Chams: Difference between revisions

The Chams, or Cham people (

From the 2nd to the mid-15th century the Chams populated Champa, a contiguous territory of independent principalities in central and southern Vietnam. They spoke the Cham language, a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family. Chams and Malays are the only sizable Austronesian peoples, that had settled in Iron Age Mainland Southeast Asia among the more ancient Austroasiatic inhabitants.^[9]

History

Austronesian origin, patterns and chronology of migration remain debated and it is assumed, that the Cham people arrived in

The Daoyi Zhilüe records that at Cham ports, Cham women were married by Chinese merchants to whom they frequently came back to after trading voyages.^[18][19][20] A Chinese merchant from Quanzhou, Wang Yuanmao, traded extensively with Champa and married a Cham princess.^[21]

In the 12th century, the Cham fought a series of wars with the Khmer Empire to the west. In 1177, the Cham and their allies launched an attack from the lake Tonlé Sap and managed to sack the Khmer capital. In 1181, however, they were defeated by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII.

Vietnamese invasion

Between the rise of the Khmer Empire around 800 and the

The Cham were matrilineal and inheritance passed through the mother.^[30] Because of this, in 1499 the Vietnamese enacted a law banning marriage between Cham women and Vietnamese men, regardless of class.^[31](Tạ 1988, p. 137)^[32][33][34] The Vietnamese also issued instructions in the capital to kill all Chams within the vicinity.^[35] More attacks by the Vietnamese continued and in 1693 the Champa Kingdom's territory was integrated as part of Vietnamese territory.^[36]

When the Ming dynasty in China fell, several thousand Chinese refugees fled south and extensively settled on Cham lands and in Cambodia.^[37] Most of these Chinese were young males, and they took Cham women as wives. Their children identified more with Chinese culture. This migration occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[38]

During the Vietnam War, a sizeable number of Chams migrated to Peninsular Malaysia, where they were granted sanctuary by the Malaysian government out of sympathy for fellow Muslim brothers; most of them have now assimilated with Malay cultures.^[36]

Religious history and change

Chams participated in defeating the Spanish invasion of Cambodia.

Cambodian king

After Vietnam invaded and conquered Champa, Cambodia granted refuge to Cham Muslims escaping from Vietnamese conquest.^[39]

Cham who migrated to Sulu were Orang Dampuan.^[40] Champa and Sulu enaged in commerce with each other which resulted in merchant Chams settling in Sulu where they were known as Orang Dampuan from the 10th-13th centuries. The Orang Dampuan were slaughtered by envious native Sulu Buranuns due to the wealth of the Orang Dampuan.^[41] The Buranun were then subjected to retaliatory slaughter by the Orang Dampuan. Harmonious commerce between Sulu and the Orang Dampuan was later restored.^[42] The Yakans were descendants of the Taguima-based Orang Dampuan who came to Sulu from Champa.^[43] Sulu received civilization in its Indic form from the Orang Dampuan.^[44]

The trade in

In the 1700s and 1800s Cambodian based Chams settled in Bangkok.^[47]

Further expansion by the Vietnamese in 1720 resulted in the total annexation of the Champa kingdom and dissolution by the 19th century Vietnamese Emperor,

In 1832 the Vietnamese Emperor Minh Mang annexed the last Champa Kingdom. This resulted in the Cham Muslim leader Katip Suma, who was educated in Kelantan, declaring a Jihad against the Vietnamese.^{[49][50][51][52]} The Vietnamese coercively fed lizard and pig meat to Cham Muslims and cow meat to Cham Hindus against their will to punish them and assimilate them to Vietnamese culture.^[53]

In the 1960s various movements emerged calling for the creation of a separate Cham state in Vietnam. The Liberation Front of Champa (FLC – Le Front pour la Libération de Cham) and the Front de Libération des Hauts plateaux dominated. The latter group sought greater alliance with other hilltribe minorities.

Initially known as "Front des Petits Peuples" from 1946 to 1960, the group later took the designation "Front de Libération des Hauts plateaux" and joined, with the FLC, the "Front unifié pour la Libération des Races opprimées" (

The Cham community suffered a major blow during the

21st century

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The majority of Cham in Vietnam (also known as the Eastern Cham) are

Around 98,971 Cham are estimated to live in Vietnam.[57]

The Muslim Acehnese people of Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, are the descendants of Cham refugees who fled after defeat by the Vietnamese polity in the 15th century.^[5][58]

According to a National Geographic article published by journalist Adam Bray, Vietnamese government fears that evidence of Champa's influence over the disputed area in the South China Sea would bring attention to human rights violations and killings of ethnic minorities in Vietnam such as in the 2001 and 2004 uprisings, and lead to the issue of Cham autonomy being brought into the dispute, since the Vietnamese conquered Cham people in a war in 1832, and the Vietnamese continue to destroy evidence of Cham culture and artefacts left behind, plundering or building on top of Cham temples, building farms over them, banning Cham religious practices, and omitting references to the destroyed Cham capital of Song Luy in the 1832 invasion in history books and tourist guides. The situation of Cham compared to ethnic Vietnamese is substandard, lacking water and electricity and living in houses made out of mud.^[59] The Cham activist organisation "International Office of Champa" republished Bray's article on their website Cham Today.^[60]

