Champa art is still rather under- acknowledged, but it is in fact one of the major expressions of the ancient arts of Southeast Asia. Like the kingdom and civilisation of Angkor, Champa was virtually unknown to the Western world until the advent of colonial rule in Indochina, at which point it drew the attention of French scholars, such as Henri Parmentier (1870-1949). Between 1902 and 1905, Parmentier and Carpeaux studied, described, depicted, and preserved Champa monuments in Vietnam, including the Hindu temple complex, My Son in 1903-04.
The Cham People
The Cham people were an ancient seafaring culture that lived in what is now central and southern Vietnam, and their art is related to Hindu and Buddhist art from Southeast Asia, dominating the central plains of Vietnam. Between the 5th and early 19th centuries, the Cham people inhabited the coastal kingdoms between Binh Thuan Province in the south and Quang Tri Province in the north. The Cham were concentrated in the river basins that reach inland to the mountains, providing access to the forests and goods that formed the bulk of the export products of mainland Southeast Asia; therefore maritime trade became their primary source of income.
The Champa kingdom built its power and position through the control of the maritime routes in Southeast Asia, with the inhabitants maintaining a system of lucrative trade networks across the region, connecting the Indian Ocean and East Asia, until the 17th century. Inscriptions reveal that rather than being one united kingdom, it was probably divided into five main principalities: Indrapura, Amaravati, Vijaya, Kauthara, and Panduranga. One of its most important capitals was Sinhapura, in Tra Kieu province. The earliest epigraphic evidence for this comes from Vo Canh in Khanh Hoa province, written on a granite monolithic stele dating to around the 4th century – the oldest Sanskrit inscription found in Southeast Asia (classified as a National Treasure in Vietnam). The earliest known Champa works of art relate to religious architecture, with this sculpture demonstrating the many external influences on their culture from India, the Khmer Empire, and China, all evidence of their expansive maritime links with India and China. The Champa kingdom was initially Hindu, then became Buddhist as the influence of Buddhism moved across Southeast Asia, and at a later stage, became Muslim.
At the height of the Champa Empire
During the empire’s apogee, which lasted 200 years from the 8th century, the Chams built Hindu temples of red brick, adorned with finely carved decorative sandstone architrave, lintels, pillars, and sculptures, featuring a variety of motifs. They had their own script, which was based on ancient Sanskrit. The temple complex was composed of a sanctuary surrounded by smaller towers and encircled by a wall. This sanctuary consisted of a square tower with the sikhara (superstructure) series of four storeys, one above the other, crowned by a curvilinear pyramid stone slab.
The style of architecture was influenced by the Indian prototype of the temple-mountain representing the sacred Mount Meru of Hindu cosmology, the abode of the gods, and surrounded by moats, the cosmic ocean, and stupas for the gods at the cardinal points. The temples were based on the cult of deva-rajas, the god-kings, a Hindu belief, and were funerary monuments dedicated to kings identified with divinities, of whom Shiva was regarded as the origin of the Champa kingdom.
When Champa entered the great confederacy of Indianised peoples from Southeast Asia, like its neighbours, it made the religions and languages of classical India flourish in their own unique way: Hinduism and Buddhism, on the one hand, and Sanskrit on the other. The ancient history of this country remains little known despite important studies that have been carried out from the inscriptions rediscovered in the temples, written both in Sanskrit and in ancient Cham. Several kingdoms prospered in the small coastal plains surrounded by mountains along the sinuous coast of Vietnam.
Perhaps because it is less well internationally documented than the art of its neighbouring Khmer culture, this art form can still reveal works of great originality and sensitivity, in which the cultural influences of ancient Indian beliefs are clearly evident. This essentially sacred art form reflects the religious concepts of Champa, oscillating between Buddhism and Brahmanism. The great masterpieces of Cham sculpture reflect the establishment and evolution of this culture from its origins – in about the 5th century, to its denouement in the 15th century, leading to its gradual decline and disappearance in the 19th century, when, in 1832, the emperor Minh Mang of the Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945) annexed the last Cham principality.
Brick Temples of the Champa Kingdom
The artistic evidence that still exists consists essentially of brick temples, kalan, along with numerous sculptures that were venerated in the various sanctuaries built in the region, and elements of rich architectural and surface decoration. The French exhibition exploring the art of the Champa kingdom, held at the Guimet in Paris in 2005-06, aimed to introduce the public to this major aspect of Vietnam’s artistic heritage by bringing together the greatest collections of Cham art in the world: the collections of the Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh-City museums in Vietnam, and those held in the Guimet’s own collections, as well as works kept at the Museum of Natural History/Guimet Museum in Lyon and the Rietberg Museum in Zurich.
In the exhibition, the principal Cham styles were illustrated by a representative collection of stone and bronze sculptures, as well as by a selection of plate and ritual objects made of precious metal, most of which were being displayed for the first time to the public. In total, 96 sculptures in stoneware, bronze, and precious metal mapped out the history and illustrated the religions of ancient Champa, showing that the art of Champa is one of the major expressions of ancient art in Southeast Asia. Champa culture created original and highly refined works of art into which the cultural heritage of ancient India is perfectly assimilated.
Added to these collections were sculptures preserved at the My Son site (in the province of Quang Nam), now a listed World Heritage site (see the cover story of this issue). From the 4th to the 13th centuries, the valley of My Son was a site for religious ceremonies for the Champa kings, as well as a royal burial ground. It is closely associated with the nearby archaeological sites of Cham cities – Indrapura (Dong Duong) and Simhapura (Tra Kieu).
Using the rich resources of the Guimet’s photography collections on the ancient arts of Champa (the Charles Carpeaux Collection), which date to the beginning of the 20th century, allowed the main Cham sites to be brought to life using large reprints to set the scene. The exhibition opened with the presentation of several photographs from this collection (taken in 1902-04), which retraced the rediscovery and the initial studies into the great Champa sites.
A selection of ancient mouldings (from the 1930s) was used as an introduction to certain important aspects of the architecture of the Champa kingdom. The chronological presentation of the works traced the evolution of the style from the oldest pieces of Cham statuary known today (circa 5th century) to the start of their progressive decline sometime in the 15th century and the eventual demise.
In 2002, the creation of a sculpture restoration workshop at the Da Nang Museum, at the instigation of the Guimet Museum, with the support of the École française d’Extrême Orient, led to the strengthening of the existing cultural links between Vietnam and France – this exhibition in Paris was the realisation of those ties.
Tresors d’art du Vietnam: La Sculpture du Champa was at Musée Guimet in Paris in 2005-2006, guimet.fr
La Sculpture du Champa catalogue (in French) is still available to purchase from secondhand book sites
Champa Treasures: Imprints of Time, was at the National Museum of History, Hanoi, in 2024, Museum of Cham Sculpture, Da Nang, Vietnam
