The Chams (Cham: ꨌꩌ, چام, cam), or Champa people (Cham: ꨂꨣꩃ ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, اوراڠ چامفا, Urang Campa; [8] Vietnamese: Người Chăm or Người Chàm; Khmer: ជនជាតិចាម, Chônchéatĕ Cham), are an Austronesian ethnic group in Southeast Asia and are the original inhabitants of central Vietnam and coastal ...

Today, many Cham people adhere to Islam, a conversion which began in the 10th century, with the ruling dynasty having fully adopted the faith by the 17th century; they are called the Bani (Ni tục, from Arabic: Bani). There are, however, the Bacam (Bacham, Chiêm tục) who still retain and preserve their Hindu faith, rituals, and festivals.

The history of Champa begins in prehistory with the migration of the ancestors of the Cham people to mainland Southeast Asia and the founding of their Indianized maritime kingdom based in what is now central Vietnam in the early centuries AD, and ends when the final vestiges of the kingdom were annexed and absorbed by Vietnam in 1832.

Until the 17th century, the Cham had successfully maintained their own nation, known as Cham Pa. The local population is composed of two groups: those living in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan believing in Brahmanism, with a smaller group following Bani (old Islam).

2014年6月18日 · Most scholars believe the Cham are descendants of the Sa Huynh, who occupied the same area from roughly 1000 B.C. to the second century A.D., when the Cham culture began flowering.

The Cham ethnic minority group has lived on the central coast of Vietnam for a long time, creating a brilliant culture with a profound influence from Indian culture. The Cham people built the Champa kingdom as early as the 17th century.

2023年12月3日 · The Champa people are among the ancestors of the Vietnamese people, and during the ancient and medieval eras, they had a kingdom and a golden era of prosperity. Until now, the Cham became a part of Vietnam as a minority ethnic group in central and southern.

2013年8月21日 · The Cham people share ethnic similarities with Indonesians, Malaysians and Bruneians in South East Asia. In Vietnam, they are native to the south central coastal region and build thier culture under the influence of Indian culture.

For Oscar Salemink, Vietnam today considers the Chams and the highlanders as tribal populations seen as the barbaric reverse of the neo-Confucian civilisational ideal. But the Chams have managed to preserve their culture and their beliefs.

Over the course of the last eighteen centuries, the Cham community has estab-lished a distinct cultural identity by creatively incorporating elements of Hinduism and Islam into their preexisting...