The Chams are genetically Polynesian/Australian (Austronesian) and founded the city of My Son in the fourth century. They primarily practiced Hinduism, although some late Kings converted to Buddhism. The temple complex was built between the fourth and fourteenth centuries and was "rediscovered" by the French in the Nineteenth.
The saddest part of this ruin is that most of it was destroyed by carpet bombs in 1969--U.S.
The Chams named cities and kings in Sanskrit, but who also had their own language and scriptand they worshipped Shiva.
Example of Cham writing -- check out the descenders.
Hung took this photo from inside the temple
Boat architecture - storage facility for Shiva's belongings
Ruins of Temple damaged by bombing.
Bomb crater next to ruins
No story here, although looks like Angkor statue at the Met in NYC.
Our hoste, Thanh
There are still Chams living in Vietnam, Cambodia, with a few in Thailand. They are primarily Muslim now, although Hung (our host and guide) said that the coastal Cham people of Vietnam practice an amalgam religion of Hinduism and Islam. No pilgrimages to Mecca!
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