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The kingdom of Champa (or Chiêm Thành in Sino-Vietnamese records) controlled what is now south and central Vietnam from approximately 7th century through 1832. Before Champa, there was a kingdom called Lin-yi (Lam Ap) (established since 192 A.D.) but relationship between Lin-yi and Champa is still not clear. The modern Cham Lords in Panduranga began to establish in the middle 15th century, obtained a position as an autonomy principality of Tran Thuan Thanh (Nagar Cham di Pandurang) belonging to Nguyen Lord of Cochinchina in 1695 and became the most faithful vassal of Emperor Gia Long of Nguyen dynasty, but it was finally dissolved in 1832 by emperor Gia Long's son, emperor Minh Mạng.
Writing Champa's history was dominated, until the end of the 20th century, by the Chinese and Sino-Vietnamese annals. This imposed a single view on Champa history which is not supported by epigraphical, geographical, or archaeological records. Recently, a revised Champa historiography has emerged. The newer histories describe a string of Cham territories with central authority moving between different regions and at times not existing at all.
Champa's people, the Cham Malayo-Polynesian settlers of mainland Southeast Asia, appear to have reached the mainland from Borneo about the time of the Sa Huynh culture in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. There are pronounced ceramic, industrial and funerary continuities with sites such as the Niah Caves in Sarawak, East Malaysia. Sa Huynh sites are rich in iron artifacts, by contrast with the Dong Son culture sites found in northern Vietnam and elsewhere in mainland Southeast Asia, where bronze artifacts are dominant.
The Sa Huynh culture is a late prehistoric metal age society on the central coast of Viet Nam. In 1909, about 200 jar burials were uncovered at Sa Huynh, a coastal village located south of Da Nang. Since then, many more burials have been found, at some 50 sites. The Sa Huynh shows a distinct regional Bronze Age culture, with its own styles of axes, daggers, and ornaments. Carbon dating has placed the Sa Huynh culture roughly the same time line with the Dong Son culture, that is about the first millennium BC. From about 200 AD, the central coast of Viet Nam was inhabited by the Chams, who had adopted elements of Indian political and religious culture. Recent researches by Vietnamese archaeologists has shown that the Chams are linguistic and cultural descendants of the Sa Huynh people. The uncovered artifacts show the Sa Huynh people were highly skilled craftsmen in the production of jewelry and ornaments made with hard stones and glass. Sa Huynh styled ornaments were also found in Thailand, Taiwan and Philippines suggesting they were traded with South East Asian neighbors, over land and maritime routes. Archaeologists also observe that iron seems to have been used by the Sa Huynh peoples when their Dong Son neighbors were still mostly using bronze.
Lin-yi was established by the rebellion of a local official named Ku-lien against the Han Empire in 192 in the region of present-day Huế. After 7th century, Champa included thereafter the modern provinces of Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Bình Định, Phú Yên, Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận, and Bình Thuận. Initially closely tied to Chinese cultural and religious traditions, wars with neighboring Funan and the acquisition of Funanese territory in the 4th century saw the infusion of Indian culture into Cham society. From the 10th century onwards Arab maritime trade in the region brought increasing Islamic cultural and religious influences. The Cham language is part of the Austronesian family. Cham communities exist in contemporary Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Chinese Hainan Island.
Champa was an important link in the Spice Route which stretched from the Persian Gulf to southern China and later in the Arab maritime routes in Indo-China as a supplier of aloe. Despite the frequent wars between Champa and Cambodia the two countries also traded and cultural influences moved in both directions. The two royal families intermarried frequently. After 1692 many Chams, including members of the royal family and aristocracy took refuge in Cambodia and some were given high office. Champa also had close trade and cultural relations with powerful maritime empire of Srivijaya and later Majapahit of the Malay Archipelago.
Before 1471, Champa was a confederation of 4 (at times 5) principalities, each named after a historic region in India.
Within the four principalities there were two main groups: the Dua and the Cau. The Dua lived in Amarvati and Vijaya while the Cau lived in Kauthara and Pandaranga. <ul>The two clans differed in their customs and habits and conflicting interests led to many clashes and even war. But they usually managed to settle disagreements through intermarriage. (Insight Guide - Vietnam (ed.) Scott Rutherford, 2006, pg. 256, ISBN 981-234-984-7) </ul>
Cham territory included the mountainous zones west of the coastal plain and (at times) extended into present-day Laos. However, the Cham were focused on the sea and had few settlements of any size away from the coast.
