Everything about The Cham People totally explained
The
Cham people (
Vietnamese:
người Chăm or
người Chàm) are an ethnic group in
Southeast Asia. They are concentrated between the
Cambodian Kampong Cham Province and central
Vietnam's Phan Rang-Thap Cham,
Phan Thiet,
Ho Chi Minh City and
An Giang areas. Approximately 4,000 Chams also live in
Thailand; many of whom have moved south to
Pattani,
Narathiwat,
Yala, and
Songkhla Provinces for work. Cham form the core of the
Muslim communities in both
Cambodia and
Vietnam.
Cham are remnants of the
Kingdom of Champa (
7th to
15th centuries). They are closely related to the
Malay people and speak variations of
Malayo-Polynesian Cham language from the
Austronesian language family.
History
Records of the Champa kingdom go as far back as
2nd century AD China. At its height in the
9th century, the kingdom controlled the lands between Hue, in central
Annam, to the
Mekong Delta in
Cochinchina. Its prosperity came from maritime trade in sandalwood and slaves and probably included piracy.
In the 12th century AD, the Cham fought a series of wars with the Angkorian Khmer to the west. In 1177, the Cham and their allies launched an attack from the lake Tonle Sap and managed to sack the Khmer capital. In 1181, however, they were defeated by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII.
The first religion of the Champa was a form of
Shaivite Hinduism, brought by sea from India. As Arab merchants stopped along the Vietnam coast en route to China,
Islam began to influence the civilization, and Hinduism became associated with the upper classes.
The exact date that Islam came to Champa is unknown, but grave markers dating to the
11th century have been found. It is generally assumed that Islam came to
Indochina much after its arrival in
China during the
Tang Dynasty (618–907), and that Arab traders in the region came into direct contact only with the Chams, and not others. This might explain why only the Chams have been traditionally identified with Islam in Indochina. Other Muslims, such as some Vietnamese, would have converted much later upon other contacts.
Migration
The Vietnamese Chams live mainly in coastal and
Mekong Delta provinces. They have two distinct religious communities, Muslim or
Cham Bani constitute about 80%–85% of the Cham, and Hindu or
Balamon (deriving from the word "
Brāhman" and used both in Cham and in Vietnamese), who constitute about 15%–20% of the Cham. While they share a common language and history, there's no intermarriage between the groups. A small number of the Cham also follow
Mahayana Buddhism. In Cambodia, the Chams are 90% Muslim, as are the
Utsuls of
Hainan. The isolation of Cham Muslims in central Vietnam resulted in an increased syncretism with Buddhism until recent restoration of contacts with other global Muslim communities in Vietnamese cities, but Islam is now seeing a renaissance, with new mosques being built.
Malaysia has some Cham immigrants and the link between the Chams and the Malaysian state of
Kelantan is an old one. The Malaysian constitution recognizes the Cham rights to Malaysian citizenship and their
Bumiputra status, and the Cham communities in Malaysia and along the Mekong River in Vietnam continue to have strong interactions.
Between the rise of the
Khmer Empire around
800 and Vietnam's territorial push to the south, the Champa kingdom began to diminish. In
1471 it suffered a massive defeat by the Vietnamese, in which 120,000 people were either captured or killed, and the kingdom was reduced to a small enclave near
Nha Trang. Between 1607 and 1676 the Champa king converted to Islam, and during this period Islam became a dominant feature of Cham society. Further expansion by the Vietnamese in
1720 resulted in the annexation of the Champa kingdom and its persecution by the Vietnamese king,
Minh Mạng. As a consequence, the last Champa Muslim king, Pô Chien, decided to gather his people (those on the mainland) and migrate south to
Cambodia, while those along the coastline migrated to
Trengganu (
Malaysia). A tiny group fled northward to the Chinese island of
Hainan where they're known today as the
Utsuls. The area of Cambodia where the king and the mainlanders settled is still known as
Kompong Cham, where they scattered in communities across the Mekong River. Not all the Champa Muslims migrated with the king. A few groups stayed behind in Nha Trang, Phan Rang,
Phan Rí, and
Phan Thiết provinces of central Vietnam.
During the rule of the
Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Chams of that country suffered serious purges with as much as half of their population exterminated.
Notable Chams
Further Information
Get more info on 'Cham People'.
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