Cham people
Encyclopedia
The Cham people are an ethnic group in Southeast Asia
. They are concentrated between the Kampong Cham Province in Cambodia
and central Vietnam
's Phan Rang-Thap Cham
, Phan Thiết
, Ho Chi Minh City
and An Giang areas. Approximately 4,000 Chams also live in Thailand
; many of whom have moved south to the 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 other Austronesian peoples and speak Cham
, a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family
(Aceh–Chamic subgroup). This is in contrast to the neighboring Vietnamese people who speak the Vietnamese language
, which is an Austroasiatic language.
The ancestors of the Cham probably migrated from the island of Borneo
. Records of the Champa kingdom go as far back as 2nd century AD. At its height in the 9th century, the kingdom controlled the lands between what is now modern Huế, to the northern reaches of the Mekong Delta
in Southern Vietnam
. Its prosperity came from maritime trade in sandalwood
and slaves and probably included piracy.
Cham tradition claims that the founder of the Cham state was Lady Po Nagar
. She originated from Khanh Hoa
province, in a peasant family in the mountains of Dai An. Spirits assisted her when she sailed on a drift piece of sandalwood to China, where she married an heir to the royal family with whom she had 2 children with, and then became Queen of Champa.
Al-Dimashqi (1325) states that "the country of Champa
... is inhabited by Muslims and idolaters. The Muslim religion came there during the time of Caliph Uthman
... and Ali
, many Muslims who were expelled by the Umayyad
s and by Hajjaj, fled there."
The Daoyi Zhilue documents Chinese merchants who went to Cham ports in Champa
, married Cham women, to whom they regularly returned to after trading voyages. A Chinese merchant from Quanzhou
, Wang Yuanmao, traded extensively with Champa, and married a Cham princess.
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 Tonlé Sap
and managed to sack the Khmer capital. In 1181, however, they were defeated by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII
.
Between the rise of the Khmer Empire
around 800 and Vietnam's territorial push to the south, the Champa kingdom began to shrink. In the 1471 Vietnamese invasion of Champa
it suffered a serious defeat at the hands of 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.
The Cham were matrilineal and inheritance passed through the mother. Due to this, the Vietnamese in 1499 enacted a law banning marriage between Cham women and every single Vietnamese male, regardless of class. The Vietnamese also issued instructions in the capital to kill all Chams within the vicinity.
When the Ming dynasty
in China fell, several thousand Chinese refugees fled south and extensively settled on Cham lands and in Cambodia. 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.
Further expansion by the Vietnamese in 1720 resulted in the total annexation of the Champa kingdom and dissolution by the 19th century Vietnamese king, Minh Mạng
. In response, the last Champa Muslim king, Pô Chien, gathered his people in the hinterland and fled south to Cambodia
, while those along the coast migrated to Trengganu (Malaysia). A small group fled northward to the Chinese island of Hainan
where they are known today as the Utsuls. Their refuge in Cambodia where the king and his people settled still bear the name of Kompong Cham (literally Cham landing); others scattered in communities across the Mekong Basin. Those who remained the Nha Trang, Phan Rang, Phan Rí, and Phan Thiết
provinces of central Vietnam were absorbed into the Vietnamese polity.
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" (FULRO) at some point in the 1960s. Since the late 1970s, there is no serious Cham secessionist movement or political activity in Vietnam or Cambodia.
The Cham Muslims viewed the karoeh ceremony for girls as very significant. It takes place when the girl is aged fifteen, 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 siginificant that karoeh.
, while their Cambodian counterparts are largely Muslim
.
A small number of the Eastern Cham also follow Islam
and to a lesser degree Mahayana Buddhism. A number emigrated to France
in the late 1960s during the Vietnamese civil war
.
The majority (88%) of Chams who reside in Cambodia are 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. 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. They suffered a higher rate of loss than any other ethnic group; with most of their leaders executed, only 21 out of 113 (19%) Imams surviving and perhaps only 15% of Cambodia’s mosques surviving.
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.
Around 98,971 Cham are estimated to live in Vietnam.
The Acehnese people
of Aceh province
in Sumatra
, Indonesia
is descendant of Cham refugee who fled after defeat against Vietnamese in 15th century.
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.
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.
Most Chams, especially in Cambodia, follow Islam and uphold its pillars including praying five times a day, fasting in Ramadan and performing hajj to Mecca. For many years, representatives from Cambodia have taken part in the annual International Quran Reciters Competition in Kuala Lumpur. The Cham Muslim community in Cambodia runs religious schools and is headed by a Mufti.
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.
