Cham (people)

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Dancing Cham in South Vietnam

The Cham (also Tscham , Chinese  占城 , Pinyin zhānchéng , Sinovietnamese: Chiêm Thành) are mainly Sunni - Muslim rice farmers in Cambodia and Vietnam as well as in Thailand and Laos . They are the descendants of the population of the once important kingdom of Champa . In Cambodia, the Cham are also called Khmer Islam , although ethnically they are not Khmer .

Today, depending on the source, around 100,000 to 150,000 Cham still live in Vietnam, which is around 14th place in the ranking of the 53 minorities of Vietnam (even plus the over 500,000 mountain Cham, their share in the total population of Vietnam is barely 1%). According to Cham nationalists, there are believed to be more than 1 million Cham in all of Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, between 500,000 and 700,000 Cham make up the second largest minority in the country after the Vietnamese. They differ from the Vietnamese in that they have darker skin, curly hair and different clothing. For example, women wear dark saris and tie headscarves over their cone hats.

language

Cham (and Berg-Cham) maintain their own language from the Aceh-Cham subgroup (Cham-Achin) of the Western Australian group ( Malaio-Polynesian group ) of the Austronesian language family. The language has its own characters.

Structure and distribution

The Cham are divided into two groups - an eastern and a western one.

Regions & provinces of Vietnam and Cambodia: Cham live in the southeast of Vietnam, Berg-Cham in the highlands

In relation to the whole of Vietnam, up to 800,000 Cham (including mountain Cham) make up barely 1% of the over 80 million inhabitants, and only in relation to South Vietnam barely 2% of around 40 million. Within the boundaries of the former Kingdom of Champa (until 1471 the present-day provinces of Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Lam Dong, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan together) reach eastern Cham together with the mountain Cham almost 5% (about 600,000 of about 12 million inhabitants in these eleven provinces), which is roughly also the proportion of the population of Muslims in Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, China (unofficial estimate), Mongolia and the Philippines corresponds.

The Cham in Cambodia are mainly descendants of Cham refugees from the fallen kingdom of Champa when it was conquered by the Vietnamese. Their share in the total population is given between 2.5% and 5%. During the Cambodian civil war and the subsequent Pol Pot dictatorship, thousands of Cambodian Cham fled to Thailand and Laos. (Previously, there had been small but significant Cham communities in the Cambodian provinces of Kampot , Pursat, and Battambang .)

In Thailand today about 8,000 Cham live not only in the border area and the capital Bangkok , but mainly in the Songkhla province and the adjacent four Muslim southern provinces ( Pattani , Narathiwat , Yala , Satun ) among other Malay peoples. In Laos, the Cham make up the majority of the up to 60,000 Laotian Muslims and live mainly in the area of ​​the capital Vientiane .

Hundreds of Vietnamese Cham came to the Chinese island of Hainan ( Sanya ) as refugees centuries ago , where they are referred to as Utsul (or Hutsul or Utsat ), although the Chinese authorities classify them as the Muslim Hui Chinese . A few thousand more Cham boat refugees have found refuge in Malaysia since the 1970s, where they are considered Malays . Most of the 10,000 to 20,000 Cham in Malaysia live in Kelantan State , some also in Terengganu , Kedah and Perlis .

Between the eastern (Vietnamese) and the western (Cambodian) Cham is the habitat of the mountain Cham , which is differentiated from the other two groups, commonly referred to as Cham.

Berg-Cham

Young members of the E-de (Berg-Cham)

As a mountain-Chambertin or Highland Cham , the other, related to the Cham intimately and neighboring mountain people (Montagnards) denotes the Vietnamese highlands, especially the Gia-rai (up to 240,000), the Ê-Dje (also Rhade , up to 195,000), the Ra-glai (up to 70,000) and the Chu-ru (13,000) - depending on the source between 500,000 and 600,000 other members of the Western Australian (Malayo-Polynesian) language group. All of them were once subjects of the Champa Empire, but in contrast to the Cham proper, some of them were only superficially Islamized.

The Berg-Cham populate the Vietnamese provinces Gia Lai and Đắk Lắk as well as their border area with the provinces Lâm Đồng (Đà Lạt), Khánh Hòa , Phú Yên and Kon-Tum - with the Gia-rai mostly living in the Gia Lai province and the E-de mostly in Dak Lak Province. Ra-glai and Chu-ru mainly live in Ninh Thuan Province.

Tens of thousands of E-de and Gia-rai also live in the east of the eastern Cambodian province of Ratanakiri .

