Art of Champa

Champa was an Southeast Asian civilization that flourished along the coasts of what is now central and southern Vietnam for roughly a one thousand-year period between 500 and 1700 AD.

The original Cham and Proto-Chamic peoples were mainland Austronesian sailors, who adopted as their principal vocations those of trade, shipping, and piracy.

The history of Champa was one of intermittent conflict and cooperation with the people of Java, the Khmer of Angkor in Cambodia and Đại Việt (Annam) of the Vietnamese in what is now northern Vietnam.

Some French scholars such as Henri Parmentier and Jean Boisselier were able to take photographs, create drawings, and pen descriptions of works which have been destroyed in the meantime.

The participants in the Vietnam War wrought their share of devastation, wiping out for example the vestiges of the Buddhist monastery at Dong Duong (Quảng Nam).

[6] We have abundant textual evidence of much classical Cham art that once existed that has been lost to the ravages of time and the depredations of human vandals, looters, and conquerors.

The Cham kings themselves have left us stone inscriptions describing the gifts of now lost precious objects they made to the shrines and sanctuaries of the realm.

Especially noteworthy was the practice of donating decorated metallic sleeves (kosa) and diadems (mukuta) to important lingas and the divinities with which they were affiliated.

For example, an inscription on a stone stele dated approximately 1080 and found at Mỹ Sơn reports that King Harivarman IV (r. 1074–1080) donated a "large, resplendent golden kosa adorned with the most beautiful jewels, more brilliant than the sun, illuminated day and night by the rays of shining gems, decorated by four faces" to the deity Srisanabhadresvara, a local embodiment of Shiva.

In the second quarter of the 5th century AD, according to the historian Ma Duanlin, a Chinese general named Yuen Kan sacked the capital of Champa, making off with many "rare and precious objects", including "tens of thousands of pounds of gold in ingots coming from statues which he had smelted."

Similarly, at the beginning of the 7th century a marauding Chinese general named Liu Fang made off with "eighteen massive tablets of gold" commemorating the 18 previous kings of Champa.

[citation needed] Unlike the Khmer of Angkor, who for the most part employed a grey sandstone to construct their religious buildings, the Cham built their temples from reddish bricks.

Any sculpture in the round of an important deity that is completely forward-oriented, not engaged in any particular action, and equipped with symbolic paraphernalia, would have been a candidate for ritual or devotional use.

[citation needed] A few of the sculptures in the art of Champa depart from the Indian subject-matter to reveal something of the life of the historical Cham people.

[citation needed] Scholars agree that it is possible to analyze the art of Champa in terms of distinct "styles" typical for various historical periods and different locations.

Originally, the pedestal had a religious function, and was used to support a huge lingam as a symbol for shiva, the primary deity in Cham religion.

To the Cham, the pedestal symbolized Mount Kailasa, the mythological abode of shiva which also accommodated numerous forest- and cave-dwelling ascetics, just as the lingam it supported represented the god himself.

[18] Departing from the religious traditions of his predecessors, who were predominantly Shaivists, he founded the Mahayana Buddhist monastery of Dong Duong, and dedicated the central temple to Lokesvara.

[19] The temple complex at Dong Duong having been devastated by bombing during the Vietnam War, our knowledge of its appearance is limited to the photographs and descriptions created by French scholars earlier in the 20th century.

[24] The style is named after a temple at Mỹ Sơn, "the most perfect expression of Cham architecture" according to art historian Emmanuel Guillon, that fell victim to the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

[29] Although the Cham monuments at Trà Kiệu in Quảng Nam Province have been destroyed, a number of magnificent pieces of sculpture associated with the site remain and are preserved in museums.

"[30] The Trà Kiệu Pedestal, consisting of a base decorated with friezes in bas relief, an ablutionary cistern, and a massive lingam, is regarded as one of the masterpieces of Cham art.

The motif first emerged in the 10th century (the Trà Kiệu Pedestal at one point had such a row of breasts) and became characteristic of the Thap Mam Style.

This late 11th- or 12th-century sculpture illustrates both the preferred medium of the Cham artists (stone sculpture in high relief ), and the most popular subject-matter, the god Shiva and themes associated with the god. Shiva can be recognized by the third eye in the middle of his forehead and by the attribute of the trident. The hands above his head are making the gesture called uttarabodhi mudra , which is regarded as a symbol of perfection.
This Cham kosa , or metal sleeve to be fitted over a linga , is the face of shiva , as can be recognized from the third eye in the center of the forehead and the chignon hairstyle known as jatamukuta .
Chiên Đàn temple in Quảng Nam province.
The profile of the 13th-century temple Po Klong Garai near Phan Rang includes all the buildings typical of a Cham temple. From left to right one can see the kalan , the attached mandapa , the saddle-shaped kosgrha , and the gopura .
Dương Long Towers in Bình Định, the tallest still-existing Champa temple.
Hòa Lai Towers in Ninh Thuận province.
The temple of Po Nagar in Nha Trang .
A decorative theme that originated in Java , and from there emanated to other parts of Greater India , is that of the makara sea monster disgorging some other being. In this 10th- or 11th-century Cham sculpture, the makara disgorges a naga .
This carving of an elephant is found on a pedestal belonging to the Mỹ Sơn A1 style.
The sanctum sanctorum of king Po Rome (r. 1627-1651).