Champa

Champa

Champa (chämˈpä), 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 Annam 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 Empire. 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).

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

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.

REFERENCE

Narody lugo-Vostochnoi Azii. Moscow, 1966.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.