Chams - Wikipedia

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For a long time,[specify] researchers believed that the Chams had arrived by sea in the first millennium BC from Sumatra, Borneo and the Malay Peninsula, eventually settling in central modern Vietnam.[19]

The original Chams are therefore the likely heirs of Austronesian navigators from Taiwan and Borneo, whose main activities are commerce, transport and perhaps also piracy.[citation needed] Austronesian Chamic peoples might have migrated into present-day Central Vietnam around 3 kya to 2.5 kya (1,000 to 500 BC). With having formed a thalassocracy leaving traces in written sources, they invested the ports at the start of important trade routes linking India, China and Indonesian islands. Historians are now no longer disputing in associating the Sa Huynh culture (1000 BC–200 AD) with the ancestors of the Cham people and other Chamic-speaking groups.[citation needed]

Patterns and chronology of migration remain debated and it is assumed that the Cham people, the only Austronesian ethnic group originated from South Asia, arrived later in peninsular Southeast Asia via Borneo.[20][21] Mainland Southeast Asia had been populated on land routes by members of the Austroasiatic language family, such as the Mon people and the Khmer people around 5,000 years ago. The Chams were accomplished Austronesian seafarers that from centuries populated and soon dominated maritime Southeast Asia.[22] Earliest known records of Cham presence in Indochina date back to the second century CE. Population centers were located on the river outlets along the coast. As they controlled the import/export trade of continental Southeast Asia, they enjoyed a prosperous maritime economy.[23][24][25]

Cham folklore includes a creation myth in which the founder of the Cham people was a certain Lady Po Nagar. According to Cham mythology, Lady Po Nagar was born out of sea foam and clouds in the sky.[26] However, in Vietnamese mythology, which adopted the goddess after taking over the Champa kingdom, her name is Thiên Y A Na and she instead came from a humble peasant home somewhere in the Dai An Mountains, Khánh Hòa Province, spirits assisted her as she travelled to China on a floating log of sandalwood where she married a man of royalty and had two children. She eventually returned to Champa "did many good deeds in helping the sick and the poor" and "a temple was erected in her honor".[27][28]

Early history

 

Like countless other political entities of Southeast Asia, the Champa principalities underwent the process of Indianization since the early common era as a result of centuries of socio-economic interaction adopted and introduced cultural and institutional elements of India. From the 8th century onward, Muslims from such regions as Gujarat began to increasingly appear in trade and shipping of India. Islamic ideas became a part of the vast tide of exchange, treading the same path as Hinduism and Buddhism centuries before. Cham people picked up these ideas by the 11th century. This can be seen in the architecture of Cham temples, which shares similarities with one of the Angkor temples. Ad-Dimashqi writes in 1325, "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 Umayyads and by Hajjaj, fled there".[citation needed]

The Daoyi Zhilüe records that at Cham ports, Cham women were often married to Chinese merchants, who frequently came back to them after trading voyages.[29][30][31] A Chinese merchant from Quanzhou, Wang Yuanmao, traded extensively with Champa and married a Cham princess.[32]

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

Encounter with Islam

 

Islam first arrived in Champa around the ninth century; however, it did not become significant among the Cham people until after the eleventh century.[33]

Chams who migrated to Sulu were Orang Dampuan.[34] Champa and Sulu engaged 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.[35] The Buranun were then subjected to retaliatory slaughter by the Orang Dampuan. Harmonious commerce between Sulu and the Orang Dampuan was later restored.[36] The Yakans were descendants of the Taguima-based Orang Dampuan who came to Sulu from Champa.[34] Sulu received civilisation in its Indic form from the Orang Dampuan.[37]

A number of Chams also fled across the sea to the Malay Peninsula and as early as the 15th century, a Cham colony was established in Malacca. The Chams encountered Sunni Islam there as the Malacca Sultanate was officially Muslim since 1414. The King of Champa then became an ally of the Johor Sultanate; in 1594, Champa sent its military forces to fight alongside Johor against the Portuguese occupation of Malacca.[38] Between 1607 and 1676, one of the Champa kings converted to Islam and it became a dominant feature of Cham society. The Chams also adopted the Jawi alphabet.[39]

