative scenes from their lives, mandalas, and ...
of Đồng Dương has received special acclaim for its originality.
Buddhist art of Champa also shared the same unique aesthetics, paralleling with Dvāravatī (Mon) art, highlighting in the similarities of both cultures in their iconographic form of the Buddha-Stūpa-Triad, where the Buddha seats in padmāsana (lotus) flanked by on either side by a depiction of a stūpa. Other shared features are makara lintel, fishtail-shaped sampot
A ''sampot'' ( km, សំពត់, ), a long, rectangular cloth worn around the lower body, is a traditional dress in Cambodia. It can be draped and folded in several different ways. The traditional dress is similar to the dhoti of Southern As ...
illustrating, Gaja-Lakṣmī, pendant-legged Buddhas. The sources of Mon–Cham cultural interaction may be the inland routes between the Muang Fa Daed site on Khorat region, near a lost kingdom called Wèndān by the Chinese (probably the site of Kantarawichai in Kantharawichai, Maha Sarakham
Sarakham is the capital city of Maha Sarakham Province in Thailand's northeastern (Isan) region. Sarakham, as it is known to its inhabitants, is in a rice-growing area on the southern Khorat plain, straddling the Chi River. Mahasarakham is 475 ...
), Southern Laos, via Savannakhet
Savannakhet (ສະຫວັນນະເຂດ), officially named Kaysone Phomvihane ( lo, ໄກສອນ ພົມວິຫານ; th, ไกสอน พมวิหาน) since 2005 and previously known as ''Khanthaboury'' (ຄັນທະ ...
, then to Central Vietnam coast through Lao Bảo
Lao Bảo is a small town in Hướng Hóa District of Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam, located in the North Central Coast region, near the border with Laos. Its population is approximately 30,000.
As Lao Bảo is located in an advantaged area ...
and Mụ Giạ Pass
The Mụ Giạ Pass (Đèo Mụ Giạ, Quảng Bình) is a mountain pass in the Annamite Range between northern Vietnam and Laos, located 90 km northwest of Đồng Hới, Vietnam. The pass is 418 m above sea level and connects National Road ...
es.
Beginning in the 10th century AD, Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
again became the predominant religion of Champa. Some of the sites that have yielded important works of religious art and architecture from this period are, aside from Mỹ Sơn
Mỹ Sơn () is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples in central Vietnam, constructed between the 4th and the 14th century by the Kings of Champa, an Indianized kingdom of the Cham people. The temples are dedicated to the wo ...
, Khương Mỹ, Trà Kiệu
Trà Kiệu is a village in Duy Sơn commune, Duy Xuyên district, Quảng Nam province, Vietnam.
Geography
Trà Kiệu is located in the Thu Bồn river valley inland from Hội An, which has since moved putting the site on the southern bank ...
, Chanh Lo, and Tháp Mắm.
From the 13th to 15th centuries, Mahayana
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing bra ...
among the Cham was practiced in form of syncretic Saivite–Buddhism or the fusion of the worship of Śiva (seen as the protector) and Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
(seen as the savior). Buddhism prevailed secondary. With the decline of royal power of the ruling Simhavarmanid dynasty in the 15th century and the fall of their capital Vijaya
Vijaya may refer to:
Places
* Vijaya (Champa), a city-state and former capital of the historic Champa in what is now Vietnam
* Vijayawada, a city in Andhra Pradesh, India
People
* Prince Vijaya of Sri Lanka (fl. 543–505 BC), earliest recorde ...
in 1471, all Mahayana or Vajrayana traces of Champa disappeared, enabling space for the rising Islamic faith.
Islam
Bani Chams or Bani Awal are Cham Muslims in Central Vietnam that converted to a version of localized Shi'a Islam mixed with Hindu-Chamic customs, as the faith started making headway among the population after the 10th century AD. The term "Bani" derived from Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
term "bani" (بني) which means "people". The popular account mainly from oversea Cham communities assures that the Cham had been converted by either ʿAlī
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
and his son Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafīyya. Al-Dimashqi The Arabic '' nisbah'' (attributive title) Al-Dimashqi ( ar, الدمشقي) denotes an origin from Damascus, Syria.
Al-Dimashqi may refer to:
* Al-Dimashqi (geographer): a medieval Arab geographer.
* Abu al-Fadl Ja'far ibn 'Ali al-Dimashqi: 12th- ...
claimed a story that the Alīds after being expelled, a small group of them took refugee in Champa; these Muslim immigrants therefore spread Shi'a among the Cham, which perhaps eventually led to the synthesis of the Bani Awal religion. In their devotions, the Cham Bani refer to Adam and Eve, the archangel Gabriel, Abraham, the prophet Muhammad, ʿAlī
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
, Fāṭima, Ḥasan and Ḥusayn. They have religious organization dominated by a class of dignitaries who always wear white tunics, the pious color of Islam, Quranic books with Cham commentaries, and simple mosques. However their Imams bear Cham-Sanskrit titles ''gru
The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
'' and ''acar
Acar is a type of vegetable pickle of Maritime Southeast Asia, most prevalent in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. It is a localised version of Indian '' achar''. It is known as atjar in Dutch cuisine, derived from Indonesian ''acar' ...
