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Cham


ABOUT ME AND MY LANGUAGE

My name is Can Dai Quang, and I am now seeking PhD in Curriculum Studies focusing on Language Teaching at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA. I used to work for the Cham (Champa) Textbook Compiling Committee (Ban Bien Soan Sach Chu Cham) in NinhThuan province.  My job was to manage bilingual teaching of Cham, the mother tongue of Cham pupils in the Cham elementary schools in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces.  We used the Akhar Thrah script, one of the traditional Cham scripts. Through this website I would like to share information and help promote the Champa language in Pangduranga.  I believe that Cham Language Teaching programs will receive responses from Champa people in other places all over the world. We hope to get the cooperation from those who are involved in preserving the Champa language and culture.

Contact me at: 2755 Kapiolani Bd. #32, Honolulu, HI, USA. 96826.                       

Home phone: 808 206 5804 (Night time – Honolulu time)                        

Email: quangcannt@yahoo.com

Here is the basic information on Champa. I modified it from the ethnologue


Population and Region

Cham population today: there are only approximately 133,000 Cham people (According to National TV Vietnam. http://www.vnntelevision.net/ in Net Dep Van Hoa Cham Giua long HaNoi, 8 September 2004) who live in the coastal area of Central Vietnam, such as, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan provinces. This includes about 30,000 of the Chams known as the Western Cham who live in Dong Nai, Tay Ninh, Binh Phuoc, Ho Chi Minh City, and An Giang provinces (Southern Vietnam). About 1,064,831 are residing in the highlands, they are made up of various ethnic groups such as Rhade, Jarai, Hroi, Chru, Koho, and Raglai.  These groups are considered to be Cham Highlanders (Cham chowk). (According to Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam in 1999, estimated from census 1989 from Website: http://www.undp.org.vn/projects/vie96010/cemma/vie96010/)

There are around 500,000 Cham Muslims in Cambodia who live along the Mekong and the Tonlé Sap rivers http://www.himalayankingdoms.com/destinationinfo.ihtml?destid=28.

There are around 4,040 In Thailand, 14,320 in Vientiane, Lao, 1.830 in Malaysia, 100 in Saudi Arabia, 1,010 in France. (From the Joshua Project website: http://www.joshuaproject.net/peoples.php?rop3=110776)

The Muslim Albanians or Chams who lived in Southern Epirus (Chameria or Thesprotia as it is called by the Greeks) now living in Greece are estimated at around 100,000.  Though some doubt that they are Cham, they recognize themselves as Cham people.  (From the website http://www.unpo.ee/en/members/chameria.html) There are also some in the USA, Canada, and Australia. The Cham Hainan or Tsat number in more than 5,000 people. Web pages:

http://www.csuchico.edu/~elzbieta/Graham.html and http://acadprojwww.wlu.edu/vol4/BlackmerH/public_html/easia/utsat.html
      
        In 1970, Nguyen Van Huy, in “Review in Movement BaYaRaKa” (16th April, 2004 in East Asia & Vietnam, BBC from http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/regionalnews/story/2004/04/040416_bajaraka.shtml), stated that the number of Cham who have fled from the Champa Kingdom (Central Vietnam) since the 14th to 16thcentury was 2 million in Indonesia, 200,000 in Malaysia, and 250,000 in Campuchia. This estimate was corroborated by The Malay Annals, published in the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 25, Pts 2&3 No. 159, Singapore February, 1953, for October, 1952, translated by C. C. Brown, P.109-110, which stated that: “ ... Yak (Champa capital) fell and the Rija (king) of Champa was killed. And the children of the Rija of Champa together with the ministers scattered and fled in all directions. Two sons of the Rija, one of them named Indra Berma Shah and the other Shah Palembang, escaped by ship, Shah Palembang to Acheh and Shah Indra Berma to Malaka.”
Alternate names CHAMPA, TJAM, CHIEM, CHIEM THÀNH, CHAM, HROI, JAWA KU, NAM YANG, and HOI.
Classification
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Western Malayo-Polynesian, Sundic, Malayic, Achinese-Chamic, Chamic, South, Coastal, Cham-Chru.
Comments
An official ethnic community in Vietnam. Remnants of a once powerful kingdom. Austro-Asiatic influences. Literacy rate in first language: 5% to 10%. Literacy rate in second language: 60%.