Chams

The Chams, or Cham people (Cham: Urang Campa,Vietnamese: người Chăm or người Chàm, Khmer: ជនជាតិចាម), are an ethnic group in Southeast Asia. They are concentrated between the Kampong Cham Province in Cambodia and Phan Rang–Tháp Chàm, Phan Thiết, Ho Chi Minh City and An Giang Province in Central Vietnam. Approximately 4,000 Chams also live in Thailand; many of whom have moved south to the Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala, and Songkhla Provinces for work. Cham form the core of the Muslim communities in both Cambodia and Vietnam.

The Chams are remnants of the Champa polities (seventh to 18th centuries). They are closely related to other Austronesian peoples and speak Cham, a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family's Chamic subgroup. This is in contrast to most of the neighbouring peoples, who speak Austroasiatic languages.

History

The ancestors of the Cham probably migrated from the island of Borneo. Records of Champa go as far back as the second century. At its height in the ninth century, Champa controlled the lands between what is now modern Huế to the northern reaches of the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam. Its prosperity came from maritime trade in sandalwood and slaves and probably included piracy.