Cham people
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- ''This article is about the Cham people of Asia. For the ethnic Albanian minority of northern Greece, see Cham Albanians
The Chams are considered to be of Malay ethnic stock. Their language is similar to Malay and belongs to the same Austronesian language family.
History
Records of the Champa go as far back as 2nd century 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.
The first religion of the Champa was a form of Shaivite Hinduism, brought over the sea from India. As Arab merchants stopped along the Vietnamese coast en route to China, Islam began to influence the civilization, and Hinduism became associated with the upper-classes.
The exact date of when Islam came to Cham is unknown; however, grave markers dating to the 11th century have been found. It is generally assumed that Islam came to Indo-China before its arrival in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
Migration
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 to the Vietnamese, where 120,000 (Cham?) were either captured or killed, and was(/were?) 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 MÕng. 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). Few survived this near annihilation of the race. A tiny group fled northwards to the Chinese island of Hainan where they are known today as the Utsuls. The area where the king and the mainlanders settled is still known to this day 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 Thiªt provinces (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.
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, who constitute about 15-20% of the Cham; and, while they share a common language and history, intermarriage between the two is taboo. A small number of the Cham also follow Mahayana Buddhism. In Cambodia, the Chams are 90% Muslim and so are the Utsuls. 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 and is undergoing 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 recognises 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.
References
1.D± Häi Minh (1965) "Dân Tµc Chàm Lßþc sØ" Saigon.
2.Hourani, George F. (1979) "Arab Seafaring" Princeton University Press, New Jersey.
3.Tarling, Nicholas (1992) "The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia" vol.1 Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
See also
External links
- [Proceedings of the Seminar on Champa]
- [Vietnam-Champa Relations and the Malay-Islam Regional Network in the 17th—19th Centuries]
- [The Survivors of a Lost Civilisation]
- [Cham Muslims: A look at Cambodia's Muslim minority]
- [The Cham Muslims of Indo-China]
- [Article about the Cham people living in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia] by Antonio Graceffo
- [Article about Cham fishermen living near Mekong Island, Cambodia] by Antonio Graceffo
- [General article about Cambodian Cham] by Antonio Graceffo
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