''. By the 17th century, the royal families of Champa had converted to Bani Islam. The Ahiér is particularly more than strange as they adhere to a hypersyncretic Islam-Balamon-Cham religion. Ahier, meaning later, implies that the Cham Ahier were people who converted to Islam in the sixteenth-seventh centuries, after the Bani Awal. Ahier and Bani Awal communities have blended Shi'a Islam, Balamon, with their own customs to the point that sectarian distinction is no longer makes sense. For example, Allah is usually written as ''Po Uvalvah'', and prophet Muhammad, which the Cham Bani refer as ''Po Rasulak'' was morphed into one of many important Cham deities. Most Cham are now evenly split between being followers of Islam and Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
, with the majority of Central Vietnam Cham being Ahier and Bani, while the majority of Cambodian
Cambodian usually refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Cambodia
** Cambodian people (or Khmer people)
** Cambodian language (or Khmer language)
** For citizens and nationals of Cambodia, see Demographics of Cambodia
** Fo ...
Chams and Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta ( vi, Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long, lit=Nine Dragon River Delta or simply vi, Đồng Bằng Sông Mê Kông, lit=Mekong River Delta, label=none), also known as the Western Region ( vi, Miền Tây, links=no) or South-weste ...
Chams are Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
Muslim (also called Cham Baruw, meaning "new Cham"), though significant minorities of Mahayana Buddhists continue to exist.
Historical documents regarded that 18th-century Cham and Malay Sunni settlements in the Mekong Delta established by the Nguyen lords
Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. Nguyên (元)is a different word and surname.
By some estimates 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this su ...
earlier than Vietnamese settlements in order to establish Viet-controlled settlements for frontier defense. The embodiment of more fundamentalist Sunni faiths in the Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta ( vi, Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long, lit=Nine Dragon River Delta or simply vi, Đồng Bằng Sông Mê Kông, lit=Mekong River Delta, label=none), also known as the Western Region ( vi, Miền Tây, links=no) or South-weste ...
and Cambodia gave the Cham communities here socio-cultural inclinations toward the wider Malay/Islamic world compared with the fair-isolated Cham Bani in Central Vietnam. Islam also instigated certain ethno-religious values to the Mekong Delta Cham, which help them preserving and retaining their distinct ethnic identity in a dynamic transnational environment.
Indonesian 15th century records indicate the influence of Princess Daravati, of Cham origin, converted to Islam, and influenced her husband, Kertawijaya, Majapahit's seventh ruler to convert the Majapahit
Majapahit ( jv, ꦩꦗꦥꦲꦶꦠ꧀; ), also known as Wilwatikta ( jv, ꦮꦶꦭ꧀ꦮꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦠ; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was ba ...
royal family to Islam. The Islamic tomb of ''Putri Champa'' (Princess of Champa) can be found in Trowulan
Trowulan is an archaeological site in Trowulan (subdistrict), Trowulan Subdistrict, Mojokerto Regency, in the Indonesian province of East Java. It includes approximately 100 square kilometres and has been theorized to be the site of the eponymo ...
, East Java
East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean bord ...
, the site of the Majapahit imperial capital. In the 15th to 17th century, Islamic Champa had maintained a cordial relationship with the Aceh Sultanate
The Sultanate of Aceh, officially the Kingdom of Aceh Darussalam ( ace, Keurajeuën Acèh Darussalam; Jawoë: كاورجاون اچيه دارالسلام), was a sultanate centered in the modern-day Indonesian province of Aceh. It was a major ...
through dynastic marriage. This sultanate was located on the northern tip of Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
and was an active promoter of the Islamic faith in the Indonesian archipelago
The islands of Indonesia, also known as the Indonesian Archipelago ( id, Kepulauan Indonesia) or Nusantara, may refer either to the islands comprising the country of Indonesia or to the geographical groups which include its islands.
History ...
.
The lunisolar Cham Sawaki calendar is amalgamation of Islamic calendar and traditional Cham calendar, which was based on the Indian Śaka era. A normal year in Sawaki consists of 354 days with 12 months; the average length of each month is either 29 or 30 days. The calendar has a 12-year cycle of zodiac called ''Nâthak.'' It sets three leap years for every eight years, compared to 11 leap years for every 30 years of the orthodox Islamic calendar.
Economy
Unlike many contemporaneous mainland Southeast Asian kingdoms, Champa's economy was not a heavily agrarian one. Fourteenth-century Franciscan traveler Odoric of Pordenone
Odoric of Pordenone, OFM (1286–1331), also known as Odorico Mattiussi/Mattiuzzi, Odoricus of Friuli or Orderic of Pordenone, was an Italian late-medieval Franciscan friar and missionary explorer. He traveled through India, the Greater Sunda Is ...
who had visited the nation in 1324-25 describes the diet of medieval Champa commoners mainly composed of rice and fish/seafood products. As a seafaring people, the Cham were highly itinerant and established a network of trade including not only the major ports at Hội An
Hội An (), formerly known as Fai-Fo or Faifoo, is a city with a population of approximately 120,000 in Vietnam's Quảng Nam Province and is noted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Along with the Cu Lao Cham archipelago, it is part o ...
, Thị Nại
Thi (Quốc ngữ: Thị; Hán-Nôm: ) is a Vietnamese name, usually given as a middle name to females (''see: Vietnamese name''). It may also refer to:
* City of Thi, a city in ''The Wizard of Oz''
* ''thị'', Vietnamese term for persimmons, s ...
but also extending into the mountainous hinterland. Maritime trade was facilitated by a network of wells that provided fresh water to Cham and foreign ships along the coast of Champa and the islands of Cù Lao Chàm and Lý Sơn
LY or ly may refer to:
Government and politics
* Libya (ISO 3166-1 country code LY)
* Lý dynasty, a Vietnamese dynasty
* Labour Youth of Ireland
* Legislative Yuan, the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
Science and te ...
