Lâm Ấp (Vietnamese pronunciation of Middle Chinese 林邑 *liɪm ʔˠiɪp̚, standard Chinese: Línyì) was a kingdom located in central Vietnam that existed from around 192 AD to 629 AD in what is today central Vietnam, and was one of the earliest recorded Champa kingdoms. The name Linyi however had been employed by official Chinese histories from 192 to even 758 AD to describe a particular early Champa kingdom located north of the Hải Vân Pass. The ruins of its capital, the ancient city of Kandapurpura is now located in Long Tho Hill, 3 kilometers to the west of the city of Huế.
Earlier western scholarship believed Linyi in Chinese records to refer to Champa itself, but Champa expansion northwards may have resulted in the Chinese applying the name Linyi to the Champa imperial city Trà Kiệu (Simhapura) along with Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary and the Thu Bồn River valley around 600 AD.[1]
Lâm Ấp was founded by Khu Liên (Ōu Lián 甌連, EMC: *ʔəw-lian), a Cham leader who led a successful rebellion against the Han dynasty in Tượng Lâm (Xianglin) county (modern-day Huế city).[2] He might have been mentioned as Śrī Māra in the Võ Cạnh stele which was erected around 4th century AD. During the Three Kingdoms period of China, turmoil plagued the region of Jiaozhou. In 248, Lâm Ấp force invaded from the south, seized most of Rinan, and marched on into Jiuzhen, provoking major uprisings there and in Jiaozhi. One Jiaozhi rebel commanded thousands and invested several walled towns before Wu officials got him to surrender.[3] The maternal grandson of Khu Liên, Phạm Hùng attacked Jiaozhou with aid from Funan.[4]
In the early period of Jin dynasty, the imperial court favored the southern trade networks with the prosperous kingdoms of Funan and Lâm Ấp. Along with this brief peacetime "boom" in the southern trade, Jiaozhi and Jiuzhen enjoyed some autonomy from China until the 320s.[5] Frustrated by the difficulty of trade, Lâm Ấp itself resorted from 323 to seaborne raids on northern ports in Jiaozhou.[5] In 347, king Fan Wen (范文) attacked Jin-controlled Jiaozhou with 40–50,000 troops. In 399, Phạm Hồ Đạt (Fàn Húdá) or Bhadravarman I (r. 380?–413?) tried to seize the coast of Jiaozhou and Rinan, and was driven back by Du Yian, the Chinese governor of Jiao.[6] In 413, he attacked Jiao again, but was defeated, captured and beheaded by the Governor of Jiaozhou, Du Xuedu. His son Gaṅgārāja or Fan Dizhen/Phạm Địch Chớn soon abdicated the throne and went on pilgrimage to the Ganges river in India, although that might be two different persons. In 420, Phạm Dương Mại I (r.?–421) launched a new attack against the Jin, but was driven back and more than half of Lâm Ấp's people were slaughtered.[7] In 431, his son Phạm Dương Mại II (r. 421–446) again attacked, but again was driven back. The next year, Phạm Dương Mại II sent an embassy to the court of Liu Song asking for the appointment of Prefect of Jiao, which was declined.[6] He then turned against the Khmers and annexed the Khmer district of Panduranga.[8]
In February 446, the Liu Song dynasty led by Tan Hezhi invaded Lâm Ấp, captured Lâm Ấp's capital (near modern Huế). The Chinese attackers plundered its eight temples and treasury, carrying off 100,000 pounds of gold.[9][7] Despite that, the revived Lâm Ấp was flourishing on the ever more lucrative passing sea trade.[9]
The destruction of Lâm Ấp capital in Huế paved the way for the subsequent emergence of several Chamic kingdoms and chiefdoms south of Lâm Ấp that their connections are remaining unclear, and the country fell into chaos.[10] South of Lam Ap there was the Kingdom of Xitu (Western Citadel) in the Thu Bồn River valley, and Chinese histories told that a refugee from Funan, Jiu Choulou, who "collaborated with the rebels, conquered Linyi and proclaimed himself king" or a usurper named Bhadravarman/Fan Dānggēnchún 范當根純 from Xitu that assassinated the current king because he was the head of the lineage of king Wéndí 文敌 or Manorathavarman in 490 AD, acknowledged by the Chinese in the next year. By 530, a descendant of king Wendi, Rudravarman I (r. 529–572), was recognized as king of Linyi by the Chinese Liang dynasty.
