I am Can Dai Quang, now seeking Med. in Curriculum Studies focusing on Language teaching. I worked for Cham Textbooks Compiling Committee (Ban Bien Soan Sach Chu Cham) in NinhThuan province in the field of bilingually teaching mother tongue for Cham pupils in Cham elementary school areas in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan province in Akhar Thrah script, one of traditional Cham scripts. Through this website I would like to share the preservation of Champa language in Pangduranga and believe that Cham will receive the response from Champa people in other places all over the world. Hoping to get the cooperation from those who involve in preserving Champa language and culture.
Contact me at: 1711 East West Rd, Honolulu, HI, USA. 96848.
Home phone: 808 944 6162 (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 persons
(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. Includingly, there are about 30,000 of the
Chams known as
Western Cham who live in Dong Nai, Tay Ninh, Binh Phuoc, Thanh pho
Ho Chi
Minh, and An Giang provinces (Southern of Vietnam). About 1,064,831
residing in
the highlands, they are made of various ethnic groups such as Rhade,
Jarai,
Hroi, Chru, Koho, and Raglai were
consider as
Cham Highland (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. (In
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 is estimated at around 100.000 someone doubts that they are not Cham but they recognize them as Cham people, in website http://www.unpo.ee/en/members/chameria.html. There are also some in USA, Canada, and Australia. Cham Hainan or Tsat more than 5.000 persons. Web page: http://www.mfa.gov.tr/grupa/ac/ack/03.htm<>
But
according to Nguyen Van Huy in “Review in Movement
BaYaRaKa”, 16th April, 2004 in East Asia & Vietnam, BBC
form http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/regionalnews/story/2004/04/040416_bajaraka.shtml
He said that in 1970, the number of Cham fled since the 14th
to 16th
Century in Indonesia were 2 million, in Malaysia 200,000, and in
Campuchia
250,000 persons. This detail quite correct and were confirmed in The
Malay
Annals, published in 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, said 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
son 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 | TJAM, CHIEM, CHIEM THÀNH, CHAM, CHAMPA, 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 Viet Nam. Remnants of a once powerful kingdom. Austro-Asiatic influences. Literacy rate in first language: 5% to 10%. Literacy rate in second language: 60%. |