. While Kenneth R. Hall suggests that Champa was not able to rely on taxes on trade for stable revenue, but instead financed their rule by raiding neighboring countries and seabustering merchant ships, Hardy argues that the country's prosperity was above all based on commerce.
The vast majority of Champa's export products, mostly medieval commodities, came from the mountainous hinterland, sourced from as far as Attapeu
Attapeu ( lo, ອັດຕະປື), also written as Attopu or Attapu, is the capital of Attapeu province, Laos. Its official name is Muang Samakhi Xay. It is the southernmost of provincial capitals in Laos.
Most of the inhabitants are Lao Loum ...
in southern Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
. They included gold and silver, slaves, animal and animal products, and precious woods. Cham pottery, characterized by distinct olive-green and brown glazes, were primary produced by the kilns of Gò Sành, just in the suburbs of Vijaya
Vijaya may refer to:
Places
* Vijaya (Champa), a city-state and former capital of the historic Champa in what is now Vietnam
* Vijayawada, a city in Andhra Pradesh, India
People
* Prince Vijaya of Sri Lanka (fl. 543–505 BC), earliest recorde ...
. Cham ceramic production peaked around the 14th to 16th century, and have been reported to be discovered in present-day Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, the UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
, Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
, and the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
By far the most important export product was eaglewood
Agarwood, aloeswood, eaglewood or gharuwood is a fragrant dark resinous wood used in incense, perfume, and small carvings. This resinous wood is most commonly referred to as "Oud" or "Oudh". It is formed in the heartwood of aquilaria trees when ...
. It was the only product mentioned in Marco Polo
Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...
's brief account and similarly impressed the Arab trader Sulayman several centuries earlier. Most of it was probably taken from the Aquilaria crassna
''Aquilaria crassna'' is a species of plant in the Thymelaeaceae family. It is found in throughout Southeast Asia and in New Guinea.
Economics
''Aquilaria crassna'' is one sourceNg, L.T., Chang Y.S. and Kadir, A.A. (1997) "A review on agar (ga ...
tree, just as most of the eaglewood in Vietnam today. The largest amount of eaglewood products extracted from the highland of Champa occurred in 1155, when Cham envoy reportedly shipped 55,020 catties (around 33 tons) of incense
Incense is aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremony. It may also be ...
''of Wuli'' to the Song court as trade tribute.
Cham port-cities
During the medieval age, the Champa Kingdom benefited greatly from the luxurious maritime trade routes through the South China Sea and overland trade networks connecting Angkor
Angkor ( km, អង្គរ , 'Capital city'), also known as Yasodharapura ( km, យសោធរបុរៈ; sa, यशोधरपुर),Headly, Robert K.; Chhor, Kylin; Lim, Lam Kheng; Kheang, Lim Hak; Chun, Chen. 1977. ''Cambodian-Engl ...
and Bagan
Bagan (, ; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Bagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that wou ...
to Champa. Urbanization in Champa took place progressively from the first to eighth centuries AD, from the late Sahuynhian to the early Champa period. Champa concentrated its wealth in highly urbanized port-cities, some of them located in self-governing regions. The earliest of those was Simhapura
Sinhapura ("Lion City" for Sanskrit; IAST: Siṃhapura) was the capital of the legendary Indian king Sinhabahu. It has been mentioned in the Buddhist legends about Prince Vijaya. The name is also transliterated as ''Sihapura'' or ''Singhapura'' ...
, emerged as a riverine port-city and Cham political center around 400 AD. Prominent examples include Amarendrapura (the modern city of Huế
Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...
); Visnupura (Nhan Bieu, Quảng Trị) and Vrddha Ratnapura (Ðại Hữu, Quảng Bình) in the north; Indrapura and Amavarati ( Quang Nam); Vijaya
Vijaya may refer to:
Places
* Vijaya (Champa), a city-state and former capital of the historic Champa in what is now Vietnam
* Vijayawada, a city in Andhra Pradesh, India
People
* Prince Vijaya of Sri Lanka (fl. 543–505 BC), earliest recorde ...
(Qui Nhon) in the central region; and Nha Trang
Nha Trang ( or ; ) is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the north by Ninh Hòa District, Ninh Hoà town, on the south by Cam Ranh city and on the west by Diên Khánh Distri ...
, Virapura (near Phan Rang Phan may refer to:
* Phan (surname), a Vietnamese family name
* Phan District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand
* Phan River, Bình Thuận Province, Vietnam
* Phan (tray)
Phan ( th, พาน, ) is an artistically decorated tray with pedestal. It ...
), and Panduranga
Vithoba, also known as Vi(t)thal(a) and Panduranga, is a Hindu deity predominantly worshipped in the Indian state of Maharashtra and Karnataka. He is generally considered as a manifestation of the god Vishnu, or his avatar Krishna. Vithoba is o ...
in the south. These cosmopolitan cities were loaded with surplus amount of trading goods and exotic products, overcrowded by merchants not just from other Cham states, but also Chinese, Khmer, Malay, Viet, Arab, and Indian traders and travelers.
