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The Champa independence movement is a movement for the independence of the Cham people and its attempt to separate from Vietnam. Today's Cham separatism and their notion of nationhood is almost non-existent, according to international researchers. [1]
Champa was a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is today central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd century AD until 1832 when it was annexed by the Vietnamese Empire under Minh Mạng. [2] Once an independent kingdom, Champa had managed to develop its own culture that was strongly influenced from the Indian cultural zone, resulting with its own cultural heritages that separated them from the Sinic Vietnamese in the north, making Champa one of the most important parts of the Indic civilization sphere due to its strong Hindu remnants. [3]
However, with the Vietnamese nation emerged after Chinese occupation, Champa and Đại Việt had engaged in a number of wars. The war series had slowly, but effectively crippled Champa as the country was unable to fend off both threat from the Khmer Empire in the west and the Vietnamese in the north. In order to rescue the country, the Chams adopted Islam as its religion from 15th century, but the Vietnamese conquest at 1471 finally put a de jure end of Champa as an independent state. [4]
Since then, the Chams had rebelled a number of times against Vietnamese domination, the most important rebellions happened to be in the 19th century with Katip Sumat uprising and Ja Thak Wa uprising, making it the first and, so far, the only jihadist war in Vietnamese history. [5] Both had been crushed by the Vietnamese Empire. In 20th century, especially the Vietnam War, the Chams were active as part of Front for the Liberation of Champa, and later, the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races, rebelling as part of their desire for independence. [6] [7] All these rebellions were eventually crushed down by the unified communist government, and the Cham population was significantly reduced.
Cham advocacy groups argued that, as Champa had been an independent country until being finally annexed to the Vietnamese territory at 1832, the Chams have the rights to regain back what it had lost. Cham advocacy groups have also criticized the Vietnamese government of usurping history and denying the existence of Champa as a state and its systematic atrocities against Chams. [8] [9] [10]
Many Chams believed that the Vietnamese government would never allow any official researches over the Cham history in fear of possible uprising against Vietnamese rule by the Cham population. [11] However, due to the small size of Cham population today, it often meets with strong counter-argument from the Vietnamese side.
Cham independence advocators often cite its war against Vietnamese expansionism as an example how Champa should be independent as it used to be. [12]
According to Cham activists, the Vietnamese, regardless of political stances, have been strongly against any kind of independence movement by the Chams, and thus hostile to the Champa independence movement. This has never extended to racial relationship, however, as Vietnamese people, including many Overseas Vietnamese, are totally indifferent on their view with the Chams as a fellow people and unaware of historical discourses, according to Julie Thi Underhill. [13]
Po Dharma, who was a major researcher of Champa's history, while critical to the Vietnamese government's treatment of the Chams, believed that Vietnam should respect the Cham heritage as Champa's history is often intertwined with Vietnamese history, if not to say, part of it. [14]
Among all Vietnamese historical war accords, wars against Champa also take a popular feeling of pride among majority of Vietnamese and the conquest is highly venerated in the country. [15] [16] [17]
Many Vietnamese also believe that if not for the conquest, Champa might have remained an underdeveloped country like Laos and Cambodia, and improvement could be seen under Vietnamese rule rather than Cham rule. [18] Another popular Vietnamese narrative is, although Champa did not exist, but the Vietnamese government since modern days had tried to reconcile and research history of Champa as an entity and its own civilization, culture and customs, thus the Cham nationalist narrative of persecution is untrue. [19]
In the Muslim world, where the Chams seemed to have a close bond due to religious conversion to Islam in 15th century, the persecution of Chams is little-known in the Muslim world. This is due to it being overlooked and due to strong Muslim sympathy to the Vietnamese during its war for independence from France. [20] On the other hand, its Islamic conversion happens to be a huge disadvantage, due to the September 11 attacks which antagonized Muslims across the world may have further alienated Champa independence movement. [20] This lack of awareness might have also contributed to the factor that Vietnam has never been targeted by Islamic extremists despite its maltreatment of Cham people.
