Fah Thai Magazine Nov-Dec 2018
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CHAM CULTURE<br />
Top Left & Right<br />
For hundreds of<br />
years, the Chams<br />
were known<br />
throughout Asia<br />
– with the South<br />
China Sea referred<br />
to as the Champa<br />
Sea for the kingdom<br />
that controlled all of<br />
central Vietnam.<br />
Bottom Left & Right<br />
The Chams cultivate<br />
their own rice and<br />
take care of their<br />
own animals.<br />
The Cham women<br />
engage in a<br />
traditional dance<br />
during a festival;<br />
and tend to wear a<br />
scarf or turban.<br />
Young girls receive careful protection,<br />
and great importance is placed<br />
on virginity. A Cham saying goes<br />
“As well leave a man alone with<br />
a girl as an elephant in a field of<br />
sugar cane.”<br />
The women are highly skilled in<br />
pottery and weaving, particularly<br />
brocade, and the men play unique<br />
musical instruments, such as the<br />
xaranai, a type of clarinet, and the<br />
paranung, a cylindrical drum. These<br />
are put to good use in Cham festivals,<br />
particularly the Kate festival, which<br />
honours past kings and ancestors,<br />
and takes place in late September<br />
or early October each year. For<br />
three days, the Chams celebrate<br />
by making and eating ginger cakes,<br />
dancing and singing, and carrying<br />
offerings to their local temple,<br />
which is housed in an ancient<br />
brick tower.<br />
The women are highly skilled in<br />
pottery and weaving, particularly<br />
brocade, and the men play unique<br />
musical instruments, such as the<br />
xaranai, a type of clarinet, and the<br />
paranung, a cylindrical drum.<br />
A thousand years ago, the<br />
Chams were one of the most<br />
feared peoples in Asia, frequently<br />
fighting pitched battles with<br />
their sworn enemies, the Khmers<br />
and the Dai Viet. Their Champa<br />
Kingdom, established in the<br />
second century, occupied what<br />
is now Central Vietnam, as well<br />
as parts of modern-day Laos and<br />
Cambodia, and the Chams were<br />
also undisputed masters of the<br />
South China Sea (then known as<br />
the Champa Sea). Then in the 15th<br />
century they were heavily defeated<br />
by the Vietnamese, and many of<br />
them fled west to neighbouring<br />
Cambodia, though a large number<br />
stayed in Vietnam.<br />
They practised Hinduism,<br />
probably because of trade with<br />
Indian merchants, and they used<br />
the wealth accumulated from<br />
selling goods such as spices and<br />
sandalwood to finance the building<br />
of eye-catching towers in which to<br />
worship their Hindu gods. Later,<br />
many Chams converted to Islam,<br />
so they split into two groups —<br />
the Balamon Cham, following<br />
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