The ''Zhu Fan Zhi
''Zhu Fan Zhi'' (), variously translated as '' A Description of Barbarian Nations'', ''Records of Foreign People'', or other similar titles, is a 13th-century Song Dynasty work by Zhao Rukuo. The work is a collection of descriptions of countrie ...
'' describes the port cities of Champa, 'on the arrival of a trading ship in this country, officials are sent on board with a book made of folded slips of black leather.' After an inventory has been taken, the cargo may be landed. 20% of the goods carried on is claimed as tax, and the rest may be traded privately. If they discovered that 'any items were hidden away during the customs check, the whole cargo will be confiscated.'
When French scholars arrived in the mid-19th century, they were impressed with Cham ruins, Cham urbanism, and medieval networks throughout the former kingdom. The middle-age densely populated areas of Tra Kieu and My Son were well connected by paved stone roads, bridges, urban ruins that were 16 feet high, rampart and stone citadel in a rectangle shape of 984 feet by 1640 feet, which hosted temples, fortified palaces, and resident structures, and were supplied by canals, irrigation projects, underground aqueducts and wells.
From the 4th to 15th century, these cities were relatively wealthy. Foreign traders and travelers from across medieval Eurasia were well-aware of Champa's richness and eyewitnessed the crowded, prosperous Cham port-cities. Abu'l-Faradj described the city of Indrapura "this temple is ancient that all the Buddhas found there enter into conversation with the faithful and reply to all the requests made to them." Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
during his fourth voyage in 1502 along the coast of Central America, in accordance with contemporary knowledge that confused Central America with eastern Asia, thought that he had reached the kingdom of "Ciampa" visited by Marco Polo
Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...
in 1290. Peter Martyr d'Anghiera
Peter Martyr d'Anghiera ( la, Petrus Martyr Anglerius or ''ab Angleria''; it, Pietro Martire d'Anghiera; es, Pedro Mártir de Anglería; 2 February 1457 – October 1526), formerly known in English as Peter Martyr of Angleria,D'Anghier ...
recorded in ''De Orbe Novo Decades'' that on his fourth voyage in 1502, Columbus: "found a vast territory called Quiriquetana Quiriguá">Quiriguá.html" ;"title="Quiriguá">Quiriguáin the language of the inhabitants, but he called it Ciamba (Champa)". Portuguese travelers in the early 16th century, such as Fernão Mendes Pinto, reported vestiges of these cities "a town of above ten thousand households" which "encircled by a strong wall of brick, towers, and bulwarks." Because of this, Champa was the target of multiple warring powers surrounding: the Chinese in 4th century-605 AD; the Javanese in 774 and 787, the Vietnamese in 982, 1044, 1069, 1073, 1446, and 1471; the Khmer in 945–950, 1074, 1126–1128, 1139–1150, 1190–1220; and the Mongol Yuan in 1283–85, many cities were ransacked by invaders and rebuilt or repaired overtime. They also had to face constant threats from hazards per annum such as flood, tropical cyclones, fire. Some Cham port-cities later ended up captured by Vietnamese in the mid-15th century, which later resulted in the rise of Nguyen domain depending on these port-cities, whom benefited international trades, and was well-balanced enough to fend off several northern Trinh invasions in the 17th century.
Role of women
Women enjoy far greater freedom and important role in Cham history and society compared to neighboring and Islamic cultures generally. Prior 1975, Cham communities in Central Vietnam, Bani Muslim and Ahier, still upheld the practice of matrilineality
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance of ...
in family relationship. Bani priests symbolize women while Ahier priests represent for male. Yoshimoto suggests the Bani Awal-Ahier binary indicates the notion of symbolic dualism between male and female, husband and wife. Women take major roles in every aspects of Cham society. Neither a gender hierarchy and restriction exists. Religious attendance at thang magik (Bani mosque) during the Ramawan month are mostly accomplished by women from every household.
The 4th century Vo Canh inscription denotes the existence of matrilineage of early Cham rulers. Another prominent example of Cham matrilinealism in royal succession was King Rudravarman I
Rudravarman I (r. 529–572 AD; Chinese: 高式 律陁羅跋摩; pinyin: ''Gāoshì Lütuóluóbámó'', Early Middle Chinese: ''*lɔ-dɑ-lɑ-bɑt-mɑ'') was a king of early Champa.
Rudravarman was a descendant of king Manorathavarman (Fàn Wé ...
of the Gangaraja dynasty
Gangaraja was a king of early Champa. He was the founder of Gangaraja dynasty (often known as the Simhapura dynasty or the Gangeśvara).
Gangaraja was an intelligent and brave person, and was expected to ascend the throne of Champa. He ruled for ...
. Rudravarman was the son of Manorathavarman
Manorathavarman was a king of early Champa, reigning approximately around the fifth century AD in the Thu Bồn River Valley.
He was a nephew of Gangaraja. His next successor in the dynastic line was Rudravarman I (r. 527-572), descending through ...
's niece.
Female gods constitute the majority of divinities in Cham historical legends. The most sacred Goddess of the Cham people is Lady Po Nagar :''See also Thiên Y A Na''
Lady Po Nagar/Yan Po Nagar (杨婆那加), was the founder of the Cham people according to legends. According to the myth of Pô Nagar, she was born from the clouds of the sky and the foam of the sea. Her physical form w ...