The Cham in Vietnam are officially recognised by the Vietnamese government as one of 54 ethnic groups. However, according to the Cham adovcacy group International Office of Champa (IOC-Champa) and Cham Muslim activist Khaleelah Porome, both Hindu and Muslim Chams have experienced religious and ethnic persecution and restrictions on their faith under the current Vietnamese government, with the Vietnamese state confisticating Cham property and forbidding Cham from observing their religious beliefs. Hindu temples were turned into tourist sites against the wishes of the Cham Hindus. In 2010 and 2013 several incidents occurred in Thành Tín and Phươc Nhơn villages where Cham were murdered by Vietnamese. In 2012, Vietnamese police in Chau Giang village stormed into a Cham Mosque, stole the electric generator.[61] Cham Muslims in the Mekong Delta have also been economically marginalised, with ethnic Vietnamese settling on land previously owned by Cham people with state support.^[62]

A Cambodian Cham Muslim dissident, Hassan A Kasem, a former military helicopter pilot who was both persecuted and imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge and fought against Vietnamese invasion, denounced Vietnam as trying to position itself as the saviour of Cambodia from Khmer Rouge rule and wrote that Vietnam has deceived the west into thinking of it as a "magnanimous liberator" when it invaded Cambodia and ousted the Khmer Rouge when in fact Vietnam used the war to benefit its own interests such subjecting Cambodian financial assets and national treasures to pillaging and theft, settling border disputes to its own advantage, trying to destroy Cambodian nationalist feeling against Vietnam, benefiting from the mostly Khmer on Khmer violence by the Khmer Rouge and setting up its own Communist puppet government to rule Cambodia, the Cambodia People's Party (CPP) with Vietnamese soldiers secretly remaining behind in Vietnam to prop up the puppet government and Vietnamese officials pretending to be Khmer continuing to direct the government as their puppet.^[63] The Cham activist organisation "International Office of Champa" republished Hassan's article on their website Cham Today.^[64]

The Cham Suleiman Idres Bin called for independence of Champa from Vietnam and advocated for international intervention similar as to how East Timor independence was implemented by the United Nations.^[65]

The Cham Muslim human rights activist Musa Porome and his daughter Khaleelah Porome live in America and advocate for Cham rights against the Vietnamese government.

An attempt at

The Cham shielded and always observed their girls attentively, placing great importance on their virginity. A Cham saying said "As well leave a man alone with a girl, as an elephant in a field of sugarcane."[67]

The Cham Muslims view the karoeh (also spelled Karoh) ceremony for girls as very significant. This symbolic ceremony marks the passage of a girl from infancy to puberty (the marriageable age), and usually takes place when the girl is aged fifteen and has completed her development.^[68] If it has not taken place, the girl cannot marry since she is "tabung". After the ceremony is done the girl can marry. Circumcision to the Cham was less significant than karoeh.^[69]

The Cham culture is diverse and rich because of the combination of indigenous cultural elements (plains culture, maritime culture, and mountain culture) and foreign cultural features (Indian cultures and religions such as Buddhism; early Han Chinese influences; Islam) (Phan Xuan Bien et al. 1991:376). The blend of indigenous and foreign elements in Cham culture is a result of ecological, social, and historical conditions. The influences of various Indian cultures produced similarities among many groups in Southeast Asia such as the Cham, who traded or communicated with polities on the Indian subcontinent. However, the indigenous elements also allow for cultural distinctions. As an example, Brahmanism became the Ahier religion, while other aspects of influence were changed, to adapt to local Ahier characteristics and environment. The blending of various cultures has produced its own unique form through the prolific production of sculptures and architecture only seen at the Champa temple tower sites.^{[citation needed]} The Champa temples provide a wealth of information about Cham history, art, and construction techniques, through analysis and interpretation of architecture, styles, and inscriptions.^{[citation needed]}

Martial art

In the legend (tambo) of

The first recorded religion of the Champa was a form of Shaiva Hinduism, brought by sea from India. Hinduism was the predominant religion among the Cham people until sixteenth century. Numerous temples dedicated to Shiva were constructed in the central part of what is now Vietnam. The jewel of such temple is Mỹ Sơn. It is often compared with other historical temple complexes in Southeast Asia, such as Borobudur of Java in Indonesia, Angkor Wat of Cambodia, Bagan of Myanmar and Ayutthaya of Thailand. As of 1999, Mỹ Sơn has been recognised by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

As Muslim merchants of Arab and of

However, a small band of Chams, who called themselves Kaum Jumaat, follow a localised adaptation of Islamic theology, according to which they pray only on Fridays and celebrate Ramadan for only three days. However, some members of this group have joined the larger Muslim Cham community in their practices of Islam in recent years. One of the factors for this change is the influence by members of their family who have gone abroad to study Islam.