History (modern times)

Just as European historiography about the Carthaginians is based primarily on sources from their Greek and Roman enemies, the history of Champa was and is mostly reported from the victor's point of view in Vietnamese chronicles , and its historical role diminished in favor of Dai-Viet . From the end of the 17th century onwards there were almost no more mentions in Vietnamese sources, and the Panduranga chronicles also ended at the beginning of the 19th century. The repeated waves of flight and expulsions (1471, 1697, 1720, 1832, 1976), mostly associated with the massacres of the Vietnamese at the Cham, can be found almost only in Cambodian, Thai or Muslim traditions.

  • The Cham built significant temples such as My Son , which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites

  • Inside of an E-de-longhouse

  • Flag of the Front pour la Liberation de Cham, supported by the USA in the Vietnam War

The first Islamic communities can be found among the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Champa since the 11th century. Marco Polo met Muslims as early as 1287, as did Zheng He 1409–1435. The number of converts has risen sharply since the defeat by the Vietnamese (1471), but the Champa rulers did not finally accept Islam until 1607. After 1471 the kingdom was broken up into five principal principalities, all of which were annexed one after the other by Vietnam or had to recognize Vietnamese sovereignty. The most important and last of these remaining states was the Principality of Panduranga , which also fell under Vietnamese sovereignty in 1697.

The last Muslim Champa ruler was defeated by the Vietnamese in 1692/95, whereupon large parts of the people fled to Cambodia or to the Mekong Delta, which was then under Cambodian rule. The Champa court, who had also fled, settled in the Cambodian residence Oudong (near Phnom Penh ). Semi-autonomous self-government was contractually confirmed to the Cham remaining in Vietnam in 1712, but after unsuccessful interference in the fighting between the Vietnamese ruling families of the Tay Son, Trinh and Nguyen, the Cham princes were demoted to mere prefects in 1786. With the victory of the Nguyễn dynasty they got their titles back again in 1802, but even this limited autonomy of Panduranga was finally abolished in 1822 (according to other sources in 1832). In Cambodia, the Cham rose up in an uprising around 1860, killed King Ang Duong in battle and drove his successor Norodom I from the capital Oudong before the uprising could be put down with French help.

From 1862 and 1885/87 respectively, the Vietnamese, Cambodians and Cham shared the fate of French colonial rule, but the Cham supported the colonial power and played into the hands of the French divide-and-rule policy. During the First Indochina War , the French created an autonomous region for the Mountain Cham around Đà Lạt (Province of Lâm Provinzng), during the Second Indochina War the US supported the formation of a secessionist Front pour la Liberation de Cham (FLC). In the 1960s this merged with the Berg-Cham to form the Front de Liberation des Hauts plateaux and with the militias of other mountain peoples to form the Force unifiée pour la libération des races opprimées ( FULRO ), all of which ultimately fought unsuccessfully against the Vietnamese and North Vietnamese. As a result of the defeat, the Cham in both Vietnam and Cambodia were initially exposed to displacement and persecution by the communist Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge . Instead of being viewed as autochthonous minorities, they were viewed as future Malay immigrants. By 1979, thousands of Cham died or fled to Thailand, Malaysia, Laos and China, but also to the USA (3,000), Europe (France: 1,000) and Australia. The Australian Time reporter Andrew Perrin estimated the number of Cham murdered by the Khmer Rouge to be up to 500,000.

In 2011, ex-head of state Khieu Samphan , chief ideologist Nuon Chea , ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and former social security minister Ieng Thirith were indicted before the UN special tribunal in the capital of Cambodia for the genocide of the Cham, among other things .

In Sweden, a World Council of Champa was founded in 2006/07 , which claims to be the representative of all Cham communities worldwide.

religion

With the fall of old Champa, which was shaped by Hinduism , the majority of the Cham turned to Sunni Islam over time . At least 80% of the Vietnamese and up to 90% of the Cambodian Cham are Muslim today, the rest (Cham-Ba La Mon) are still Hindu or atheist. A significant part of the Berg-Cham (especially among the E-de) follow Christian churches.

  • Mosque in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)

  • Mosque near Châu Đốc (Vietnam)

  • Mosque in Phnom Penh (Cambodia)

However, the information on the numerical strength of the religions in Vietnam is contradictory. While some sources indicate almost 81% believers (67-75% of them Buddhists) for the whole of Vietnam (compared to 19% atheists, non-denominational and others), conversely the proportion of non-denominational in other sources is almost 81% (compared to 9-12% Buddhists and 0.1% Muslims). From supposedly only 0.1% Muslims with just under 1% Cham / Berg-Cham and up to 90% Muslims among the Cham, depending on the source, there are also considerable fluctuations among the Berg-Cham with regard to the actual proportion of atheists and Muslims (between 10 and 90%).