, a mythical princess who was said to be the founder of Champa. ''Po Dava,'' the Cham God of Virginity, is the symbol of learning and literature. She is worshipped at the Po Nagar Hamu Tanran temple in Panduranga.
According to the legend of Po Klong Garai
Po Klaung Yăgrai (1151 - 1205) was king of the Champa polity of Panduranga.In what is now Phan Rang in southern Vietnam
Title
Po Klaung Yăgrai is the royal title, not the name. According to legend, he came from the popular types with name Jatol ...
, Princess ''Po Sah Inö'' was the mother of Po Klong Garai. She was born of sea foam scrubbings. When she grew up, she drank water from a spring, and magically got pregnant. In one day, her scabby son encountered a dragon who then healed him and predicted that he should become king. The boy, Po Klong Garai, then acquired supernatural powers. The chief of royal astronomy ought to ask Po Klong Garai to marry his daughter. Po Klong Garai then became king, destroying the Cambodian invaders, bringing peace and prosperity to the Kingdom of Champa. To commemorate the legendary hero, in 1242 the future King Jaya Simhavarman III
Jaya may refer to:
Media
*''Jaya'', self titled albums by Jaya (singer), released in 1989, 1996 and 2001
* ''Jaya'' (film), a 2002 Indian Tamil film
Mythology
*''Jaya'', a name of Karna in Mahabharata; the core portion of the ''Mahabharata''
...
(r. 1288-1307) offered the construction of the Po Klong Garai Temple
Po Klong Garai Temple is a Hindu Champa, Cham religious complex located in the Cham principality of Panduranga, in what is now Phan Rang in southern Vietnam. It was built in honor of the legendary king Po Klaung Garai, who ruled Panduranga from 1 ...
at Phan Rang.
Archaeological remains
Religious
* Mỹ Sơn
Mỹ Sơn () is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples in central Vietnam, constructed between the 4th and the 14th century by the Kings of Champa, an Indianized kingdom of the Cham people. The temples are dedicated to the wo ...
near the town of Hội An
Hội An (), formerly known as Fai-Fo or Faifoo, is a city with a population of approximately 120,000 in Vietnam's Quảng Nam Province and is noted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Along with the Cu Lao Cham archipelago, it is part o ...
on the Thu Bồn River The Thu Bồn River ( vi, Sông Thu Bồn) is a river in central Vietnam, located in Quảng Nam Province.
From its source near the border of Quảng Nam and Quảng Ngãi provinces, it flows northwest through Bắc Trà My, Phú Ninh, Hiệp Đ ...
. Established by Bhadravarman I
Bhadravarman or Phạm Hồ Đạt (, Middle Chinese: ''buam’-ɣɔ-dɑt,'' Sanskrit ''Bhadravarman'', literally "Blessed armour" but also meaning the ''Jasminum sambac'' flower), was the king of Champa from 380 to 413. In 380, Bhadravarman, ...
in the 5th century AD, Vikrantavarman I
Vikrāntavarman I or Prakāśadharma (?–686 AD), was a king of Champa from the Gangaraja (Simhapura) dynasty, modern-day Central Vietnam, reigning from 653 to 686. His original name was Prakāśadharma but he took the appellation Vikrāntavarman ...
initiated a major building program in the 7th century. Construction continued until 1157 AD under Jaya Harivarman I
Jaya Harivarman I (? – 1167) was a Cham noble and King of Champa. Rising to power during the 12th Century Khmer–Cham wars, he spent much of his rule consolidating his control over Champa. He was succeeded by his son, Jaya Harivarman II.
Bio ...
.
* Po Nagar
Po Nagar is a Cham temple tower founded sometime before 781 and located in the medieval principality of Kauthara, near modern Nha Trang in Vietnam. It is dedicated to Yan Po Nagar, the goddess of the country, who came to be identified with the ...
in Kauthara, on a harbour, comprising six temples and a pillared hall. Established before the 7th century AD, a wooden structure was burned in 774 AD by Javanese raiders. Prithindravarman initiated major construction in 757 AD. One tower dates from 813 AD and construction continued until 1256.
* Đồng Dương
Champa was an Southeast Asian civilization that flourished along the coasts of what is now central and southern Vietnam for roughly a one thousand-year period between 500 and 1700 AD. The original Cham and Proto-Chamic peoples were mainland Austr ...
/ Indrapura was founded by Indravarman II
Indravarman II ( km, ឥន្ទ្រវរ្ម័នទី២) was the ruler of the Khmer Empire, son of Jayavarman VII.Higham, C., 2001, The Civilization of Angkor, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, There is some dispute regarding the actual ...
in 875 AD. Most of the complex was destroyed during the Vietnam War. The site consists of three large courts, a large assembly hall, and a main temple sanctuary. Two bronze statues, one of Buddha and one of Avalokiteśvara
In Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर, IPA: ) is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. He has 108 avatars, one notable avatar being Padmapāṇi (lotus bearer). He is variably depicted, ...
were found at the site.
* Po Klaung Garai
Po Klong Garai Temple is a Hindu Cham religious complex located in the Cham principality of Panduranga, in what is now Phan Rang in southern Vietnam. It was built in honor of the legendary king Po Klaung Garai, who ruled Panduranga from 1151 to ...
in Panduranga (Phan Rang Phan may refer to:
* Phan (surname), a Vietnamese family name
* Phan District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand
* Phan River, Bình Thuận Province, Vietnam
* Phan (tray)
Phan ( th, พาน, ) is an artistically decorated tray with pedestal. It ...
