Cham Sculpture, Danang Editorial Image

Champa was an Indianised civilization within the Greater India that flourished along the coasts of what is now central and southern Vietnam for roughly a one thousand-year period between 500 and 1500 AD. The original Chams were probably colonists from the Indonesian islands, who adopted as their principal vocations those of trade, shipping, and piracy. Their cities were ports of call on important trade routes linking India, China and the Indonesian islands. The history of Champa was one of intermittent conflict and cooperation with the people of Java, the Khmer of Angkor in Cambodia and the Đại Việt of what is now northern Vietnam. It was to the Đại Việt that Champa finally lost its independence.