In the United States, the Chams were considered to be ally during the Vietnam War, but the Americans' main objective was to help reinforcing Chams and South Vietnam into a common alliance against North Vietnam, which was never achieved due to historical antagonism of two sides. [21] Following the fall of South Vietnam and intensifying persecution, many Chams resettled in the United States and had sought to revive and protect the Cham culture while dealing with a much larger and more populous Vietnamese American community that is not fond of Champa's independence objective either. [22] [13]
The Khmer Rouge was initially antagonistic to the Chams and had committed mass atrocities against Chams, but due to the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, had turned on and tried to seek support from the Chams to fight the Vietnamese invasion. [23]
The history of Vietnam can be traced back to around 20,000 years ago. The first modern humans to arrive and settle in the area of modern-day Vietnam are known as the Hoabinhians, who can be traced as the ancestors of modern-day Negritos. Archaeological findings from 1965, which are still under research, show the remains of two hominins closely related to the Sinanthropus, dating as far back as the Middle Pleistocene era, roughly half a million years ago.
The Chams or Champa people are an Austronesian ethnic group in Southeast Asia, and indigenous people of Central Vietnam.
Champa was a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd century AD until 1832, when the last remaining principality of Champa was annexed by the Vietnamese Nguyễn dynasty under its emperor Minh Mạng as part of its expansionist Nam tiến policy. The kingdom was known variously as Nagaracampa, Champa (ꨌꩌꨛꨩ) in modern Cham, and Châmpa (ចាម្ប៉ា) in the Khmer inscriptions, Chiêm Thành in Vietnamese and Zhànchéng in Chinese records.
The Lê dynasty, also known as Later Lê dynasty, was the longest-ruling Vietnamese dynasty, ruling Đại Việt from 1428 to 1789. The Lê dynasty is divided into two historical periods – the Early period before usurpation by the Mạc dynasty (1527–1683), in which emperors ruled in their own right, and the restored period or Revival Lê, in which honorary emperors reigned under the auspices of the powerful Trịnh family. The Restored Lê period is marked by two lengthy civil wars: the Lê–Mạc War (1533–1592) in which two dynasties battled for legitimacy in northern Vietnam and the Trịnh–Nguyễn War between the Trịnh lords in North and the Nguyễn lords of the South.
The majority of Vietnamese do not follow any organized religion, instead participating in one or more practices of folk religions, such as venerating ancestors, or praying to deities, especially during Tết and other festivals. Folk religions were founded on endemic cultural beliefs that were historically affected by Confucianism and Taoism from ancient China, as well as by various strands of Buddhism. These three teachings or tam giáo were later joined by Christianity which has become a significant presence. Vietnam is also home of two indigenous religions: syncretic Caodaism and quasi-Buddhist Hoahaoism.
Islam in Vietnam is primarily the religion of the Cham people, an Austronesian minority ethnic group; however, roughly one-third of Muslims in Vietnam are of other ethnic groups. There is also a community, which describes itself as of mixed ethnic origins, that practices Islam and is also known as the Cham, or Cham Muslims, around the region of Châu Đốc in the Southwest.
The United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races was an organization whose objective was autonomy for various indigenous peoples in South Vietnam, including the Montagnard in the Central Highlands, the Chams in Central Vietnam, and the Khmer Krom in Southern Vietnam. Initially a political movement, after 1969 it evolved into a fragmented guerrilla group that carried on simultaneous insurgencies against the governments of South Vietnam under President Nguyen Van Thieu and North Vietnam of Ho Chi Minh. Opposed to all forms of Vietnamese rule, FULRO fought against both sides in the Vietnam War against the Soviet-aligned North and the American-aligned South at the same time. FULRO's primary supporter during the 1960s and early 70s conflict in Southeast Asia was Cambodia, with some aid sent by the People's Republic of China during the period of the Third Indochina War.
Nam tiến is a historiographical concept that describes the historic southward expansion of the territory of Vietnamese dynasties' dominions of Đại Việt from the 11th to the 19th centuries. The concept of Nam tiến has differing interpretations, with some equating it to Viet colonialism of the south and to a series of wars and conflicts between several Vietnamese kingdoms and Champa Kingdoms, which resulted in the annexation and Vietnamization of the former Cham states as well as indigenous territories.
