Đại Việt and Champa

Most travellers to Vietnam will, at some point, visit a Cham tower or view some Cham artefacts in a museum. These were left behind by the Cham people of the now-vanished kingdom of Champa. They are unique, exquisite, and mythical. The people who built and carved these beautiful works once inhabited central Vietnam and the northern part of the south, which stretches over 1,000 kilometres from north to south. Today, with a population of less than 200,000, the Chams live primarily in Ninh Thuận, Bình Thuận, and other provinces in the Mekong Delta. Champa’s history is broadly divided into three eras: the First Era (5th to 10th centuries), the Second (10th to 15th centuries), and the Third (15th to 19th centuries). This book deals with the First Era, including the three great Houses of Gaṅgārāja, Vicitrasagara, and Ujora at three locations. The first house is associated with Simhapura, modern Trà Kiệu in Quảng Nam province. The second house is connected with Virapura and Po Nagar in Panduranga and Kauthara, present-day Ninh Thuận, Bình Thuận, and Khánh Hòa provinces. The third house is linked with Indrapura, Đồng Dương Monastery in Quảng Nam province. The book also presents an overview of Champa, a description of the Cham tower and maps of Cham ruins in Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, and Thừa Thiên-Huế provinces. To collect materials for this volume, the author visited most of the sites mentioned in the book and referred to Cham inscriptions, Chinese and Vietnamese historical works. Dr. Anne-Valérie Schweyer, the Research Director at CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), an epigraphist and a world-leading scholar in Champa studies, commented and wrote the foreword for the book. She concludes: 'Through his travels, Tan Pham unravels the history and art of the Cham kingdoms from the time of their creation to their apogee, while at the same time making their present-day presence visible. It is a great pleasure to follow in his footsteps, which lead to a better understanding of a glorious part of Việt Nam’s history.' This book is one of four volumes covering the period of Vietnamese history from the 10th to the 16th centuries. The other volumes are 3A, 3C and 3D of the book series A Traveller’s Story of Vietnam’s Past. They continue where Volume II, One Thousand Years - The Stories of Giao Châu, the Kingdoms of Linyi, Funan and Zhenla, and Volume I, The Bronze Drums and The Earrings end. The book has 360 pages and contains 99 figures and illustrations.A shortened Table of Contents is shown below. Chapter 1 - A summary of this bookChapter 2 - A general overview of Champa           Chapter 3 - The towers of Champa           Chapter 4 - Panduranga - Land of the gods and vineyards, the House of Vicitrasagara - Champa (8th to 9th centuries)                Chapter 5 - Po Nagar (Mother of the Land) Temple            Chapter 6 - Indrapura, the House of Uroja - Champa (9th to 10th centuries)          Chapter 7 - Indrapura and Buddhist MonasteriesChapter 8 - The Cham ruins and artefacts of Quảng Bình province Chapter 9 - The Cham ruins and artefacts of Quảng Trị province  Chapter 10 - The Cham ruins and artefacts of Thừa Thiên-Huế province   Chapter 11 - Conclusion               Appendix 1 - Wuli, Chiêm Động, Ulik and other names of places in Champa           Bibliography