:: HISTORY

In the 2nd century of Christian reckoning, the Kingdom of Champa established itself in the area modern-day Danang.  It is founded by the people of Chams, who are ethnically not related to the Vietnamese but probably have immigrated from an area today belonging to Indonesia. While the King of Funan to the South of the Champa was hardly influenced by China, the Kingdom of Champa, during the 1,600 years of its history, repeatedly suffers Chinese over lordship.

Apart from that, Champa has to balance between two immediate neighbor stronger in numbers of population and in military terms: Vietnam to the North and the realm of the Khmer (Cambodians) to the South. Like Funan, the Kingdom of Champa principally is a seafaring merchant power ruling over only a small land area.

In 1471 the armies of the Vietnamese Le Dynasty conquer the Kingdom of Champa. About 60,000 Champa soldiers were slain, another 60,000 were abducted into Vietnamese slavery. The Kingdom of Champa is reduced to a small area around the present-day Vietnamese city of Nha trang.

When in 1720 a new attack by Vietnamese armies threatened The Kingdom of Champa, the entire of the Cham emigrates to the Southwest, into an area north of lake Tole Sap in present-day Cambodia.

During the Cambodian Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975 to 1979, some 100,000 of 250,000 of Chams died and killed.

:: ARTS & MONUMENTS

The architecture and statues of Champa were inspired by religion, and flourished since the 4th Century and ended along with the fall of the Champa Kingdom in the 15th Century.
Most of the statues were made from stones and bronze, sculpture found in temples, mountains carved on pediments, panels, or friezes.