Back to Cham land

I remember the last time I visited Bau Truc village and visited the temple of the founder of the Cham pottery craft. After many shortcuts overgrown with wild thorns and cornfields in the leaf-shedding season, finally in front of me was a small wooden hut with a thatched roof. Inside the hut, on the altar was a simple ceramic statue. Looking up respectfully towards the shrine, Dang Sinh Kha Ai, a ceramic artisan, whispered: "This is the temple of the founder of the Cham pottery craft!" Oh, how deserted! If Kha Ai had not said it, I would not have imagined that this was the temple of Mr. Po K'long Chank, who, according to legend, together with his wife Nailan Muk, taught people how to make pottery, so that today Bau Truc pottery was included in the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage...

Bustling traditional dances in Kate Festival

This time I returned to Cham land, it was different. The Ancestor's temple was renovated by Bau Truc's descendants with a budget of more than billions of dong. That proves that the pottery craft here is on the rise. I was happy because the Ancestor was worshiped in a solemn place, Bau Truc pottery craft has truly revived. Crystallized from the love of the land and sand, the water source of Song Quao River and the fire from firewood and straw from the fields, Bau Truc people have created unique ceramic products. Looking at Bau Truc pottery, I think of the wonders. Dozens of centuries ago, the hands of talented Cham craftsmen created a brilliant architectural heritage system, of which the citadels, temples, holy places, and Buddhist monasteries remaining today throughout the Central region are proof. In the blazing sun of Phan Rang, the ancient citadel of Pangduranga in the past, I stood looking at the Po Kluang Garai tower and dreamed of a distant time. In Hinduism, the Cham tower is called Sikhara, meaning a sharp peak, representing Mount Meru, a typical architecture built according to the triune belief of Brahmanism. Mount Meru, according to mythology, has many different high and low peaks, the supreme god resides on the highest peak, other gods, depending on their rank, reside on lower mountains.

I have traveled all over the Central region, everywhere I see the majestic images of temples, ancient citadel ruins, and fresh water wells in the middle of the salty sea, only the Cham people know how to find the source and build. Gently touching the mossy ceramic bricks, I feel the eternal sacred love of earth, water and fire. The changing history creates a stream of nostalgia for the past years, somewhat regretting a golden civilization in the past. Also to understand more, the Cham people are a romantic and gallant people. Look at the shape of the tower as if it were burning proudly under the blue sky and white clouds and the silent Linga-Yoni altar that exudes life. Feel the sacredness in the expressive lines of the Shiva statue. See the graceful figure of the Apsara dancer in the magical light of the ancient tower. Listen once to the enchanting sound of the Paranung drum. And today, I silently watched the footsteps of Cham women nimbly walking from Song Quao wharf back to Bau Truc village in the afternoon, their heads carrying water jars gracefully like an ancient dance on the sand waves of Ninh Thuan...

For hundreds of years, Cham women have been walking briskly on the sandbanks of the East Sea, seemingly not looking at the sea. For a long time, I have often wondered: Why do Cham people settle near the sea but do not work at sea, build boats, fish, or use sea transport? Some people think that the Cham people are afraid of the sea. It turns out that this is not the case, the Cham people had a huge maritime history hundreds of years ago. By the time the uprising of Le Van Khoi was suppressed in 1834, King Minh Mang issued an edict prohibiting the Cham people from working at sea and only allowed them to do pure farming, the Cham people had completely left the sea and lost their tradition of going out to sea. Surprisingly, according to the poet and researcher Inrasara, if his Kinh neighbor often lamented "Oh my God" when she was sad, Inrasara's Cham mother lamented "Oh my God and the sea"! To the Cham people, marine culture is part of their consciousness.

According to ancient history, in the early 5th century, the Champa king Gangaraja abdicated the throne to his nephew and sailed to India. He was the only king of Southeast Asia belonging to Hinduism who crossed the East Sea to the Ganges River. During the seventeen centuries of its existence, the Cham people had been masters of the ocean. During the time when the kingdom was still called Lam Ap, before 749, the Cham people had maritime exchanges with Japan. After wandering far and wide, the Cham people learned from the architecture of neighboring countries such as Thailand, Khmer, Java, etc. to create their own magnificent architecture with many styles. In particular, in the history of Champa, the trading port of Cu Lao Cham played an extremely important role in maritime trade. Research by Lam Thi My Dung said: “On the long journey from Kra Isthmus (Southern Thailand, Northern Malaysia) to Canton (Guangzhou, China), there was only one stopover, Chiem Cang - Cu Lao Cham, where people could rest, store food, fresh water and exchange goods…”. Another author, Nguyen Duc Hiep, also proved: “Ancient Cham people were often present offshore, on remote islands. Therefore, they had economic and cultural exchanges with the Pacific and Indian Ocean islands”. People have also found traces recording the sovereignty of the Cham people over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos and they used to live for a long time in Ly Son - Cu Lao Re…

The story of Cham land is endless. At noon, I had just arrived at Chakleng plei (village), also known as My Nghiep. This is the ancient Cham village that once appeared in the literature of Phu Tram - Inrasara, a poet friend from the white sand region. Inrasara was a talented, passionate and multi-faceted poet; when he wrote, he wrote with all the words, innovated poetry to the extreme and did not leave a single space for academic debate. Looking back, from the poems "Sun Tower", "Cactus Birthday"; from the novels "Memory of Ma Items", "Sand Portrait" to the research "The Journeys and the House" were all deeply imprinted with the image of his hometown and his close friends.

Chakleng is Inrasara's flesh and blood, he loves it so much that when he thinks about the typical sunlight of his hometown, the sunlight of other regions seems pale. In love with Chakleng, in 1978, the English student at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Inrasara dropped out of school and returned to his hometown to repair the plow and harrow, both farming and writing. In his poem, Inrasara recounts: "Taking off the shoulder pole/ Ghinang, Baranung urge to return/ Each passionate rain of Kate...". The way the poet returns to Chakleng is similar to the aesthetics of Che Lan Vien in his masterpiece "Desolation": "One day, I left the city/ I returned to see the mountains and rivers like the Cham people...". Returning to repack his luggage for the journey, to recharge his energy for new discoveries. He turned the difficult years into a meaningful outing, an outing for experiences, to better understand the cultural levels of his ancestors. He once wrote: “Cham culture is a culture of fun/ Playful even in pain”. With his life experience and knowledge, Inrasara tries to explain how over seventeen centuries of existence and creation, the Cham people have left behind many layers of rich sedimentary mortar...

* * *

Standing in the middle of Bau Truc land and sky, watching the hands of my friend Dang Sinh Kha Ai, who is familiar with pottery, respectfully raised before the shrine of the founder of the craft, Po Klong Chank, I seemed to see the image of a tower. The tower is also a lighthouse, reminding me of the cultural memories of the faraway sea. "Cham is a nation with adventurous blood", the poet Inrasara once summarized to me. Listening to him, even though I was walking towards the mountains, I turned back to the sea, looking for something on the distant silver waves. Could it be the silhouettes of Cham boats looming in the distance, the silhouettes of boats that have retreated into memory. Cham is far from the sea, far from a transoceanic trade, but ancient maritime history documents are still preserved here and there and seeped into the blood. So now, the Cham people's travel habits still exist in their blood. I feel that from the images of the Cham people I met on their nomadic journeys with their flocks of sheep across the vast steppe; Cham people carry traditional medicine bags, pottery and brocade on their shoulders, wandering around the streets and alleys to earn a living and enjoy their leisure time.

Source: http://baolamdong.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/202503/ve-lai-xu-cham-31465ea/