).
* Chanh Lo Temple in Châu Sa, Quảng Ngãi
Quảng Ngãi () is a city in central Vietnam. It serves as the capital city of Quảng Ngãi Province. Quảng Ngãi City borders Tư Nghĩa District to the south and west, Sơn Tịnh District to the northwest and Bình Sơn District to the n ...
, dating 11th century.
* Đại Hữu, Quảng Bình. A city flourished during 9th-10th centuries with Mahayana shrines and magnificent Avalokiteśvara
In Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर, IPA: ) is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. He has 108 avatars, one notable avatar being Padmapāṇi (lotus bearer). He is variably depicted, ...
statues.
* Temple of King Po Rome
Po Rome (?–1651), also spelled Po Romê, Po Romé or Po Ramo, was the king of Panduranga Champa, reigning from 1627 to 1651.
Po Rome was a Churu chief, originally from present-day Đơn Dương District, Lâm Đồng Province. Prior to hi ...
, the latest Cham monument, built in the 17th century.
* Po Sah Inu in Hamu Lithit (Phan Thiết
Phan Thiết () is the capital of Bình Thuận Province on the southeast coast in Vietnam. While most of the inhabitants live in the city center, others reside in the four urban coastal wards, extending from Suối Nước beach in the northe ...
).
* Thap Doi Towers.
* Banh It Temple.
* Duong Long Towers.
* Yang Prong Temple, Đắk Lắk.
Fortresses and cities
* Khu Túc (known in Chinese sources as Qusu) located along the Kiến Giang River
The Kiến Giang River ( vi, Sông Kiến Giang) is a river in Lệ Thủy District, Quảng Bình Province, North Central Coast, Vietnam. The length of the river is 58 km. It is a tributary of the Nhật Lệ River. The Kiến Giang River ...
of Quảng Bình province, was built in the 4th century AD and includes a revetted
A revetment in stream restoration, river engineering or coastal engineering is a facing of impact-resistant material (such as stone, concrete, sandbags, or wooden piles) applied to a bank or wall in order to absorb the energy of incoming water an ...
wall and moat as do the other centers. Khu Túc was sacked by the Chinese in 446 AD, "all inhabitants over the age of 15 were put to the sword" and as much as 48,000 of gold taken.
* Trà Bàn (Caban) was the capital of Vijaya. Ruins included Canh Tien towers, located north of Quy Nhon
Quy Nhon ( vi, Quy Nhơn ) is a coastal city in Bình Định province in central Vietnam. It is composed of 16 wards and five communes with a total of . Quy Nhon is the capital of Bình Định province. As of 2019 its population was 457,400. H ...
and contains a possible royal palace.
* Châu Sa or Amaravati in Quảng Ngãi
Quảng Ngãi () is a city in central Vietnam. It serves as the capital city of Quảng Ngãi Province. Quảng Ngãi City borders Tư Nghĩa District to the south and west, Sơn Tịnh District to the northwest and Bình Sơn District to the n ...
province.
* Trà Kiệu
Trà Kiệu is a village in Duy Sơn commune, Duy Xuyên district, Quảng Nam province, Vietnam.
Geography
Trà Kiệu is located in the Thu Bồn river valley inland from Hội An, which has since moved putting the site on the southern bank ...
or Simhapura, dating from two to three centuries BC until the 6th or 7th centuries AD.
* Thành Hồ (Ayaru) is located on the northern bank of the Đà Rằng River
Ba River ( vi, Sông Ba, links=no, also known as Ea Pa, Ia Pa, Krông Pa or Đà Rằng River) is a river in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam. It has its source in Kon Tum Province and flows into the South China Sea in Tuy Hòa, Phú Y ...
, Phú Yên.
* Song Luy (Bal Cattinon) is located on the coast south of Cape Dinh, Bình Thuận province.
* Samṛddhipurī (nowadays An Khe
An, AN, aN, or an may refer to:
Businesses and organizations
* Airlinair (IATA airline code AN)
* Alleanza Nazionale, a former political party in Italy
* AnimeNEXT, an annual anime convention located in New Jersey
* Anime North, a Canadian an ...
) is located in Gia Lai Province, Central Highlands.
Some of the network of wells that was used to provide fresh water to Cham and foreign ships still remains. Cham wells are recognisable by their square shape. They are still in use and provide fresh water even during times of drought.
Museums
The largest collection of Cham sculpture may be found in the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture
The Museum of Cham Sculpture is a museum located in Hải Châu District, Đà Nẵng, central Vietnam, near the Han River.
The establishment of a Cham sculpture museum in Da Nang was first proposed in 1902 by the Department of Archaeology o ...
(formerly known as "Musée Henri Parmentier") in the coastal city of Da Nang
Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one ...
. The museum was established in 1915 by French scholars, and is regarded as one of the most beautiful in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
. Other museums with collections of Cham art include the following:
* Museum of Fine Arts, Hanoi
* Museum of History, Hanoi
* Museum of Fine Arts, Saigon
* Museum of History, Saigon
* Musée Guimet
The Guimet Museum (full name in french: Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet; MNAAG; ) is an art museum located at 6, place d'Iéna in the XVIe arrondissement, 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. Literally translated into English, its ful ...