Most of the approximately 50,000 Cham Hindus belong to the Nagavamshi Kshatriya caste
, but a considerable minority are Brahmins. Hindu temples are known as Bimong in Cham language and the priests are known as Halau Tamunay Ahier. In Ninh Thuan Province, where many of the Cham in Vietnam reside, Cham Balamon (Hindu Cham) numbers 32,000 while Cham Bani (Muslim Cham) number close to 22,000. Out of the 22 villages in Ninh Thuan, 15 are Hindu, while 7 are Muslim.
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. They are concentrated between the Kampong Cham Province in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
and central Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
's Phan Rang-Thap Cham
Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm
Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm, also called Panduranga, is a new city in Vietnam and the capital of Ninh Thuan province. The community has a population of 161,000 , of which 91,000 live in the main city....
, Phan Thiết
Phan Thiết
Phan Thiết town is the capital of Binh Thuan province, in southeastern Vietnam. Phan Thiet is a municipality in central, south central sector, however, the development plan to 2025, it would be municipality Southeast Vietnam. The population of Phan Thiết city in 2005 is roughly 350,000 and is...
, Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...
and An Giang areas. Approximately 4,000 Chams also live in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
; many of whom have moved south to the Pattani
Pattani
Pattani may refer to* Pattani Province, in southern Thailand* Pattani , in southern Thailand* Pattani , which includes the above province** Pattani Kingdom, a former semi-independent kingdom...
, Narathiwat
Narathiwat Province
Narathiwat is one of the southern provinces of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are Yala and Pattani. To the south it borders the Malaysian state of Kelantan. The southern railway line ends in this province that is one of the nation’s five provinces that borders Malaysia. The name of this...
, Yala
Yala Province
Yala is the southernmost province of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are Songkhla, Pattani and Narathiwat. Yala is the only land-locked province in the south of Thailand...
, and Songkhla
Songkhla Province
Songkhla is one of the southern provinces of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are Satun, Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Pattani and Yala. To the south it borders Kedah and Perlis of Malaysia....
Provinces for work. Cham form the core of the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
communities in both Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
.
Cham are remnants of the Kingdom of Champa
Champa
The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...
(7th to 15th centuries). They are closely related to other Austronesian peoples and speak Cham
Cham language
Cham is the language of the Cham people of Southeast Asia, and formerly the language of the kingdom of Champa in central Vietnam. A member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family, it is spoken by 100,000 people in Vietnam and up to 220,000 people in Cambodia . There are also...
, a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
(Aceh–Chamic subgroup). This is in contrast to the neighboring Vietnamese people who speak the Vietnamese language
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
, which is an Austroasiatic language.
History
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
. Records of the Champa kingdom go as far back as 2nd century AD. At its height in the 9th century, the kingdom controlled the lands between what is now modern Huế, to the northern reaches of the Mekong Delta
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of . The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.The...
in Southern Vietnam
Southern Vietnam
For the former country, see South VietnamSouthern Vietnam is one of the three regions within Vietnam .The largest city in the South is Ho Chi Minh City, the nation's largest city....
. Its prosperity came from maritime trade in sandalwood
Sandalwood
Sandalwood is the name of a class of fragrant woods from trees in the genus Santalum. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and unlike many other aromatic woods they retain their fragrance for decades. As well as using the harvested and cut wood in-situ, essential oils are also extracted...
and slaves and probably included piracy.
Cham tradition claims that the founder of the Cham state was Lady Po Nagar
Lady Po Nagar
According to Cham legend, Lady Po Nagar, or Leiou Ye, was the founder of the Cham nation. She originated from Khanh Hoa province, in a peasant family in the mountains of Dai An...
. She originated from Khanh Hoa
Khánh Hòa
Khánh Hòa may refer to a number of places in Vietnam:*Khanh Hoa Province*Khánh Hòa, An Giang - a commune of An Giang Province...
province, in a peasant family in the mountains of Dai An. Spirits assisted her when she sailed on a drift piece of sandalwood to China, where she married an heir to the royal family with whom she had 2 children with, and then became Queen of Champa.
Al-Dimashqi (1325) states that "the country of Champa
Champa
The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...
... is inhabited by Muslims and idolaters. The Muslim religion came there during the time of Caliph Uthman
Uthman
Uthman ibn Affan was one of the companions of Islamic prophet, Muhammad. He played a major role in early Islamic history as the third Sunni Rashidun or Rightly Guided Caliph....
... and Ali
Ali
' |Ramaḍān]], 40 AH; approximately October 23, 598 or 600 or March 17, 599 – January 27, 661).His father's name was Abu Talib. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661, and was the first male convert to Islam...
, many Muslims who were expelled by the Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
s and by Hajjaj, fled there."
The Daoyi Zhilue documents Chinese merchants who went to Cham ports in Champa
Champa
The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...
