 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
70,000 (2022) (0.07% of the population) | |
| Religions | |
| Hinduism Majority: Vaishnavism Minority: Shaivism | |
| Scriptures | |
| Bhagavad Gita & Vedas | |
| Languages | |
| Sanskrit (sacred) Vietnamese, Cham, Tsat, Khmer, Tamil |
| Hinduism by country |
|---|
  |
| Full list |
Hinduism in Vietnam is mainly observed by the Balamon Cham people in Vietnam. [1] [2] . [3] According to the 2022 US State Department Report, there are 70,000 Hindus living in Vietnam today. [4] [5]
The majority of Cham in Vietnam (also known as the Eastern Cham) are Muslim just like their Cambodian counterparts who are also largely Muslim. However in Vietnam, Hindu Chams who are known as Balamon Chams who make the minority of the Chams in Vietnam. [6] Hindu Chams are called Balamon Cham or Balamon Hindu. [7] They practice a form of Shaivite Hinduism. [8] [ better source needed ] [9] [10] The exact number of Balamon Cham Hindus in Vietnam are not published in Government census, but there are estimated to be at least 10,000 Balamon Hindus. Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan Provinces are where most of the Cham ethnic group (≈65%) in Vietnam reside according to the last population census. Cham Balamon (Hindu Cham) in Ninh Thuan numbered 7,000 in 2002 inhabiting 6 of 34 Cham villages. [11] If this population composition is typical for the Balamon Cham population of Vietnam as a whole then approximately 10% of Balamon Chams in Vietnam are Hindu.
Hinduism is practised by the Balamon Cham people of Vietnam, particularly in the Ninh Thuan province (10.4%) and Binh Thuan (4.8%). [12] [13] Four temples are worshipped today: Po Inu Nugar, Po Rome, Po Klaung Girai and Po Dam. Other Hindu temples include: Miếu Po Nagar, Đền thờ Tháp PÔ Patao At and Đền Po Kabrah. [3]
Cham Hindus believe that when they die, the sacred bull Nandi comes to take their soul to the holy land of India. [14] The main festival of Cham Hindus is the Kate festival, [15] or Mbang Kate. It is celebrated for 3 days at the beginning of October. [16] [17] As of 2017, the United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor estimated about 10,000 ethnic Balamon Cham Hindus in Vietnam. [18]
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 56,427 | — |
| 2019 | 64,547 | +14.4% |
| 2022 | 70,000 | +8.4% |
According to the government census in 2009, both the population of Balamon Hindus and other Hindus were included which in total numbered 56,427. [19] [20]
The latest census of 2019 reports the number of Hindus at 64,547. [4]
In 2022, there were an estimated 70,000 ethnic Cham Hindus living along the south-central coast of Vietnam. [5]
There are 4,000 Hindus in Ho Chi Minh City, most are Cham and a small minority of Indians. [21] The Mariamman Temple is one of the most notable Tamil Hindu temples in Ho Chi Minh City. It is also considered sacred by many native Vietnamese and Chinese. It is also believed to have miraculous powers and is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Mariamman. [22]
There are three Indian Hindu temples in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) - Sri Thendayuthapani temple, Đền Subramaniam Swamy temple and Mariamman Temple. [23]
The Chams, or Champa people, are an Austronesian ethnic group in Southeast Asia and are the original inhabitants of central Vietnam and coastal Cambodia before the arrival of the Cambodians and Vietnamese, during the expansion of the Khmer Empire and the Vietnamese conquest of Champa.
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 CE until 1832. According to earliest historical references found in ancient sources, the first Cham polities were established around the 2nd to 3rd centuries CE, in the wake of Khu Liên's rebellion against the rule of China's Eastern Han dynasty, and lasted until when the final remaining principality of Champa was annexed by Emperor Minh Mạng of the Vietnamese Nguyễn dynasty as part of the 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, and al-Ṣanf in Middle Eastern Muslim records.
Hinduism in Southeast Asia had a profound impact on the region's cultural development and its history. As the Indic scripts were introduced from the Indian subcontinent, people of Southeast Asia entered the historical period by producing their earliest inscriptions around the 1st to 5th century CE. Today, Hindus in Southeast Asia are mainly Overseas Indians and Balinese. There are also Javanese and Balamon Cham minority in Cambodia and south central Vietnam who also practice Hinduism.