Cham history was characterised by repeated military conflict with the Chinese, the Khmer, the Vietnamese, and the Mongol empires. The Chams had many successes over the years, but many failures as well. While the traditional view, argued by Georges Maspero and George Coedès, describes a single Cham polity, more current scholarship describes a string of independent principalities, each focused on a particular river mouth plain. Maspero's frequent shifts of capital and changes of dynasty are now thought to refer to events in independent Cham states rather than a unified Champa. As an example, according to Maspero, the initial capital of Indrapura was thought too close to Dai-Viet and so the Cham kingdom transferred the capital to a more southern city, Vijaya, around 1000 A.D.
In the 12th century, the Cham warred repeatedly with the Khmer of Cambodia. The Cham attacked the Khmer capital near Angkor in 1177, and sacked it in 1178 following a seaborne invasion from the great lake of Tonle Sap. In 1178, the Khmer prince Jayavarman VII defeated the Cham in battle, and in 1191 he captured the Cham capital. Intricate stone bas reliefs depicting naval and land battles between Khmer and Cham forces can be viewed at the temple of Bayon, constructed by Jayavarman VII in his city of Angkor Thom. See David P. Chandler, A History of Cambodia (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992).
More than a century of war between the Chams and the Khmers, during which each nation saw its capital repeatedly captured and looted, ended in 1203 when Jayavarman VIII occupied the southern Cham country and made it a Khmer province. Less than 20 years later, the Chams regained their independence in 1220.
The Mongols under Kublai Khan in 1281 ordered the Cham King Indravarman V to come to Bejing with tribute but he refused. The Mongols sent a fleet down to attack the Cham kingdom and the Cham hid in the hills. A year later the Mongols sent a large army (an estimated 500,000 strong) south to attack the Cham. This army marched through Vietnam but without Vietnamese permission. The Vietnamese harassed the army in conjunction with the Cham. With little to show for this display of force, the Mongol army withdrew. Perhaps to solidify the positive relations between the two kingdoms in 1306 a Vietnamese princess married a northern Cham king.
The marriage did not solve the disputes between Vietnam and Champa and in 1312, the Vietnamese king, Tran Anh Tong, defeated the Cham and made them a vassal state for the next 14 years.
The last strong king of the Cham was Che Bong Nga or Che Bunga (ruled 1360 - 1390). In Vietnamese stories he is called The Red King. Che Bong Nga apparently managed to unite the Cham lands under his rule and by 1372 he was strong enough to attack Vietnam from the sea and almost conquer the whole country.
Cham forces sacked the capital city (Hanoi) in 1372 and then again in 1377. A last attack in 1388 was checked by the Vietnamese General Ho Quy Ly, future founder of the Ho Dynasty. Che Bong Nga died two years later in 1390. This was the last serious offensive by the Cham against Vietnam but it helped spell the end of the Tran Dynasty, which was revealed as weak and ineffective in the face of the Cham military (Vietnam, Trials and Tribulations of a Nation D. R. SarDesai, ppg 33-34, 1988).
In 1446, Dai-Viet under the leadership of Trinh Kha attacked the center of the Champa kingdom. The attack was successful and Vijaya, the central Cham state, was captured. However, a year later a counter-attack drove the Vietnamese out of the city. In 1470, the Dai-Viet, led by the great emperor Le Thanh Tong, attacked the Cham. Le Thanh Tong was an extraordinary administrator and leader. The Dai-Viet army was very powerful and well organized. By contrast the Chams were disorganized and weak. Vijaya was captured after four days of fighting on March 21 1471. The Cham king Tra-Toan was captured and died not long after. At least 60,000 Cham were killed and 30,000 taken as slaves by the Vietnamese army. The capital of Vijaya was largely destroyed (though Qui Nhon was located close by). As a result of the victory, Le Thanh Tong annexed the principalities of Amaravati and Vijaya. This defeat caused the first major Cham emigration, particularly to Cambodia and Malacca.
However, the principality of Panduranga remained in existence. Moreover, under the protection of Dai-Viet, it preserved some of its independence. This was the starting point of the modern Cham Lords in the principality of Panduranga (Phan Rang, Phan Ri and Phan Thiet).
