Champa
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Champa
(chäm`pä), the kingdom of the Chams, which flourished in Vietnam from the 2d cent. A.D. until the 17th cent. At its greatest extent it occupied AnnamAnnam, historic region (c.58,000 sq mi/150,200 sq km) and former state, in central Vietnam, SE Asia. The capital was Hue. The region extended nearly 800 mi (1,290 km) along the South China Sea between Tonkin on the north and Cochin China on the south.
..... Click the link for more information. as far north as central Vietnam. Its culture was strongly affected by Hindu influences. In its early period, Champa mainly warred with China and was forced to change its capital several times; late in the 9th cent. its capital was established in the neighborhood of Hué, and the later capital was Vijaya, farther south. Champa repeatedly made war on its stronger neighbor, Annam; it was sometimes allied and sometimes opposed to the Khmer EmpireKhmer Empire
, ancient kingdom of SE Asia. In the 6th cent. the Cambodians, or Khmers, established an empire roughly corresponding to modern Cambodia and Laos. Divided during the 8th cent., it was reunited under the rule of Jayavarman II in the early 9th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. . In the 12th cent. the Chams invaded Cambodia and sacked Angkor; subsequently they fell for a time under Khmer rule. Decisively defeated by the Annamese in 1472, the Chams were forced to yield most of their territory N of Tourane (Da Nang). In the 17th cent. the rest of the Cham kingdom fell to the Annamese, and the remnants of the people were scattered. Chams still form small, impoverished minorities in South Vietnam, but in Cambodia a large colony prospers. Although most of those in Annam are Hindus, those of Cambodia are Muslim. Ruins of Cham temples, adorned with bas-reliefs and with statues, are found along the coast of Vietnam.
Bibliography
See G. Maspéro, The Kingdom of Champa (tr., 1949); G. Coedès, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia (1968).
Champa
a state founded in the second century AD. by the Chams, a people of Indonesian stock, in what is now central Vietnam. Champa was apparently at first a slave-holding state; the development of feudal relations began in the fifth century. The Chams irrigated the land for rice cultivation and were engaged in trade and shipbuilding. Their handicrafts were highly developed. Their architecture and religious sculpture show a close relationship to the art of South India and Java, and written monuments of the fifth century based on South Indian graphic art are known.
Champa acknowledged its vassalage to China in the fifth century. Beginning in the 11th century, as a result of wars with the Vietnamese state of Dai Viet, Champa’s borders were gradually moved south. Dai Viet dealt Champa a decisive blow in 1471.