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Champa

The term Champa refers to a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is today central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd century through 19th century (1832), before being absorbed and annexed by the Vietnamese state. The kingdom was known variously as nagara Campa ( Sanskrit; ) in the Chamic and Cambodian inscriptions, in Vietnamese (Chiêm Thành in Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary) and (Zhànchéng) in Chinese records.

The Chams of modern Vietnam and Cambodia are the remnants of this former kingdom. They speak Chamic languages, a subfamily of Malayo-Polynesian closely related to the Malayic and Bali–Sasak languages.

Champa was preceded in the region by a kingdom called Linyi (, Lim Ip in Middle Chinese) or Lâm Ấp (Vietnamese) that was in existence from AD 192; the historical relationship between Linyi and Champa is not clear. Champa reached its apogee in the 9th and 10th centuries. Thereafter, it began a gradual decline under pressure from Đại Việt, the Vietnamese polity centred in the region of modern Hanoi. In 1832, the Vietnamese emperor Minh Mạng annexed the remaining Cham territories.

Hinduism, adopted from India since early in its history, has shaped the art and culture of Champa kingdom for centuries, as testified with numbers of exquisite Cham Hindu statues and red brick temples dotted the landscapes in Cham lands. Mỹ Sơn, a former religious centre, and Hội An, one of Champa's main port cities, are now World Heritage Sites. Today, some of Cham people adheres to Islamic faith, a conversion which was started in 15th century, and they are called Bani Cham. There are however, Balamon Cham (from Sanskrit:Brahman) people that still retains and preserves their Hindu faith, rituals and festivals. Balamon Cham people is one of only two surviving non- Indic indigenous Hindu peoples in the world, with a culture dating back thousands of years. The other one is the Hindu Balinese of Indonesia.

Champa (disambiguation)

Champa is a former kingdom located in what is now south and central Vietnam.

Champa may also refer to:

Champa (actress)

Gulshan Ara Akter Champa is a Bangladeshi film and television actress.

Usage examples of "champa".

After leaving Quan-zho, I remember, we stopped for water at a great island off Manzi, called Hainan, and at a harbor village on the coast of Annam in Champa, called Gai-dinh-thanh, and at an island as big as a continent, called Kalimantan.

From Sibir in the frozen north to the borders of the hot jungle lands of Champa in the south.

Down in the jungles of Champa, he said, where the elephants came from, there were such things as white elephants.

Unwilling to be ruled by us, they have been emigrating southward into Champa in great numbers.

So my half-brother Hukoji, the Wang of Yun-nan, sent an embassy into Champa, to suggest to the King of Ava that he might obligingly turn those refugees around and send them back to us, where they belong.

The Shan people fleeing from our Yun-nan are seeking refuge in a kingdom that earlier Shan emigrants established in Champa a long time ago.

Chingkim wished most earnestly to see the jungles of Champa, and he never got there.

We agreed that it was a memento distinctive of the Champa lands, and rare even here.

Everywhere in Champa, she said, a bull elephant of sixty years was taken to represent the very peak of strength, virility and masculine powers.

Like Ava, the other nations of Champa may be susceptible to easy conquest, but I think the holding of them will be hard.

I suggest, instead of actual occupation, Sire, that you simply install submissive natives as your Champa administrators and overseeing forces.

Messeri, there is in the lands of Champa a beast called the tiger, which has stripes all over it.

The natives of Champa can recognize one tiger from another by the distinctive striping of its face.

Pagan, in the nation of Ava, in the lands of Champa, we were entertained at dinner by a troupe of musicians who were all blind men.

After all, it was he who conquered the people of Anga, which gave us the port of Champa, which controls all the traffic down the Ganges to the sea that leads to Cathay.