In 1594 the Cham Lord Po At sent forces to assist the Sultanate of Johor's attack on Portuguese Malacca.
In 1692, the Cham Lord Po Sot rebelled against Nguyễn Phúc Trần who ruled southern Vietnam. The revolt was at first unsuccessful and the aftermath was exacerbated by an outbreak of plague in Panduranga. However, a Cham aristocrat Oknha Dat obtained the help of the general A Ban, a Lauw (Orang Laut? Overseas Chinese?) leader. They defeated the Nguyễn forces of Nguyễn Phúc Chu in 1695. After the victory, new king Po Saktiray Da Patih (younger brother of Po Sot) signed a peace treaty with Nguyễn Phuc Chu. As a result of the treaty, the Cham lords were called as Trấn Vương (local lord) of Thuận Thành(Panduranga) by the Nguyễn Lords, and they were closely supervised by Nguyễn officials.
Although the Cham lords had authority to the Cham people, "Archives du Panduranga" supplied some evidences about their limited authority over Vietnamese settlers. The Cham lords often played the role of the judge for Kinh-Cham conflict cases.
17 years later, in 1712, the Nguyễn Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu made new treaty called "the treaty with 5 articles"(Nghị định ngũ điều) with the Cham Lord Po Saktiray Da Patih and clarified the right (included the trial right of the Cham lords and Cham people) and the obligation of the Cham Lords and the Nguyen Lords. This new treaty was kept until 1832 by the Cham Lords, Nguyễn Lords, Tây Sơn Lords and Nguyễn Emperors.
As a result of the war between the Tây Sơn, under Nguyễn Nhạc, and Nguyễn Ánh, in 1786, the Cham Lord Chei Krei Brei and his court fled to Cambodia. The assumption behind this flight is that they supported the Nguyễn Lords and the Tây Sơn Lords seemed to have won the war. From then on, the Cham Lords' title was downgraded to prefect.
In 1796, during the last years of the Tây Sơn, Tuen Phaow, a noble from Makah (Kelantan), headed a major revolt against the new Cham leaders (Po Ladhwan Paghuh, Po Chơng Chơn and Po Klan Thu) and claimed Kelantan's support but the revolt was defeated. The Cham leaders regained their special rights once Nguyễn Ánh (the Emperor Gia Long) regained control over Vietnam in 1802. But even the limited Cham rule in Panduranga officially came to an end in 1832, when the Emperor Minh Mạng annexed the area.
Before the conquest of Champa by Lê Thánh Tông, the dominant religion of the Champa people was Shaivism and the culture was heavily influenced by India. Islam started making headway among the Cham after the 10th century, but it was only after the 1471 invasion that this influence picked up speed. By the 17th century the Royal families of Cham Lords also began to turn to Islam and this eventually triggerred the major shift in religious orientation of the Cham so that by the time of their final annexation by the Vietnamese, the majority of the Cham people had converted to Islam. Most Cham are now Muslims but, like the Javanese in Indonesia, they are heavily influenced by Hinduism. Significant minorities of Hindus and Mahayana Buddhists exist. Indonesian records indicate the influence of Princess Darawati, a Cham princess in influencing her husband Kertawijaya, Majapahit’s seventh ruler, similarly to Parameshwara of Malacca, to convert the Majapahit royal family to Islam. The Islamic tomb of Putri Champa (Princess of Champa) can be found in Trowulan, the site of Majapahit imperial capital.
Many Champa towers still stand in Central Vietnam (An Nam). The most significant example of Cham architecture is My Son (Viet: Mỹ Sơn) near the town of Hoi An (Viet: Hội An). My Son, is a large complex that was heavily damaged by US bombing during the Vietnam War. The site is currently being restored with donations from a number of countries and NGO's. As of 2004, there were still land mines and UXO's to be cleared. There is a Museum of Cham Sculpture in Da Nang (Viet: Đà Nẵng) which was established in 1915 by the French.
Dynasty I
Dynasty II
Dynasty III
Dynasty IV
Dynasty of Panduranga
Dynasty of Bhrigu
Dynasty of the South
Dynasty of Po Saktiraidaputih, vassal Cham rulers under the Nguyen Lords