CHAM

people who, in central Vietnam referred to as Eastern Cham, are the surviving inhabitants of Champa and who, in Cambodia referred to as Western Cham, are a mixture of Cham and Malay. Their original Cham language belongs to the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family. In Cambodia the Western Cham number about 200,000 and preserve some original cultural traitse.g., the predominance of the maternal unclebut otherwise they are entirely integrated into Cambodian life, speaking the Khmer language. From the Malay they adopted Islam. The Eastern Cham of Vietnam (about 80,000) have been largely assimilated by the surrounding Vietnamese, but some speak Western Cham, the link between the Thai-Kadai languages of southern China and Indonesian. Self-supporting rice cultivators, they traditionally carried on a small bartering trade (salt, rare woods) between the hill tribes and the Vietnamese. The traditional Cham family was matrilocal and matrilineal. The cult of nature spirits was all important, because ancestors' souls were supposed to settle in the earth when the tombnear the rice fieldswas abandoned after seven years of worship. The Indian culture of ancient Champa left some influences; for example, in ancient Cham temples, brahmanes, with female mediums, performed rites in honour of Po Rome, Po Nagar, and Po Klaung Garai, deified heroes of the past.