The approximately 60,000 Cham Hindus do not have a strict caste system, although previously they may have been divided between the Nagavamshi Kshatriya ^[73] and the Brahmin castes, the latter of which would have represented a small minority of the population.^[74] Hindu temples are known as Bimong in Cham language, but are commonly referred to as tháp "stupa", in Vietnamese. The priests are divided into three levels, where the highest rank are known as Po Adhia or Po Sá, followed by Po Tapáh and the junior priests Po Paséh. In Ninh Thuận, where many of the Cham in Vietnam reside, Cham Balamon (Hindu Cham) number 44,000 while Cham Bani (Muslim Cham) number close to 31,000. Out of the 34 Cham villages in Ninh Thuận, 23 are Balamon Hindu, while 11 are Bani or Muslim.^[75] In Binh Thuan province, Balamon number close to 25,000 and Bani Cham around 10,000. There are four pure Cham villages and nin mixed villages in Bình Thuận Province.^[76]

Notable Chams

• FULRO
• Musa Porome - Cham rights activist
• P'an-Lo T'ou-Ts'iuan
• Amu Nhan expert on Cham music
• Chế Bồng Nga, the last strong king of Champa
• Chế Linh, Vietnamese singer
• Dang Nang Tho, sculptor and director of Cham Cultural Center, Phan Rang, Ninh Thuan Province
• Inrasara (Mr Phu Tram), poet & author
• Osman Hasan, Cambodian secretary of state at the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training

See also

• Art of Champa
• Cham alphabet
• Cham language
• Cham calendar
• Islam in Cambodia
• Islam in Vietnam
• Hinduism in Southeast Asia

References

Bibliography

• Aymonier, Étienne (1891). Les Tchames et leurs religions. E. Leroux. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Cabaton, Antoine (1901). Nouvelles recherches sur les Chams. E. Leroux. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• ISBN 0-691-00032-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
  )
• Chapuis, Oscar (1995). A History of Vietnam: From Hong Bang to Tu Duc. Greenwood Press.
  ISBN 978-0-313-29622-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
  )
• Davidson, Jeremy H. C. S. (1991). Austroasiatic Languages: Essays in Honour of H.L. Shorto. Psychology Press.
  ISBN 978-0-7286-0183-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
  )
• Heng, Derek (2009). Sino–Malay Trade and Diplomacy from the Tenth through the Fourteenth Century. Ohio University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-89680-475-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
  )
• Hooker, M. B. (1 January 2002). Law and the Chinese in Southeast Asia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
  ISBN 978-981-230-125-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
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• ISBN 978-1-4522-6656-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
  )
• ISBN 978-0-300-13793-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
  )
• Schliesinger, Joachim (11 January 2015). Ethnic Groups of Cambodia Vol 3: Profile of Austro-Thai and Sinitic-Speaking Peoples. Booksmango.
  ISBN 978-1-63323-240-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
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• ISBN 978-1-55729-002-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
  )
• ISBN 978-0-521-66370-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
  )
• Taylor, Philip (2007). Cham Muslims of the Mekong Delta: Place and Mobility in the Cosmopolitan Periphery. NUS Press.
  ISBN 978-9971-69-361-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
  )
• Watson Andaya, Barbara (2006). The Flaming Womb: Repositioning Women in Early Modern Southeast Asia. University of Hawaii Press.
  ISBN 978-0-8248-2955-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
  )
• Wicks, Robert S. (1992). Money, Markets, and Trade in Early Southeast Asia: The Development of Indigenous Monetary Systems to AD 1400. SEAP Publications.
  ISBN 978-0-87727-710-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
  )
• Dổ Hải Minh (1965) "Dân Tộc Chàm Lược sử" Saigon.
• Salim, Maryam. (2005) "The Laws of Kedah, 220 Hijrah" A text translation from jawi script to rumi script Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Malaysia.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cham people.

• Britannica | Cham people
• Mitsraym, Islam. Cham Muslims: Liberate Not Expatriate. OnIslam.net. 15 September 2012. Retrieved: 26 February 2013.
• Cham Muslims of the Mekong Delta Book by Philip Taylor about the settlement history, religion, economic life and political relations of the Cham Muslims in the Mekong delta of Vietnam
• 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^{[permanent dead link]}
• 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
• Stone carvings at Bayon in Cambodia showing a battle between the Khmer and the Cham
• The face of Islam in a Buddhist land, by Murat Karaali, Phnom Penh Post, January 1995
• Chamstudies, a new site on Chams
• Picture of Muslim cham girls^{[permanent dead link]}
• Radio Sapcham