Chams

The Chams (Cham: ꨌꩌ, چام, cam), or Champa people (ꨂꨣꩃ ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, اوراڠ چمڤا, Urang Campa; Vietnamese: Người Chăm or Người Chàm; Khmer: ជនជាតិចាម, Chônchéatĕ Cham), are an Austronesian ethnic group in Southeast Asia and are the original inhabitants of central Vietnam and coastal Cambodia before the arrival of the Cambodians and Vietnamese, during the expansion of the Khmer Empire (802–1431) and the Vietnamese conquest of Champa (11th–19th century). From the 2nd century, the Chams founded Champa, a collection of independent Hindu-Buddhist principalities in what is now central and southern Vietnam. By the 17th century, Champa became an Islamic sultanate. Today, the Cham people are largely Muslim, with a minority following Hinduism, both formed the indigenous Muslim and Hindu population in both Cambodia and Vietnam. Despite their adherence to Islam, the Cham people still retain their ancestral practice of matriarchy in family and inheritance. The Cham people speak Cham and Tsat (the latter is spoken by the Utsuls, a Cham subgroup on China's Hainan Island), the two Chamic languages from the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family. The Cham people were one among several ethnic groups that were primarily targeted by the Khmer Rouge's ethnic cleansing campaign during the Cambodian genocide (1975–1979).