The Đại Việt sử ký is the official historical text of the Trần dynasty, that was compiled by the royal historian Lê Văn Hưu and was finished in 1272. Considered the first comprehensive account of the history of Vietnam, the 30-volume book covered the period from Triệu Đà, the first king of the Triệu dynasty, to Lý Chiêu Hoàng which was the empress regnant and the last ruler of the Lý dynasty. Although it was lost during the Fourth Chinese domination in Vietnam, the contents of the Đại Việt sử ký, including Lê Văn Hưu's comments about various events in the history of Vietnam, were used by other Vietnamese historians as a base for their works, notably the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư by Ngô Sĩ Liên.
The Cham-Vietnamese Wars were a series of wars and conflicts between various Vietnamese dynasties and of Champa that led to a total annexation of Champa by the Vietnamese, starting with the 10th-century wars between the two states, and ended with recent 20th-century ethnic conflicts. These wars are considered principal parts of the Vietnamese's supposed Nam tiến theory.
The United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races waged a nearly three decade long insurgency against the governments of North and South Vietnam, and later the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The FULRO insurgents represented the interests of indigenous Muslim and Hindu Cham, Montagnards, and Buddhist Khmer Krom against the ethnic Kinh Vietnamese. They were supported and equipped by China and Cambodia according to those countries' interests in the Indochina Wars.
Vietnamese nationalism is a form of nationalism that asserts the Vietnamese people are an independent nation and promotes cultural unity in Vietnam. It encompasses a broad range of ideas and sentiments harbored by the Vietnamese people for many centuries to preserve and defend the national identity of the Vietnamese nation.
Po Saut (?–1693), also spelled Po Saot or Po Sot, was the king of Panduranga Champa who ruled from 1660 to 1692. In Vietnamese records, he was mentioned as Bà Tranh (婆爭). He was also the last king of independent Champa.
Po Rome (?–1651), also spelled Po Romê, Po Romé or Po Ramo, was the king of Panduranga Champa, reigning from 1627 to 1651.
Katip Sumat uprising was a revolt in 19th century Southern Vietnam. It was led by Cham Muslim leader Katip Sumat. This is the only ever-recorded jihad war involving Vietnam.
Ja Thak Wa uprising was a revolt led by two ethnic Cham leaders, Ja Thak Wa and Po War Palei, against the Vietnamese government under Emperor Minh Mạng in 19th century southern Vietnam.
Po Dharma was an activist of Vietnam. He was also a Cham cultural historian.
Vietnamese irredentism, also known as Ideology of Greater Vietnam, sometimes may be referred to as Baiyue Nationalism is an irredentist and nationalist claim concerning redemption of former territories of Vietnam and territories outside the Nation that the Vietnamese have inhabited for decades. Famous claims are usually taken in Laos, Cambodia, and Liangguang.
Saudi Arabia – Vietnam relations refer to the political, economic and bilateral relationship between Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Vietnam has an embassy in Riyadh and Saudi Arabia has an embassy in Hanoi.
Principality of Thuận Thành, commonly known to the Cham as Pänduranga or Prangdarang, neologism Panduranga Champa, was the last Cham state that centered around the modern day city of Phan Rang in Central Vietnam. Both Thuận Thành of Vietnamese perspectives and Panduranga were mutually used to refer to the last Cham polity. The decline and fading of Champa did not happen in a short period. Instead, for a long period from the late 17th century to 1832, Panduranga had been confined as an ad hoc client state of various Vietnamese dominions, but still maintained its faint independence. After a Cham revolt in 1692–94 and pressures from Cham king Po Saktiraydapatih, Southern Vietnamese lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu abolished his annexation of Panduranga and revived the Champa kingdom under the byname of Trấn Thuận Thành or the Principality of Thuận Thành, effectively made it a client state of the Nguyen domain throughout the 18th century. Constant upheavals, social unrest, and the Tay Son rebellion in Dai Viet overthrew the ruling Nguyen and Trinh domains and Le dynasty during the late 18th century, and as long civil wars between Vietnamese factions raged, the principality of Thuận Thành continued to survive until summer 1832 when Vietnamese emperor Minh Mang annexed and incorporated the kingdom of Thuận Thành into his territory, decisively marking the final demise of the millennial Champa Kingdoms.