Cham (redirected from Chams)

Cham (käm), pseud. of Amédée de Noé (ämādā` də nōā`), 1819–79, French caricaturist and lithographer. He abandoned a military career to produce over 4,000 designs, many of them caricatures and sketches of French and Algerian life.

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CHAM

On drawings, abbr. for chamfer.

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Cham 

a Lamaist celebration, during which lamas don masks depicting Buddhist deities, dance, and symbolically kill an evil spirit by setting fire to it.

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Cham 

(also Chiam; self-designation, Tham, Kham), a people living in southern Vietnam and in Cambodia. According to a 1970 estimate, the Cham in Vietnam number more than 60,000; in Cambodia, together with the Malays, they number approximately 150,000. Small groups of Cham live in Thailand and Indonesia. In antiquity the Cham developed an advanced civilization, which became the kingdom of Champa at the beginning of the Common Era. The Cham speak an Indonesian language. Approximately two-thirds of them are Hindus; the rest are Muslims. In Cambodia the Muslim Cham have intermarried with the related Malay people. The Cham engage primarily in fishing, stock raising, and the cultivation of rice in paddies; various handicrafts are highly developed.

REFERENCE

Narody lugo-Vostochnoi Azii. Moscow, 1966.