Entrance to the Cham Museum

A Brief History of the Champa

Accordingto Chinese chronicles, the Champa kingdom was founded in 192 A.D andhad different names such as Lin-Yi, Huang-Wang and Chang-Chen. Itsterritories stretched from south of the Ngang Pass in Quang BinhProvince to the delta area of the Dong Nai River in Binh ThuanProvince. It included the coastal plains, highland and mountain ranges.

Influencedby the early Hindu civilization, the Champa kingdom was a federation ofseveral smaller states called Mandala and comprised several ethnicgroups.

Themost important legacy of the Champa kingdom is located in CentralVietnam in the form of brick temples and towers which are scatteredover the coastal lowlands and highlands. The structures date frombetween the 7th and 8th centuries to the 16th and 17th centuries andare concentrated in Quang Nam, Danang, Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan.

The most extensive collection of Cham art worldwide...

The Cham Museumwas built in Cham architectural style, using thin lines that are simpleand gentle. The museum displays an intensive and diverse collection ofChampa sculpture dating from the 7th to the 15th centuries, when amatriarchal society prevailed.

Sculpture in Cham Museum

The museum was established at the end of the 19th century by the EcoleFrancaise d'Extreme Orient with a collection of artifacts gathered incentral Vietnam, from Quang Binh to Binh Dinh. They were then displayedat Le Jardin de Tourane on a small hill by the Han River. This is thesite of the present museum. The building was designed by two Frencharchitects, Delaval and Auclair, in imitation of the most commonly usedaspects of Champa towers and temples. At present, the museum displaysapproximately 300 sandstone and terra-cotta sculptures, among whichsome are made from terracotta. Most of the artifacts are masterpiecesof Champa art and some are considered to be equal to works anywhere inthe world. The sculptures were collected from Cham temples and towersthroughout Central Vietnam, more specifically the area stretching fromQuang Binh to Binh Thuan. All the sculptures are displayed in tenshowrooms named after the localities where the pieces have beendiscovered.

Afterviewing the pieces in the showrooms, you can visit exteriorexhibitions. The arts of the Champa were chiefly sculpture, but thesculptures are only part of the religious architecture. The temples andtowers themselves are considered to be sculptural artifacts. They aredecorated on the exterior of their brick walls with bas-relief columns,flowers and leaves and worshipping figures between brick pillars. Thetympana, lintels and the ornamental corner pieces are of sandstonescarved with the figures of gods, the holy animals of the Hindus andflowers and leaves.

Theartifacts displayed at the museum are altars, statues and decorativeworks collected from Hindu and Buddhist temples and towers. Champasculpture displays various styles. Sometimes they were influenced byother cultures but no matter at what period or in what style the Champaartifacts were made they always displayed original characteristics.

Visitorsto the museum will have the opportunity to appreciate the eightcenturies of evolution of Champa sculpture from its golden age to itsdecline. In their own way, the artifacts exemplify the rise and fall ofthe Champa civilization. When we stand before these artisticmasterpieces we can comprehend the noblest ideal of art, the creationof the infinite from the finite. The eight centuries of art at theChampa museum is a thick history book reflecting the ups and downs ofChampa art. From inanimate stones came living art, and from thesewonderful invaluable artifacts we can get the feeling that the warmthfrom the Champa artists' hand is still there, on the fine skin of thestone-timeless.

Lions

Comingto visit the museum, it seems that you can see again the glorious timeof the past of a nation for whom both the passion for art and thecreative talent were already at a very high level. The mysterious worldof deities, the pictorial legends, the religious symbols, the curvinglines of the bodies of dancing girls, the features of full swellingbreasts, the smiles of a vague time, all of these are shown very livelyand in much in details.

Theart of Champa, although influenced by the Hindu themes of India andSoutheast Asia, has many elements that make it distinctive. Temples inChampa were made of bricks. As a result, artists did not have longexpanses of wall to decorate with bas-reliefs depicting Hindu epics orphases of Buddhist life as seen, for example, at Angkor Wat. The Chamsincorporated their sculptures into their temple architecture by carvingthem separately and making them part of the construction. Thesecarvings are classified into four main groups: Icons; Pedestals; Pediments; Fragments of architectural decorations at the base or on various ties of the temple.

Profoundlyinfluenced by the architecture and sculpture of the Indiancivilization, the ancient Champa has a vision of life and religionaccording to their own feeling. Such refraction brought to their worldof art a subtle and distinct beauty: spiritual and very close, uniqueand familiar...