Khmer Islam

Muslim Cham in Cambodia

In Cambodia, all Muslims have been referred to as Khmer Islam since the 1960s in order to emphasize their position as Cambodian citizens compared to the Vietnamese or Chinese who are classified as immigrants. Occasionally the very small Cham subgroup of the Jahed is viewed as a separate ethnic group of Khmer Islam. In addition to the Cham, the very small minority of the Chvea (Jvea) are also counted among the Khmer Islam.

Bani Islam

Most Cambodian Muslims follow a Malay-dominated Shafi direction, a minority a Saudi Arabian-dominated Salafi direction. Their imams maintain close relationships with religious schools in Kelantan (Malaysia). There is also a Shiite minority.

In Vietnam in particular, an independent, Cham-specific form of Bani Islam is significant, which is mixed with Hindu and Buddhist elements.

Culture

A traditional dance that Cham perform at annual festivals in Vietnam is the butterfly or fan dance patit . Eight to ten unmarried girls in long white dresses hold fans in each hand, which they open and close at the same time, creating a scraping sound. The hand gestures are essential; move your legs only a little in a circle or bend your knees. In processions they dance while walking. The accompanying orchestra, which is also active in all other ceremonies, consists of the only melody instrument, the funnel oboe sarinai (belongs to the surnais family ), two double-headed tubular drums ( ganang ), always played in pairs , a large frame drum ( barinung ) and sometimes a small flat drum gong ( cheng ) and a two-string spike violin with a body made from a turtle shell ( ka nhi ).

See also

Web links

Commons : Cham (Volk)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to the World Council of Champa  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 73,000 eastern and 25,000 western Cham live in Vietnam@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.champacouncil.org  
  2. ↑ According to JW Bromlejs народы мира - историко-этнографический справочник (Peoples of the World - Historical-Ethnographic Words / Manual) , pages 463 and 551 (Moscow 1988), the total Vietnamese population in Vietnam since 1988 is said to have been around 85,000 since then but increased by over 40%, so theoretically there could be 120,000 Cham today.
    The small reference work Asia published by Roland Felber and Diethelm Weidemann (Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1987) already mentions 135,000 Cham or 250,000 Muslims in Vietnam for 1983 (58.5 million inhabitants) (page 454ff) - assuming a uniform population increase for all ethnic groups , there could have been almost 200,000 Cham and over 360,000 Muslims in 2008.
  3. ↑ James Minahan: Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations
    Christian missionaries even assume over 1.3 million Cham.
  4. ↑ International Religious Freedom Report 2008
  5. ↑ a b c J.W. Bromlej: народы мира - историко-этнографический справочник (Peoples of the World - Historical-Ethnographic Words / Manual) , pages 463, 551 and map after page 577. Moscow 1988
  6. ^ Time Almanac 2008 (powered by Encyclopaedia Britannica), page 265
  7. ↑ Fischer Weltalmanach 2009, page 264: 3%, Foreign Office: 4%  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , French Foreign Ministry and British Foreign Ministry ( Memento of May 16, 2008 on the Internet Archive ): 5% Muslims@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.diplo.de  
  8. ^ According to Fischer Weltalmanach 2009, page 300, there are 1% Muslims in Laos
  9. ↑ LE MONDE diplomatique - Atlas of Globalization, page 188f (Muslims, Christians and Buddhists - the Southeast Asia of religions). Berlin / Paris 2006
  10. ↑ Andrew Perrin: Weakness in Numbers: Muslim minorities across Asia are under siege — and their persecution fuels fundamentalists ( Memento of the original from August 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Time of March 10, 2003. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.time.com
  11. ↑ Article in the time
  12. ↑ z. B. Harenberg aktuell 2008, p. 726; Foreign Office  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Vietnam in: Microsoft Encarta (Buddhists together with Taoists); Time Almanac 2008, p. 568@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.diplo.de  
  13. ↑ CIA World Factbook , US State Department , World Atlas & Country Lexicon (Random House), p. 300 (tandem-Verlag Königswinter 2008)
  14. ^ French Foreign Ministry
  15. ↑ Information website about Cambodia - Cham Clichés: A few references ( Memento of the original of March 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cambodia.ka-set.info
  16. ↑ L'islam des Cham Bani (French)
  17. ^ Paul Collaer: Southeast Asia . (Werner Bachmann (Hrsg.): Music history in pictures . Volume I: Musikethnologie. Delivery 3) Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1979, p. 20