, Paris
* Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
* Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, New York City
*
* Museum Rietberg
The Rietberg Museum is a museum in Zürich, Switzerland, displaying Asian, African, American and Oceanian art. It is the only art museum focusing on non-European art and design in Switzerland, the third-largest museum in Zürich, and the largest t ...
, Zurich, Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
Cham influences on Vietnamese culture
Cham culture was absorbed by the Vietnamese, who in turn were strongly influenced by it. In 1044, after raiding Champa, Vietnamese king Lý Thái Tông
Lý Thái Tông ( chữ Hán: 李 太 宗; 29 July 1000 – 3 November 1054), personal name Lý Phật Mã, posthumously temple name Thái Tông, was the second monarch of the Lý dynasty, ruled Đại Việt from 1028 to 1054. He was consider ...
took some 5,000 prisoners, and brought back to Dai Viet
Dai may refer to:
Names
* Dai (given name), a Welsh or Japanese masculine given name
* Dai (surname) (戴), a Chinese surname
Places and regimes
* Dai Commandery, a commandery of the state of Zhao and in early imperial China
* Dai County, in Xinz ...
a number of court dancers familiar with Indian-style dances, settling to them in a palace specifically built for them. Both Lý Thái Tông and his son Lý Thánh Tông
Lý Thánh Tông (30 March 1023 – 1 February 1072), personal name Lý Nhật Tôn , temple name Thánh Tông, was the third emperor of the Lý dynasty and the 8th ruler of the Vietnamese kingdom Đại Việt. In his reign, Lý Thánh Tông ...
had a great appreciation for Cham music, and in 1060 Lý Thái Tông ordered his court musicians to study the Cham drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...
rhythms along with Cham songs he himself had translated into Vietnamese. According to some Vietnamese scholars, the Vietnamese cult of Princess Liễu Hạnh
Princess Liễu Hạnh ( vi, Liễu Hạnh Công chúa, chữ Hán: 柳杏公主) is one of The Four Immortals in Vietnamese folk religion, and also a leading figure in the mother goddess cult Đạo Mẫu, in which she governs the celestial re ...
might have been influenced by Cham deity Yang Pu Inu Nagara (Lady Po Nagar :''See also Thiên Y A Na''
Lady Po Nagar/Yan Po Nagar (杨婆那加), was the founder of the Cham people according to legends. According to the myth of Pô Nagar, she was born from the clouds of the sky and the foam of the sea. Her physical form w ...
).
Even the Vietnamese ''Quan họ
''Quan họ'' () singing is a Vietnamese folk music style characterized both by its antiphonal nature, with alternating groups of female and male singers issuing musical challenges and responses. Quan họ is common in rituals and festivals, and a ...
'' music and ''Lục bát
Lục bát (, ) is a traditional Vietnamese verse form – historically first recorded in Chữ Nôm script. "Lục bát" is Sino-Vietnamese for "six eight", referring to the alternating lines of six and eight syllables. It will always begin with ...
'' (six-eight) poetry could have been influenced by Cham poetry and folk music.
Cham art also spread far across the Red River Delta
The Red River Delta or Hong River Delta ( vi, Châu thổ sông Hồng) is the flat low-lying plain formed by the Red River and its distributaries merging with the Thái Bình River in northern Vietnam. ''Hồng'' (紅) is a Sino-Vietnamese wor ...
, where many Vietnamese Buddhist temples hosted Cham-style statues of dragons, lions, '' nāgá,'' ''makara
''Makara'' ( sa, मकर, translit=Makara) is a legendary sea-creature in Hindu mythology. In Hindu astrology, Makara is equivalent to the Zodiac sign Capricorn.
Makara appears as the vahana (vehicle) of the river goddess Ganga, Narmada, a ...
'', kinnari
A kinnara is a celestial musician, part human and part bird, who are musically paradigmatic lovers, in Hinduism and Buddhism. In these traditions, the ''kinnaras'' (male) and ''kinnaris'' (female counterpart) are two of the most beloved mytho ...
, Brahma
Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp. 21 ...
and Hamsa
The ''hamsa'' ( ar, خمسة, khamsa) is a palm-shaped amulet popular throughout North Africa and in the Middle East and commonly used in jewellery and wall hangings.Bernasek et al., 2008p. 12Sonbol, 2005pp. 355–359 Depicting the open right h ...
dated back to the 11th–13th century (however, since these creatures also existed in China, it was more likely Chinese influence and not Champa). Thousand of bricks inscribed with Cham script indicate that a multitude of Vietnamese temples and holy sites were built by Cham engineers. A Buddhist stone stupa
A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation.
In Buddhism, circumamb ...
of Dạm tempe in Bắc Ninh Province, built by Vietnamese king Lý Nhân Tông
Lý Nhân Tông (22 February 1066 – 15 January 1128), personal name Lý Càn Đức, temple name Nhân Tông was the fourth monarch of the Lý dynasty, ruling the kingdom of Đại Việt from 1072 until his death in 1128. Succeeding his fat ...
in 1086, is a representation of a lingam
A lingam ( sa, लिङ्ग , lit. "sign, symbol or mark"), sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism. It is typically the primary ''murti'' or devotional im ...
and its yoni
''Yoni'' (; sometimes also ), sometimes called ''pindika'', is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu goddess Shakti. It is usually shown with ''linga'' – its masculine counterpart. Together, they symbolize the merging of microc ...
(a Hindu-Cham symbol of fertility and the power of creation).