 

Historical records in Indonesia showed the influence of Queen Dwarawati, a Muslim princess from the kingdom of Champa, toward her husband, Kertawijaya, the Seventh King of Majapahit Empire, so that the royal family of the Majapahit Empire eventually converted to Islam, which finally led to the conversion to Islam of the entire region.[40][41][42] Chams Princess tomb can be found in Trowulan, the site of the capital of the Majapahit Empire.[43] In Babad Tanah Jawi, it is said that the king of Brawijaya V has a wife named Dewi Anarawati (or Dewi Dwarawati), a Muslim daughter of the King of Champa (Chams).[40][41][42] Chams had trade and close cultural ties with the maritime kingdom of Srivijaya in the Malay Archipelago [citation needed].

Another significant figure from Champa in the history of Islam in Indonesia is Raden Rakhmat (Prince Rahmat) who's also known as Sunan Ampel, one of Wali Sanga (Nine Saints), who spread Islam in Java. He is considered as a focal point of the Wali Sanga, because several of them were actually his descendants and/or his students. His father is Maulana Malik Ibrahim also known as Ibrahim as-Samarkandy ("Ibrahim Asmarakandi" to Javanese ears), and his mother is Dewi Candrawulan, a princess of Champa who's also the sister of Queen Dwarawati. Sunan Ampel was born in Champa in 1401 CE. He came to Java in 1443 CE, in order to visit his aunt Queen Dwarawati, a princess of Champa who married to Kertawijaya (Brawijaya V), the King of Majapahit Empire.[40][41][42] Local legend says that he built the Great Mosque of Demak (Masjid Agung Demak) in 1479 CE, but other legends attribute that work to Sunan Kalijaga. Sunan Ampel died in Demak in 1481 CE, but is buried in Ampel Mosque at Surabaya, East Java.[44]

Recent scholarship, however, has shown that widespread conversion to Islam came much later. Poorly studied artefacts such as Islamic graves (which simply could have been ships' ballast) have been reexamined to show that they were, in fact, Tunisian and not Cham. Poorly conducted linguistic research attempting to link vocabulary to Arabic has been debunked as well. Rather, there is no sound evidence for widespread conversion to Islam until the 16th century.[45]

Wars with the Vietnamese

Between the rise of the Khmer Empire around 800 and the Vietnamese's territorial expansion southwards from Jiaozhi and, later, Đại Việt, Champa began to shrink. At a disadvantage against Dai Viet's army of 300,000 troops, the Cham army of 100,000 were overwhelmed.[46] In the Cham–Vietnamese War (1471), Champa suffered serious defeats 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 with many Chams fleeing to Cambodia.[47][38] Champa was no longer a threat to Vietnam, and some were even enslaved by their victors.[48]

The Chams were matrilineal and inheritance passed through the mother.[49] Because of this, in 1499 the Vietnamese enacted a law banning marriage between Cham women and Vietnamese men, regardless of class.[50](Tạ 1988, p. 137)[51][52][53] The Vietnamese also issued instructions in the capital to kill all Chams within the vicinity.[54] More attacks by the Vietnamese continued and in 1693 the Champa Kingdom's territory was integrated as part of Vietnamese territory.[47]

The trade in Vietnamese ceramics was damaged due to the plummet in trade by Cham merchants after the Vietnamese invasion.[55] Vietnam's export of ceramics was also damaged by its internal civil war, the Portuguese and Spanish entry into the region and the Portuguese conquest of Malacca which caused an upset in the trading system, while the carracks ships in the Malacca to Macao trade run by the Portuguese docked at Brunei due to good relations between the Portuguese and Brunei after the Chinese permitted Macao to be leased to the Portuguese.[56]

When the Ming dynasty in China fell, several thousand Chinese refugees fled south and extensively settled on Cham lands and in Cambodia.[57] 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.[58]

Chams participated in defeating the Spanish invasion of Cambodia. Cambodian king Cau Bana Cand Ramadhipati, also known as 'Sultan Ibrahim', launched the Cambodian–Dutch War to expel the Dutch. The Vietnamese Nguyen Lords toppled Ibrahim from power to restore Buddhist rule.

