The
Cham people (, Cham: ) 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 Thiet,
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).
History
Depiction of fighting Cham naval soldier against the Khmer, stone relief at the
Bayon
Historical extent of the Kingdom of Champa (in green) around 1100 CE
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 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.
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 Mang. 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 are 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 the Nha Trang, Phan Rang, Phan Rí, and
Phan Thiết provinces of central Vietnam.
In the 1960s there were various movements of uprising to free the Cham people and create their own state. The movements were the Liberation Front of Champa (FLC - Le Front pour la Libération de Cham) and the Front de Libération des Hauts plateaux. The latter sought cooperation with other hilltribes. The initial name of the movement was called "Front des Petits Peuples" from 1946 to 1960. In 1960 the name was changed to "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. Today there is no serious secessionist movement or political activity.
Genocide
The
Cham experienced
genocide under the
Khmer rouge. During the massacres 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, along with the
Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge's No. 1 enemy. The plan was to exterminate them all" because "they stood out. They worshiped 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."
Today
Cham dance performance at one of their temples in south Vietnam
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 is no intermarriage between the groups. A small number of the Cham also follow
Mahayana Buddhism. Many emigrated to France in the late 1960s after the civil war broke out in Saigon city.
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. 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.
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.
Religion
The temples at Mỹ Sơn are one of the holiest of Cham sites
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. Although the Chams follow a localised adaptation of Islamic theology, they consider themselves Muslims. However, they pray only on Fridays and celebrate
Ramadan for only three days.
Circumcision is performed not physically, but symbolically, whith a religious leader making the gestures of circumcision with a wooden toy knife.
Most of the Cham Hindus belong to the
Nagavamshi Kshatriya caste, but a considerable minority are
Brahmins.
Notable Chams
- Ahmad Tony, Extreme Scooter Rider
- Seany Chamy, Singaporean Youth actor
See also
thumb|The Cham decorated their temples with stone reliefs depicting their gods, such as Naga (12th-13th century CE)/" class="wiki">Garuda fighting the
Naga (12th-13th century CE)