In 1693, after lord Nguyen Phuc Chu's take over of Panduranga
Vithoba, also known as Vi(t)thal(a) and Panduranga, is a Hindu deity predominantly worshipped in the Indian state of Maharashtra and Karnataka. He is generally considered as a manifestation of the god Vishnu, or his avatar Krishna. Vithoba is o ...
, the Cham were forced to wear regulated Vietnamese attire, at least the members of the ruling Mâh Taha dynasty, Cham king Po Saktiraydapatih, and Cham court officials.
Legacy
According to French researcher and ethnologist Denys Lombard, "Champa is not only the name of a former kingdom but it is also of a vast network that extended all over the main Southeast Asian centers". For nearly 1,500 years, the Cham and their diaspora communities had developed and maintained a vast and complex overland and maritime system of networks, not just around modern-day Vietnam, but also extended throughout Mainland and Maritime Southeast Asia. These networks, served not only for trade, but also for connecting peoples, transporting culture, ideas, and religious identities across the region, enduring endless historical possibilities and mutual relationships, significantly helping most of Southeast Asia to transform into their present-day.
Cham culture influenced nearby communities and tamed most of present-day Vietnam and surrounding areas. Despite being formed from one of the least coherent places on Earth, Champa was a formidable seafaring kingdom that outlasted most empires. The Cham today, one of the few microcosms in Southeast Asia that still maintain strong links with neighboring countries in the region while still retaining their distinct ethnic identity.
Modern Vietnamese perceptions of Champa and its legacy are varying.[Pre-1975 South Vietnamese/RVN intellectuals were quite aware and but satisfying with Vietnamese colonization and destruction of Champa. Most Viet nationalist writers entangled Champa with the ethnocentric ]Nam tien
Nam, Nam, or The Nam are shortened terms for:
* Vietnam, which is also spelled ''Viet Nam''
* The Vietnam War
Nam, The Nam or NAM may also refer to:
Arts and media
* Nam, a fictional character in anime series ''Dragon Ball''
* ''NAM'' (video ...
narrative, at the same time racism was constructed to rationalize and justify the dark subjugation, colonization, and genocide over the indigenous peoples, and the (South) Vietnamese identity. Vastly contrasting to North Vietnam/DRV, where Marxist authors in the 1950s criticized all Viet ruler after 1471 for their oppressive rule over the Cham while sympathetic for a multiethnic Vietnamese nation, but their views drastically changed in the 1960s and 70s during the height and end of the Vietnam War. Later DRV and SVN authors, while pushing for a monolithic Vietnamese nation-state narrative, deliberately altered or misinterpreted historical events in favor of the VCP's narrative, and so state historians have actively decontextualized and downplayed Cham heritages and the Vietnamese conquest of Champa. After DRV's 1971 publication, Cham and indigenous history were virtually disenfranchised from official Vietnamese historiography, and the Cham and indigenous peoples are perceived by Hanoi authors as merely insignificant outsiders that offer no matter in official Vietnamese history but considered as peripherical, supplemental parts of the ethnocentric Kinh constructs, neither being told from the Cham and indigenous peoples' own perspectives. The Doi moi period (post-1986) sees significant resurgences of nationalist and ethnocentric sentiments in Vietnamese scholarship. The French revisionist academics in the late 1980s also attempted to "rescue" the neglected Champa and indigenous history from the Vietnamese nationalist nation-state narrative. Today, the Cham are seen as one minority group within the unnoticeable multi-ethnic Vietnam, and their legacy is just only incorporated into the Vietnamese national heritage.
See also
* King of Champa
King of Champa is the title ruler of Champa. Champa rulers often use two Hinduist style titles: ''raja-di-raja'' ( " king of kings"; written here in Devanagari since the Cham used their own Cham script) or ''po-tana-raya'' ("lord of all territ ...
* Art of Champa
Champa was an Southeast Asian civilization that flourished along the coasts of what is now central and southern Vietnam for roughly a one thousand-year period between 500 and 1700 AD. The original Cham and Proto- Chamic peoples were mainland Au ...
* History of Vietnam
The history of Vietnam can be traced back to around 20,000 years ago, as the first modern humans arrived and settled on this land, known as the Hoabinhians, which can be traced to modern-day Negritos. Archaeological findings from 1965, which are ...
* Kampong Cham Province in east Cambodia
* Kingdom of Champasak
The Kingdom of Champasak (Lao: ຈຳປາສັກ ɕàmpàːsák or Bassac, (1713–1904) was a Lao kingdom under Nokasad, a grandson of King Sourigna Vongsa, the last king of Lan Xang and son-in-law of the Cambodian King Chey Chettha ...
in the south of Laos
* Champa independence movement
Notes
Citations
References
*
*
**
*
**
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
**
**
*
*
**
**
*
*
*
**
**
**
**
**
**
**
**
*
*
External links
*
Website of the Asia Research Institute
including the working paper "Champa Revised" by Michael Vickery, and the draft translation "Champa in the ''Song hui-yao''" by Geoff Wade
*
The Survivors of a Lost Civilisation
exhibited in Vietnamese museums
Plumeria flowers – Champa Flowers – La fleur de frangipaniers
nbsp;– Hoa Sứ, Hoa đại, Hoa Champa
{{Authority control
1832 disestablishments in Vietnam
States and territories established in the 7th century
Cham
2nd-century establishments in Vietnam
Former countries in Vietnamese history
Former monarchies of Southeast Asia
Former confederations