Kingdom of Champâ

The kingdom of Champâ is a State of culture hindouist which existed in the central zone of the modern Vietnam between 2nd and 17th centuries. The name of Champâ comes from part of old the Bengal, today with the Bihar, whose capital was Champâpuri. In Chau Doc., in the frontier province of An Giang with the Kampuchea a minority Cham Moslem woman with her traditions thrives.

Chams

At the beginning of the 5th century, the Chinese traveller Faxian, on the way of the return of India in China, made there stopover and described the strong right nose and the black and buckled hair its inhabitants like their funerary practices of the Cremation to the sound of the drums. The Chams followed into force a system of Caste S rather similar to that in India, but offered to the women a more important position in the businesses concerning the family and the marriage. They had however adopted the habit of the Satî. They banished also the ox of their table, a practice always observed in certain areas of the Vietnam. Their written language was based on the Sanskrit. The Chams were made up in two clans: Narikel Vamsa, the clan of the Coconut, and Kramuk Vamsa, the clan of the Nut of bétel, first controlling the Northern part of the kingdom, while the seconds reigned on the South.

Currently, reduced to a population of less 80 000 members, the ethnos group cham preserved its religious beliefs, its culture and its language. There also exists out of the Vietnam, a diaspora cham, in particular with the Kampuchea and in Malaysia. Paul Mus made very interesting studies on this area and this population.

The language cham belongs to the Austronesian group of the family of the languages Austronésien born.

History of Champâ

At the beginning of the Christian era, Annam knew an Indian immigration very few but which peacefully spread the hindouism and the Sanskrit, probably one of the most widespread languages of communication in the South-East Asia at the time (See the article Indianisation of the Indochinese peninsula). Buddhist monks followed who introduced the Bouddhisme Mahâyâna there. In spite of this strong Indian influence, Cham will keep particular characteristics which will be found in their sculptor hindouist and who differentiate it from those of India and Indonesia.

In 192, following the chaos which accompanies collapse by the Dynastie Han in China, the civil servant in charge of the area of Hué makes himself independent and founds the bases of the kingdom of Champâ, according to the name of his inhabitants, Cham, an ethnos group malayo- Polynésie installed in the center and the south of the Vietnam and who adopted the hindouism in contact with Indian merchants. Excellent sailors, their main activities were the trade and piracy.

The social hierarchy was Hindu and Cham were divided into four castes (Brahmans, Ksatriyas, Vaiçyas and Cudras). The tradition cham often speaks about two clans (lines) which shared the country: the clan of the aréquier (Kramuka) in the state of Panduranga and that of the coconut (Narikela) which dominated in North.

The mark of the royal capacity was the single parasol. The authority of the king was absolute: it had right of life or of death, named with the loads and employment, and the administration of the country was very whole between its hands. It often carried the title of “King of the kings” (Rajadiraja) or of “Lord of the whole ground of Champa” (Po Tanned Striped).

Champa was not a centralized state but a kind of federation which the components enjoyed each one on the internal political plan of a more or less effective autonomy. The hierarchy of the provincial civils servant corresponded to the territorial division of the kingdom. It was divided in large districts which were sometimes three, sometimes four:

Amaravati where were Indrapura, one of the capitals of Champa, and Sinhapura which was used to him as port. The site of Indrapura would be marked today by the ruins of Ðông Duong. Amaravati corresponds about to the current provinces of Quảng Nam and Quảng Ngãi, but it extended to the door from Year Nam.

Vijaya, in the center, whose chief town éponyme became the capital as from the year 1000. Its port was Çri Vinaya. Vijaya corresponds to the province of Bình Ðinh.

Panduranga (Panran in its indigenous form) have for Virapura capital, which bore also the name of Rajapura (around Phan Rang - Tháp Chàm). This principality was largest of the districts.

It included/understood Kauthara which, at certain times, was detached and formed from it the fourth of great territorial divisions with Yanpunagara like chief town. The provinces of Khánh Hòa and Phú Yên form Kauthara, those of Bình Thuân and Ninh Thuân Panduranga.

These districts were divided into provinces. The communes, cities and villages formed the last territorial division of the country. There would have been of it more than 100 whose population varied between 300 and 700 families, the Vijaya capital while counting more than 2.500 in 1069.

At the 6th century, a new dynasty seizes the capacity, is released from the Chinese yoke and starts one boom. It will be however in quasi perpetual conflict with its neighbors of Java, the Chinese provinces in north and the Khmer Empire emerging in the west. The capital is then located at Indrapura (Trà Kiêu) close to Dà Nang.

In 875, Indravarman II establishes the Indrapura dynasty, transfers its capital in the Scandinavian province from Amarâvatî and the flowering ash of many palates and temples.