In 534, Rudravarman I sent an embassy to China. In 543, he attacked Lý Bôn in Jiaozhou who was in revolt against the Liang dynasty but was defeated by Lý Bôn's general Phaum Tu. In 595, Sambhuvarman (r. 572–629) sent a tribute gift to the Sui dynasty. In 605 Yang Chien ordered Liu Fang to invade Lâm Ấp. Chinese troops captured the Cham capital of Trà Kiệu, plundered the city. While returning to China, Liu Fang and his army were decimated by diseases.[11]
Since 629, the Chams had used the name "Champa" (Vietnamese: Chăm Pa) to refer their state.[12][1] Sambhuvarman's son Kandarpadharma (r. 629–640) was the first Cham king officially to offer the title śrī campeśvara (Lord of Campa) of Campādeśa (the country of Champa). However official Chinese historical texts maintained to usage of the name Linyi for a while, until the last Linyi mission to the Tang court in 749 was reported having been sent by a ruler named Lútuóluó 盧陀羅, or perhaps Rudravarman II (r. 741–758), but is still blunder in some extent.
From the mid-8th century, Chinese xenonym for Champa had changed from Linyi to Huánwáng (環王), an area that likely located in the north of the realm.
By the 9th century Zhànchéng 占城 (MC: *tɕiam-dʑiajŋ) had been become the official Chinese designation for Champa, makes it clear that Champa was directly former Linyi, although there were earlier Chinese Buddhist pilgrims Xuanzang and Yijing mentions of "Champa" in the name "Zhàn Pó" 占婆. Historian Anton O. Zakharov anticipates that the Linyi/Lâm Ấp of Chinese and Vietnamese histories and the center of Cham kingdom in Cham history are seemed unlikely to be related.
Linyi and Champa theory
Recent academics, tracing from the work of Rolf Stein in 1947 with new archaeological and historical evidence, discard the early French scholar Georges Maspero's classical narrative of 'a vividly unified Champa'. Michael Vickery, an outspoken critic of Maspero's The Champa Kingdom, expresses that there was never a single Champa in history and the linking of Linyi kings to Champa kings is an illusion. From 220 to 645, Chinese annals give almost the same title for rulers of Linyi: Fan 范 (MC: *buam’), that may be connected with the Khmer title poñ found in seventh century Khmer inscriptions. Vickery proposes that the Linyi (Huế) of what Chinese historians had described, was not the actual Champa or Chamic at all. Instead, Linyi's demographics might have been predominantly Mon-Khmer, perhaps the Vieto-Katuic ethnolinguistic branch. The Cham, originally from Tra Kieu and the Thu Bồn River valley, were expanding northward and absorbed the old Linyi during the fifth and sixth centuries AD. Chinese annalists, unaware of that Chamic northward expansion, maltreated the whole realm as Linyi but it was not. Only centuries later when the Chinese figured out Champa and the Cham, the polities had already developed to become important trade partners or established political ties with Imperial China.
Culture
My Son Temple in Tra Kieu
The later capital of Lam Ap in the Thu Bồn River valley, Simhapura, was founded by King Bhadravarman in late-fourth century. Although there are disputes among historians and researchers about Tra Kieu, archaeologists, such as Yamagata (2007), believe that Lam Ap was early Champa, and Trà Kiệu symbolizes the state development of a unified Cham polity.[13] The third inscription of Bhadravarman is the oldest surviving text in Cham language and also any Southeast Asian language.[14] He was also the first known person to order the constructing of the first Śiva lingam, a symbol of Saivaism, in the region. His temple was reported having been destroyed by fire in the six century, and still remains today as one of oldest historical structures in Southeast Asia ever been built and used.[15]
Archaeological excavations recovered artifacts from Go Cam, near Tra Kieu (Simhapura) dated from late second century AD to the third century show that early Lâm Ấp had a significant amount of Chinese influences before the Indianization.[16][17] These artifacts include some fragments of tiles and seal inscribed Chinese characters "Seal of the Envoy of the Yellow God,"[18] however they might be artifacts left by the previous Han Rinan government.[19] It appears that early Champa also might have been a commercial center, with Roman/Mediterranean and Indian ware sherds, blue glass cullet, glass jewelry rediscovered among Chinese sealings, roof tiles, mirrors, coins, daggers, silk, and pottery.[20]
From the third to fifth centuries, there were dozens of small Chamic kingdoms and chiefdoms popped up south of Hue to modern-day Phan Rang. Stone sculptures of Cham folk divinities admixed with Hindu aesthetic dating from fifth to sixth centuries AD were found in those settlements.
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.
Mỹ Sơn is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Shaiva Hindu temples in central Vietnam, constructed between the 4th and the 13th century by the Kings of Champa, an Indianized kingdom of the Cham people. The temples are dedicated to the veneration of God in accordance with Shaivism, wherein God is named Shiva, or The Auspicious One. In this particular complex, he is venerated under various local names, the most important of which is Bhadreshvara.
