Hi Hivers in the #haveyoubeenhere community, have a nice day. Do you love history? Today I would like to talk about an ancient kingdom - Champa Kingdom.
Champa is an ancient country that existed independently in the period from 192 to 1832. The territory of Champa stretched from Quang Binh to Binh Thuan of Vietnam today and from the East Sea to the western mountains of Laos today, which is the area shown in yellow in the map below.
source: Map_of_southeast_asia
Champa flourished in the 9th and 10th centuries and then gradually weakened under the pressure of Dai Viet dynasties from the north and wars with the Khmer Empire in the west. In 1471, Champa suffered a heavy defeat against Dai Viet and lost most of its northern territory to Dai Viet. The remaining territory of Champa was divided into small states, and then gradually invaded by the Nguyen dynasties. And in 1832, the entire Champa kingdom was officially merged into Vietnam under the reign of King Minh Mang.
Although the kingdom of Champa ended a long time ago, its heritage remains forever with the architecture and temple complexes in My Son, Quang Nam, Binh Dinh, and Nha Trang in Vietnam and with a lot of artifacts, statues, reliefs, which show a golden age of a prosperous kingdom in the past. I will show you their buildings and temples later. Today I will introduce you to the statues being displayed in the Cham museum of Da Nang to show you the mystery and rich religious life of the ancient Champa people.
God Vishnu - God of Preservation of the Universe - With 4 arms holding a pestle, a plate, a horn and a lotus flower, respectively representing earth, fire, air and water, this god has the task of preserving life for the universe.
God Shiva - God of Destruction of the Universe - Every time this god dances, his 3rd eye will destroy the entire universe and create a new one. And he dances once every 4321 billion years. Fortunately, by calculation, we are at 4 billion years of the existence of the universe.
God Brahma - God of Creation - With four heads looking in four directions, Brahma is the creator god of the world. And God Brahma is one of the three biggest gods in the beliefs of the Champa people along with God Vishnu and God Shiva.
Linga-Yoni - Linga has a cylindrical shape representing male fertility and Yoni is a round, square or hexagonal base representing female fertility.
God Laksmi - God Shiva's Wife
God Ganesa - Son of God Shiva - Ganesa is the god of luck and happiness
Relief of God Vishnu - God Vishnu is lying at the bottom of the ocean, a lotus flower grows from God Vishnu's navel and rises above the water to form a seat for God of Creation - Brahma, the two sides of God Vishnu are God Bird Garuda - God Vishnu's riding animal.
God Bird Garuda - God Vishnu's Riding animal
God Protector
Gajasimha - The mascot with the head of an elephant represents intelligence and wisdom and the body of a lion represents strength and power
Dragon image in Champa culture with dragon head, lion body, elephant tusks, goat horns, snake tail and fish fins, with hind legs raised.
The statue of Bodhisattva Tara - This is a statue showing the intersection of Buddhism represented by the head and ears with Hinduism represented by the third eye and Champa culture represented by the stretchy bare breasts which represents fertility.
Buddha Statue
This is a model of a temple of the Champa people with the bottom part representing the mundane world, the middle part representing the spiritual world and the top part representing the divine world.
Some costumes and tools of the ancient Champa people