At the 10th century, released of the Chinese yoke, the Vietnamese kingdom of Đại Việt, hitherto confined in the delta of the Red River, seeks to extend and starts a policy of extension towards the south or Nam Tiên and enters in conflict with Champâ which must give up Amarâvatî in 1000 and Vijaya in 1069.

In 1145, the Khmers, led by Suryavarman II make the conquest of Champâ, but two years later, new king Cham, Jaya Harivarman I reaches the capacity and releases its country of the influence khmère. In 1177, its successor plunders Angkor, the capital khmère.

But soon Cham fall down under the cut khmère between 1190 and 1220 and undergo the attacks of kings Mongolian Trãns of Vietnam and the S in 1284.

The Nagarakertagama , a poem epic writes in 1365 in the kingdom java are born from Majapahit, quotes Cempa , i.e. Champâ, among the regions with which the kingdom maintains the commercial relations.

The ceaseless conflicts nibble the Cham territory, so much and so that at end of the 15th century, the kingdom of Champâ is almost cut up. Indeed, in 1471, Champâ undergoes a serious defeat in front of the Vietnameses: 120 000 men are killed or captured and the kingdom is tiny room to the small enclave of Nha Trang. One second expansionist wave of the Vietnameses, in 1720, involves the escape with the Kampuchea of the king of Cham and its continuation.

Princes Cham are maintained with the capacity until in 1822, year when Champâ is absorbed by Vietnam. It is the end of the culture hindouist in the Indochinese Péninsule.

The population cham was not very numerous: it was estimated at 200 approximately 000 at the beginning of the 12th century. It is divided into Cham and Savages of the highlands to which Cham give the name of Kiratas and which gather in particular the populations Ba Na, Gia Rai, E Ðê, Ra Glai and Chu Ru.

The principal religion of Cham was the hindouism, i.e. the worship of the three gods of the Trimûrti: Brahma, Visnu and Çiva. But they also practice Buddhism. The 2/3 of Cham currently living in Champa still practice the Brahmanism, whereas the totality of those which left the country to go to settle in Kampuchea became Moslem. Mosque cham in Chau Doc. (Year Giang) http://www.terragalleria.com/vietnam/picture.viet8107.html

Colonizations of Vietnam and Vietnamese colonialism

With the decline of the Dynastie Tang the hopes of release of Vietnam reappeared. Beginning into 938, a true eruption of revolts brought, the following year, the defeat of the Chinese. In 940, the Vietnameses were the Masters of their country since the hills of the Yunnan until the 17th parallel. Although bonds symbolic systems of vassalage joined together them in China, almost all along their history until the French domination became supplements in 1883, their neighbor of North, in spite of some sporadic threats, never succeeds in taking again effective sovereignty on the country, except for the short period of 1407 to 1427.

From now on being ensured their backs, the Vietnameses could be dedicated to their essential historical mission: to make sure vital space necessary to their many farming population in the relatively empty deltas in the South of their border. But, at this place the hindouized kingdom of Champâ was, like were the Kingdoms of the Kampuchea and the Siam (Thailand since 1939). It followed a true campaign of “genocide” that no modern dictatorship could have conceived or realize with such a totality. Founded into 192, the kingdom of Champâ, whose superb Indrapura capital was located close to the current town of Hôi An on the coast of the Nam Center-Vietnamese soldier, thrived during several centuries thanks to its flourishing maritime trade and with its powerful fleets of war. One of it went up and crossed the “Big lake” (Tonlé Sap) of Kampuchea to go to put at bag Angkor in 1177. Like that of Norman (almost contemporary), the Cham Kingdom was based almost entirely on the power of its navy with all the advantages and the disadvantages of the social organization and policy whom such a State involves. These people, like the Norman ones, were a plague of all the area, as a long time as it was able, thanks to his fast ships, to carry the war in his neighbors, living of plundering and the trade of his products.

“But, having neglected agriculture, the penetration and anchoring in its own country, the kingdom was unable to resist, with long, slow and tough the `nibbling' exerted by the Vietnamese peasants. There were confrontation and confrontation of two lifestyles and two rhythms of life: the violent action and rapid of the raids of plunderers and slow propagation gradually of the peasants with always the concern of garnering and of preparing following harvests. Also, although Chams, militarily superiors, made a success of several deep incursions into the delta of the Red River - seizing Hanoi - the Vietnameses pushed back them finally and reduced them on the defensive”. (Thanh H. Vuong, “colonizations of Vietnam and Vietnamese colonialism”, p. 555, in “International studies”, vol. XVIII, No September 3rd, th and th 1987)

Little by little, the Vietnamese farmers occupied the virgin plains of Champâ North, very often with the assent of Chams which transfer in this peaceful occupation a source of enrichment for them. Through Vietnam and by the Yunnan, “rice champâ” made the richness of the Dynastie Song of the South. Village by village, delta by delta, the process was repeated. There were some suspensions and even some briefs retreats in this “long walk” towards the South, but towards the end of the 11th century, all the coastal provinces in the North of Huê had passed under Vietnamese control. The following zone which included/understood Huê became Vietnamese in the middle of the 15th century, thanks to the marriage of the sister of the King of Champâ with the King of Vietnam. But in 1471, the war began again with roughness, the Vietnameses subjected the second capital of Chams, Vijaya (Indrapura having been lost before) and the Kingdom Cham, formerly flourishing, was well close to its fall.