Po Binasuor, Ngo-ta Ngo-che, Cei Bunga, Chế Bồng Nga ruled Champa from 1360–1390 CE. He was also known as The Red King in Vietnamese stories. He is different from Po Binnasuar, the king of Panduranga from 1316-1361.
The Second Era of Northern Domination refers to the second period of Chinese rule in Vietnamese history, from the 1st century to 6th century AD, during which present-day northern Vietnam (Jiaozhi) was governed by various Chinese dynasties.This period began when the Han dynasty reconquered Giao Chỉ (Jiaozhi) from the Trưng Sisters and ended in 544 AD when Lý Bí revolted against the Liang dynasty and established the Early Lý dynasty. This period lasted about 500 years.
Champa was an Southeast Asian civilization that flourished along the coasts of what is now central and southern Vietnam for roughly a one thousand-year period between 500 and 1700 AD. The original Cham and Proto-Chamic peoples were mainland Austronesian sailors, who adopted as their principal vocations those of trade, shipping, and piracy. Their cities were ports of call on important trade routes linking India, China and the Indonesian islands. The history of Champa was one of intermittent conflict and cooperation with the people of Java, the Khmer of Angkor in Cambodia and Đại Việt (Annam) of the Vietnamese in what is now northern Vietnam. It was to Dai Viet that Champa finally lost its independence.
Bhadravarman or Phạm Hồ Đạt, was the king of Champa from 380 to 413. In 380, Bhadravarman, the son or grandson of Fan Fo, took the throne with the regal name Dharmamahārāja Śrī Bhadravarman I, "Great King of the Law Bhadravarman".
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.
Vijaya, also known as Vijayapura, was the capital of the Kingdom of Champa located in modern-day Bình Định province, Vietnam. It served as the capital of the Kingdom of Champa from the 12th century CE until it was conquered by Đại Việt during the Champa–Dai Viet War of 1471.
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.
Trà Kiệu is a village in Duy Sơn commune, Duy Xuyên district, Quảng Nam province, Vietnam.
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.
The Sui–Lâm Ấp war was an invasion launched by the Chinese Sui dynasty against the Cham kingdom of Lâm Ấp in 605.
Khmer–Cham wars were a series of conflicts and contests between states of the Khmer Empire and Champa, later involving Đại Việt, that lasted from the mid-10th century to the early 13th century in mainland Southeast Asia. The first conflict began in 950 AD when Khmer troops sacked the Cham principality of Kauthara. Tensions between the Khmer Empire and Champa reached a climax in the middle of the 12th century when both deployed field armies and waged devastating wars against each other. The conflicts ended after the Khmer army voluntarily retreated from occupying Champa in 1220.
Vikrāntavarman I or Prakāśadharma, was a king of Champa from the Gangaraja (Simhapura) dynasty, modern-day Central Vietnam, reigning from 653 to 686. His original name was Prakāśadharma but he took the appellation Vikrāntavarman when he was crowned in 653. He was the son of Prince Jagaddharma, the grandson of Kandarpadharma, and Princess Sarväpi, daughter of king Isanavarman I of Zhenla. He sent embassies to the court of Emperor Gaozong of Tang in 653, 654, 669, and 670, which he was known as Zhu Ghedi (諸葛地) and Bojiashebamo, as recorded in the New Book of Tang. He was known for expanding the Champa kingdom to the south, uniting the realm under one dynasty.
Rudravarman I was a king of early Champa.
Prithivindravarman (?–774) was a king of Champa, reigning from 758 to around 770.
Harivarman IV or Prince Thäng (?–1081), Sanskrit name Vishnumürti, was the ruling king of Champa from 1074 to 1080. His father was a noble belonging to the Coconut clan, and his mother was a member of the Areca clan.
Quduqian was the Chinese designation for an ancient kingdom, chiefdom, or a polity that perhaps located around Binh Dinh province, Central Vietnam, then became part of Champa Kingdoms.
Xitu was the Chinese designation for a historical region or a Chamic polity or kingdom that was first mentioned in the mid of fifth century AD, is believed to be one of the predecessors of Champa Kingdom. It has been proposed to be located in the Thu Bồn River Valley, present-day Quảng Nam Province, Central Vietnam.
Gò Cầm is a village and an archaeological site, located in Duy Trung Commune, Duy Xuyên district, Quảng Nam province, Vietnam. The site is located nearby to another significant site, that of Trà Kiệu. Both are considered important sites for understanding the history of the Hindu Champa Kingdom.
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