, married Cham women, to whom they regularly returned to after trading voyages. A Chinese merchant from Quanzhou
Quanzhou
Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city in Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two and faces the Taiwan Strait...
, Wang Yuanmao, traded extensively with Champa, and married a Cham princess.
In the 12th century AD, the Cham fought a series of wars with the Angkorian Khmer
Khmer Empire
The Khmer Empire was one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia. The empire, which grew out of the former kingdom of Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalized parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, and Malaysia. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, the site of the capital city...
to the west. In 1177, the Cham and their allies launched an attack from the lake Tonlé Sap
Tonlé Sap
The Tonlé Sap is a combined lake and river system of major importance to Cambodia.The Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia and is an ecological hot spot that was designated as a UNESCO biosphere in 1997....
and managed to sack the Khmer capital. In 1181, however, they were defeated by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII
Jayavarman VII
Jayavarman VII was a king of the Khmer Empire in present day Siem Reap, Cambodia. He was the son of King Dharanindravarman II and Queen Sri Jayarajacudamani. He married Jayarajadevi and then, after her death, married her sister Indradevi...
.
Between the rise of the Khmer Empire
Khmer Empire
The Khmer Empire was one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia. The empire, which grew out of the former kingdom of Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalized parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, and Malaysia. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, the site of the capital city...
around 800 and Vietnam's territorial push to the south, the Champa kingdom began to shrink. In the 1471 Vietnamese invasion of Champa
1471 Vietnamese invasion of Champa
1471 Vietnamese invasion of Champa under Emperor Lê Thánh Tông was a military expedition that is widely regarded as marking the downfall of Champa. The Vietnamese forces attacked and sacked the capital Vijaya, and decimated the Cham army...
it suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the Vietnamese, in which 120,000 people were either captured or killed, and the kingdom was reduced to a small enclave near Nha Trang
Nha Trang
Nha Trang is a coastal city and capital of Khanh Hoa province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the North by Ninh Hoà district, on the East by the South China Sea, on the South by Cam Ranh town and on the West by Diên Khánh district...
. Between 1607 and 1676 the Champa king converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, and during this period Islam became a dominant feature of Cham society.
The Cham were matrilineal and inheritance passed through the mother. Due to this, the Vietnamese in 1499 enacted a law banning marriage between Cham women and every single Vietnamese male, regardless of class. The Vietnamese also issued instructions in the capital to kill all Chams within the vicinity.
When the Ming dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
in China fell, several thousand Chinese refugees fled south and extensively settled on Cham lands and in Cambodia. 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.
Further expansion by the Vietnamese in 1720 resulted in the total annexation of the Champa kingdom and dissolution by the 19th century Vietnamese king, Minh Mạng
Minh Mang
Minh Mạng was the second emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until 20 January 1841. He was a younger son of Emperor Gia Long, whose eldest son, Crown Prince Canh, had died in 1801...
. In response, the last Champa Muslim king, Pô Chien, gathered his people in the hinterland and fled south to Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, while those along the coast migrated to Trengganu (Malaysia). A small group fled northward to the Chinese island of Hainan
Hainan
Hainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
where they are known today as the Utsuls. Their refuge in Cambodia where the king and his people settled still bear the name of Kompong Cham (literally Cham landing); others scattered in communities across the Mekong Basin. Those who remained the Nha Trang, Phan Rang, Phan Rí, and Phan Thiết
Phan Thiết
Phan Thiết town is the capital of Binh Thuan province, in southeastern Vietnam. Phan Thiet is a municipality in central, south central sector, however, the development plan to 2025, it would be municipality Southeast Vietnam. The population of Phan Thiết city in 2005 is roughly 350,000 and is...
provinces of central Vietnam were absorbed into the Vietnamese polity.
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" (FULRO) at some point in the 1960s. Since the late 1970s, there is no serious Cham secessionist movement or political activity in Vietnam or Cambodia.
Genocide
The Cham community suffered a major blow during the Khmer Rouge rule. During the mass killings by the government, a disproportionate number of Chams were killed compared with ethnic Khmers. Ysa Osman, a researcher at the Documentation Center of Cambodia concludes, "Perhaps as many as 500,000 died. They were considered the Khmer Rouge's No. 1 enemy. The plan was to exterminate them all" because "they stood out. They worshipped their own god. Their diet was different. Their names and language were different. They lived by different rules. The Khmer Rouge wanted everyone to be equal, and when the Chams practiced Islam they did not appear to be equal. So they were punished."Culture
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."The Cham Muslims viewed the karoeh ceremony for girls as very significant. It takes place when the girl is aged fifteen, 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 siginificant that karoeh.