Articles related to Vietnam and Vietnamese culture include:
Phan Thiết is the capital of Bình Thuận Province on the southeast coast in Vietnam. While most of the inhabitants live in the city center, others reside in the four urban coastal wards, extending from Suối Nước beach in the northeast towards cape Kê Gà in the southwest.
Ninh Thuận, previously named Phan Rang, is a coastal province in the southernmost part of the South Central Coast region, the Central of Vietnam. It borders Khánh Hòa to the north, Bình Thuận to the south, Lâm Đồng to the west and the East Sea to the east.
In Vietnam, South Central Coast and South Central Region are two terms which can refer to the same region or two regions that do not correspond to each other. South Central Coast consists of the independent municipality of Đà Nẵng and seven other provinces, which means South Central Coast doesn't include Central Highlands. Nevertheless, the term "South Central Region" can also be used to include Central Highlands as it is part of southern part of Central Vietnam.
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.
While the practice of Islam in Vietnam is primarily associated with the Cham people, an Austronesian minority ethnic group, 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 also describes themselves as the Cham, or Cham Muslims, around the region of Châu Đốc.
Phan Rang–Tháp Chàm, commonly known as Phan Rang, is a city in Vietnam and the capital of Ninh Thuận Province. The community has a population of 167,394 (2019), of which 95,000 (2019) live in the main city.
The Raglai people are a Chamic ethnic group mainly living in Khánh Hòa and Ninh Thuận provinces of Central Vietnam. They speak Roglai - a Malayo-Polynesian language. The word Raglai means Forest in their language. The Raglai's population was 146,613 in 2019.
Ninh Phước is a district (huyện) of Ninh Thuận province in the Southeast region of Vietnam, south of Phan Rang. It is also known as "Phu Quy". The city is growing at a fairly fast rate compared to other cities in Vietnam. The city has many beaches and resorts that are in the making.
Indians in Vietnam consist of migrants to Vietnam from India, both historical and recent. As of 2011, there were about 2,000 people of Indian origin settled in Vietnam, mainly in Ho Chi Minh City. Prior to the Vietnam War, there was a vibrant Indian community consisting of primarily Tamils, and specifically the Chettiars.
Đồng Dương was the capital city of the kingdom of Champa from 875 AD until 982, or until 12th century AD. It was built and ruled under the reign of Buddhist king Indravarman II and some of his successors belonging to the Bhrgu dynasty in Đồng Dương. The word Indrapura means "City of Indra" in Sanskrit, Indra being the Hindu God of Storm and War, and King of the Gods in the Rig Veda.
The North–South Expressway East is an expressway in Vietnam located very close to National Route 1, acting as an artery traversing the entirety of Vietnam from North to South. Similar to National Route 1, the expressway starts from Lạng Sơn and ends at Cà Mau. At the northern border, the expressway will connect to Nanning-Youyiguan Expressway in China.
Panduranga or Prangdarang was a Cham Principality. Panduranga was the rump state of the Champa kingdom after Lê Thánh Tông, emperor of Đại Việt, destroyed Champa in 1471 as part of the general policy of Nam tiến. The Panduranga principality was located in present-day south-central Vietnam and its centre is around the modern day city of Phan Rang. It stood until late 17th century when the Nguyễn lords of Đàng Trong, a powerful Vietnamese clan, vassalized it and subjugated the Cham polity as the Principality of Thuận Thành.
Po Klan Thu was the ruler of the Principality of Thuận Thành in Champa from 1822 to 1828. His Vietnamese name was Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh (阮文永). He was the penultimate Cham ruler before the assimilation of the polity in the centralized Vietnamese state.
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.
The last Cham kingdom, Panduranga or the Principality of Thuận Thành, was annexed by Minh Mang of Vietnam in August 1832. In response, the Cham resistance movement led by Ja Thak Wa established a second Kingdom of Champa in 1834 upon the launching of his large-scale Cham revolution against Vietnamese ruler Minh Mang's wake of oppression over the old Champa. It was dissolved in the following year when Vietnamese forces crushed the resistance movement.
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 south-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 Nguyễn 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.