In the 18th century and the 19th century, Cambodian-based Chams settled in Bangkok.[59]

Fall of the Champa kingdom

Further expansion by the Vietnamese in 1692 resulted in the total annexation of the Champa kingdom Panduranga and dissolution by the 19th century Vietnamese Emperor, Minh Mạng. In response, the last Cham 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. The king and his people who took refuge in Cambodia were scattered in communities across the Mekong Basin. Those who remained in the Nha Trang, Phan Rang, Phan Rí, and Phan Thiết provinces of central Vietnam were absorbed into the Vietnamese polity. Cham provinces were seized by the Nguyen Lords.[60]

After Vietnam invaded and conquered Champa, Cambodia granted refuge to Cham Muslims escaping from Vietnamese conquest.[61]

In 1832, the Vietnamese Emperor Minh Mang annexed the last Champa Kingdom. This resulted in the Cham Muslim leader Katip Sumat, who was educated in Kelantan, declaring a Jihad against the Vietnamese.[62][63][64][65] 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.[66] The second revolt led by Ja Thak Wa, a Bani cleric, resulting in the establishment of a Cham resistance which lasted from 1834 to 1835 until it was bloody crushed by Minh Mang's forces in July 1835. Only 40,000 Chams remained in the old Panduranga territory in 1885.[67]

20th century

 

At the division of Vietnam in 1954, the majority of Chams remained in South Vietnam. A handful of Chams who were members of the Viet Minh went North during the population exchange between North and South known as Operation Passage to Freedom – along with around ten thousand indigenous highland peoples – mainly Chamic and Bahnaric – from South Vietnam. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam during its early years (1954–1960) were actually more favourable toward ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, compared to Republic of Vietnam, attacking Ngo Dinh Diem's Kinh chauvinist attitudes. Leaders of Communist Party of Vietnam at the time promised equal rights and autonomy, and by 1955 the North's national broadcast station Voice of Việt Nam began broadcasting propaganda radio in Rhadé, Bahnar, and Jarai, to recruit support from the South's indigenous groups. These cultivation efforts later contributed to the foundation of the FULRO in 1964, although FULRO's objective was to fight against both North and South Vietnam.[68]

In Cambodia, due to discriminatory treatments of the colonial and following Sihanouk governments, the Cham communities here sought communism. The Chams began to rise in prominence in Cambodian politics when they joined the communists as early as the 1950s, with a Cham elder, Sos Man joining the Indochina Communist Party and rising through the ranks to become a major in the Party's forces. He then returned home to the Eastern Zone in 1970 and joined the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and he co-established the Eastern Zone Islamic Movement with his son, Mat Ly. Together, they became the mouthpiece of the Khmer Rouge and they encouraged the Cham people to participate in the revolution. Sos Man's Islamic Movement was also tolerated by the Khmer Rouge's leadership between 1970 and 1975. The Chams were gradually forced to abandon their faith and their distinct practices, a campaign which was launched in the Southwest as early as 1972.[69]

In the 1960s various movements emerged calling for the creation of a separate Cham state in Vietnam. The Front for the Liberation of Champa (FLC) and the Front de Libération des Hauts plateaux dominated. The latter group sought greater alliance with other hill tribe 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 has been no serious Cham secessionist movement or political activity in Vietnam or Cambodia.

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 Muslims; most of them have now assimilated with Malay cultures.[47][70] The integrated community who self identifies as Melayu Champa ("Champa Malay") has dabbled into trades of agarwood, clothing (especially in Kelantan) and fishery (in coastal Pahang) from their arrival in the late 1970s to the 80s.[70]

The Cham community suffered a major blow during the Cambodian genocide in Democratic Kampuchea. The Khmer Rouge targeted ethnic minorities like Chinese, Thai, Lao, Vietnamese and the Cham people, though the Chams suffered the largest death toll in proportion to their population. Around 80,000 to 100,000 Chams out of a total Cham population of 250,000 people in 1975, died in the genocide.[71][72][73]