21st century
The majority of Cham in Vietnam (also known as the Eastern Cham) are HinduHinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, while their Cambodian counterparts are largely Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
.
A small number of the Eastern Cham also follow Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and to a lesser degree Mahayana Buddhism. A number emigrated to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in the late 1960s during the Vietnamese civil war
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
The majority (88%) of Chams who reside in Cambodia are Muslim, as are the Utsuls of Hainan
Hainan
Hainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
. The isolation of Cham Muslims in central Vietnam resulted in an increased syncretism
Syncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
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. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
in Cambodia, the Chams of that country suffered serious purges with as much as half of their population exterminated. They suffered a higher rate of loss than any other ethnic group; with most of their leaders executed, only 21 out of 113 (19%) Imams surviving and perhaps only 15% of Cambodia’s mosques surviving.
Malaysia has some Cham immigrants and the link between the Chams and the Malaysian state of Kelantan
Kelantan
Kelantan is a state of Malaysia. The capital and royal seat is Kota Bharu. The Arabic honorific of the state is Darul Naim, ....
is an old one. The Malaysian constitution recognizes the Cham rights to Malaysian citizenship and their Bumiputra
Bumiputra
Bumiputera or Bumiputra is a Malay term widely used in Malaysia, embracing indigenous people of the Malay Archipelago. The term comes from the Sanskrit word bhumiputra, which can be translated literally as "son of land"...
status, and the Cham communities in Malaysia and along the Mekong River in Vietnam continue to have strong interactions.
Around 98,971 Cham are estimated to live in Vietnam.
The Acehnese people
Acehnese people
The Acehnese are a people in Aceh, Indonesia. Their homeland is located in the northern-most tip of the island of Sumatra and had a history of political struggle against the Dutch...
of Aceh province
Aceh
Aceh is a special region of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Its full name is Daerah Istimewa Aceh , Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam and Aceh . Past spellings of its name include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin...
in Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
is descendant of Cham refugee who fled after defeat against Vietnamese in 15th century.
Religion
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, brought by sea from India. As Arab merchants stopped along the Vietnam coast en route to China, Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
began to influence the civilization.
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
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
much after its arrival in China during the Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
(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.
Most Chams, especially in Cambodia, follow Islam and uphold its pillars including praying five times a day, fasting in Ramadan and performing hajj to Mecca. For many years, representatives from Cambodia have taken part in the annual International Quran Reciters Competition in Kuala Lumpur. The Cham Muslim community in Cambodia runs religious schools and is headed by a Mufti.
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
Ramadan
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...
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.
Most of the approximately 50,000 Cham Hindus belong to the Nagavamshi Kshatriya caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
, but a considerable minority are Brahmins. Hindu temples are known as Bimong in Cham language and the priests are known as Halau Tamunay Ahier. In Ninh Thuan Province, where many of the Cham in Vietnam reside, Cham Balamon (Hindu Cham) numbers 32,000 while Cham Bani (Muslim Cham) number close to 22,000. Out of the 22 villages in Ninh Thuan, 15 are Hindu, while 7 are Muslim.
See also
- Art of ChampaArt of ChampaChampa was an Indic civilization that flourished along the coasts of what is now central and southern Vietnam for roughly a one thousand year period between 500 AD and 1500 AD. The original Chams were probably colonists from the Indonesian islands, who adopted as their principal vocations those of...
- Cham script
- Cham languageCham languageCham is the language of the Cham people of Southeast Asia, and formerly the language of the kingdom of Champa in central Vietnam. A member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family, it is spoken by 100,000 people in Vietnam and up to 220,000 people in Cambodia . There are also...
- Islam in CambodiaIslam in CambodiaIslam is the religion of a majority of the Cham and Malay minorities in Cambodia. According to Po Dharma, there were 150,000 to 200,000 Muslims in Cambodia as late as 1975. Persecution under the Khmer Rouge eroded their numbers, however, and by the late 1980s they probably had not regained their...
- Islam in VietnamIslam in VietnamIslam in Vietnam is primarily the religion of the Cham people, a minority ethnic group related to Malays; however, roughly one-third of the Muslims in Vietnam are of other ethnic groups...
- Hinduism in Vietnam
Literature
- Taylor, Philip (2007) Cham Muslims of the Mekong Delta: Place and Mobility in the Cosmopolitan Periphery, Singapore: University of Singapore Press.
- Dổ Hải Minh (1965) "Dân Tộc Chàm Lược sử" Saigon.
- Hourani, George F. (1979) "Arab Seafaring" Princeton University Press, New Jersey.
- Tarling, Nicholas (1992) "The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia" vol.1 Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- 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
- Britannica | Cham people
- 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
- 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
- Radio Sapcham