” the Cham Kingdom was erased by slow the `nibbling' of the Vietnameses in approximately five centuries and the term `genocide', indicating the act to make disappear people on a territory, does not have here, in the context of Chinese civilization, the same connotation as that given in Occident since the Second world war, i.e. that of a systematic murder with large scales. For the Cham Kingdom, it was about disappearance of an social organization and policy in the replacement of a lifestyle by another”. (ibid, p. 556,1987).

Bibliographical references.

Paul Driven, “Vietnam. Sociology of a war”, Threshold, Paris, 1952.
Thanh H. Vuong, “colonizations of Vietnam and Vietnamese colonialism”, pp. 545-571, in “International studies”, vol. XVIII, No September 3rd, th and th 1987)

The Champâ dynasties

Dynasty of Pânduranga

towards 757-770: Prithivîndravarman
towards 774-780: Satyavarman
towards 793-803: Indravarman
towards 801-817: Harivarman
towards 820-850: Vikrântavarman III

Dynasty Bhrigu

towards 854-898: Indravarman II
towards 898-903: Jaya Simhavarman Ier
: Jaya Saktivarman
905-910 : Bhadravarman II
918-towards 959: Indravarman III
971-982: Paramesvara Varman Ier
982 : Indravarman IV
983/986: Lu' U Kê Tong
988: Indravarman V

Dynasty of Indrapura

991-998 : Vijaya Shrî Harivarman II
998-1007: Yan Pu Ku Vijaya Shrî
about 1010: Harivarman III
about 1018: Parasmesvara Varman II
10?? - 1030: Vikranta Varman II
1030-1044: Jaya Simhavarman II

Dynasty of Vijâya

1044-1060 : Jaya Paramesvara Varman Ier
1060-1061 : Bhadra Varman III
1061-1074: Rudra Varman III

Dynasties of the South

1074-1080 : Harivarman IV
1080-1081: Jaya Indravarman II
1081-1086: Paramabodhisattva
1086-1113 : Jaya Indravarman II (restored)
1113-1129: Harivarman V
1139-1145: Jaya Indravarman III

1145-1147: Harideva Khmer viceroy

1147-1166: Jaya Harivarman Ier
1166-1167 : Jaya Harivarman II
1167-1190: Jaya Indravarman IV (usurper)
1190-1191: Surya Jayavarman in Vijaya
1191-1192: Jaya Indravarman IV in Pandurang
1192-1203: Surya Jayavarman (restored)

1203-1220: Direct occupation Khmer

1220-1252: Jaya Paramesvara Varman II
1252-1257: Jaya Indravarman V
1257-1285: Jaya Indravarman VI
1285-1307: Simhavarman IV
1307-1313: Simhavarman V (Che Chi)
1313-1318: Che Nang
1318-1342 : Che Annan
1342-1352: Che Mo
1352-1360: Tra Hoa Bode
1360-1390: Che Bong Nga
1390-1400 : Simhavarman VI (Khai)
1400-1441: Jaya Indravarman VII (Ngauk Klaung)
1441-1446: Vijaya (Bi Cai)
1446-1449: Who Lay
1449-1458: Who C
1458-1460: Banla Tra Nguyet
1460-1471 : Banla Tra Toan

1471-1696 : Disintegration of the kingdom of Champa.

vassal Dynasty Po of Vietnam

1696-1728 : Po Saktirai da putih
1728-1730 : Po Ganvuh da putih
1731-1732 : Po Thuttirai

vacancy

1735-1763: Po Rattirai
1763-1765 : Po Tathun da moh-spoke
1765-1780: Po Tithuntirai da paguh
1780-1781 : Po Tithuntirai da parang

vacancy

1783-1786: Chei Krei Brei
1786-1793 : Po Tithun da parang
1793-1799 : Po Lathun da paguh
1799-1822 : Po Chong Chan

Annexation by the Vietnam the last king takes refuge with the Kampuchea.

Others

The Sanctuary Semi-sön , in the political and religious capital of Champâ, is registered with the world heritage UNESCO since 1999

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