5. Buddhist monuments in Champa

The history of the Cham provides a classic example of the rise and fall of a culture. Cultural history dose not run in a smooth line; it can pause or surge forward in the course of its historical development. By the teeth century the Cham had colonized the whole of central and South Vietnam. But gradually the Champa kingdoms were conquered by the Vietnamese, who were moving relentlessly southwards, and the Cham were overwhelmed by a new culture. Today the Cham live mainly in settlements in South Vietnam where they have partly adopted the culture of the mountain tribes.

To judge from the surviving statues, the Champa Kingdoms were predominantly Hindu, and Shivaist at that; the Buddhist period lasted from the 8th to the 10th century A.D:

“The same king, who was an usurper and apparently a Buddhist, founded the great Buddhist shrine at Dong–Duong, in honour of Lokesvara, about 900; this is the only Buddhist site in champa, but it is scarcely inferior to My-Son in richness and aesthetic importance.”

^[1] In the temple (stupa) cities of My Son and Po Nagar, there are several lingams that were clearly associated with the devotion to the phallus of Shiva. These lingams are symbols both of the cult of Shivaism, and also of the divine authority of kingship, which Shiva was thought to confer on a king through the agency of a priest. The golden age of art and architecture in the Champa between the 8th and 10th centuries they were influenced by Javanese, and later, from the 11th through the 13th century by Khmer architecture.

Ananda K. C. had judge as:

“The ancient art of champa is closely related to that of Cambodia, but almost all the temples are isolated sikhara shrines of brick, with stone doorways, or groups of such towers with their related structures.”^[2]

Or ,

“The Javanese influence is most clearly seen in the ornaments in Cham stupas and the Kala heads and makara figures, all of which are related to those in the stupas of the Middle-Javanese period, such as Candi Prambanan and Candi Sara in Central Java 9th century.”^[3]

And based on:

“The Dinaya inscription of 760 (Eastern Java) similarly speaks of a fiery “Putikesvara” closely connected with the ruling house. From there data has been inferred a Javanese origin of the Devaraja cult of Cambodia and Champa.”^[4]

The temple city of My Son is not a single, unified complex, but a site the Cham kings built up over time. It was used as a place for rituals from the 4th through the 13th century.

Cham religious architecture employed three types of buildings: a Kalan, a stupa like sanctuary; a rectangular “library” and a Mandapa, “a large hall”. The Cham stupa was a Mount Meru in miniature, or more precisely its summit or summits, represented by the step-pyramid structure, each level repeating the previous one on a smaller scale. One can suppose that the central mountain range–an essential aspect of Cham geography–exercised figurative authority over the Cham stupa. “The main temple, “Kalan” in Cham, is surrounded by towers and ancillary structures, inside an enclosure wall. It usually opens toward the rising sun; that to say the east (except at My Son, the famous A1 kalan opens to both the east and the west.”^[5]

In Cham architecture, secondary stupa with their curved roofs shaped like boats, are very typical of the architecture of South East Asian, as at My Son or Po Klong Garai.

The stupa or “kalan” is dedicated to the worship of kings and their protective gods. The small, square room in used by officiants, and not the worshippers, who circle the divinity-snanadroni complex, except in the case of Buddhist stupa like Dong Duong because the altar there is against the west wall.

Coming out of the kalan it self, one enters a vestibule where, to the left, is the bull Nandin, always lying with his head toward the divinity-Snanadroni or the Linga-yoni set. Once across this vestibule, one reaches the entrance door, flanked to the right and left by pilasters that are often covered with inscriptions. Facing the kalan is a gopura, a portico stupa that is east-west.

The Mandapa (a large hall), a long building made of bricks with several windows and two doors oriented east-west, is the place of meditation and prayer preceding the ritual ceremony in the kalan.^[6]

In front of the kalan-stupa is the kosa grha, storage for ceremonial objects, with a door facing the north and windows with an east-west orientation. This building, also brick, has a curved roof shaped like a boat. The gopura (portico tower) and surrounding wall are also made of brick. Outside the wall one can find a stela stupa, while inside the enclosure there are small temples consecrated to either the divinity’s favourites.

Generally in the course of time, other stupa with devotional purposes were added: to increase the power of the god, later stupas, which are higher, came to encircle the original one. Thus, on the terrain of My Son, it has been confirmed that the A1 stupa that dates from the tenth century is higher and has more impact than the E1 stupa from the seventh century.^[7]

All Vietnamese authors believe that Cham builders, in order to lay the parallel-piped bricks that make up all of these structures, used a resin (Dipterocapus alatus Roxb.) that was boiled and then mixed with lime from the calcination of seashells) and brick powder.^[8] It should be noted that the stone (sandstone), other than serving to sculpt the divinities described above, was used for the side-posts, pilasters, lintels and cornerstones. The Cham stupa, therefore, definitely had a brick shell on which stone elements were placed.

Each stupa has a founding myth, bijective with founding Hindu myths. The stupa is a reflection of the universe, but also of the god. For example, in a stupa dedicated to shiva, the linga is shiva’s soul and the stupa is his body.^[9]

The stupa is as mentioned earlier, Mount Meru, the axis of the world, the mythical continent that India and nations under Indian influence identify India with.^[10] However, in Champa one does not find the image of the ocean ringing Jambudvipa in mythical Indian divine cosmology, such as the pool (for example, in India) or a round stupa (as in Cambodia).

Thus the stupa is the god’s body, but also the universe over which the god rules. This universe welcomes gods that will serve the main god. The first servant, who is also a god or-more precisely-goddess, is the god’s wife. In the most widespread case of Shivaist stupa in Champa, this wife is Parvati, situated in a chapel close to the main stupa. Nandin, Ganesha and Skanda carry out their services in annexes that are isolated from each other.^[11]

The statue is installed in the stupa. It is purified by priests with incense and camphor while they sing the sacred syllables, musical parcels of cosmic power: mantras. The mantra associated with Shiva is “hrim”.^[12] Next, the priests invite the god to descend into his image (made of stone or metal). He is then installed by the rites of infusing breath and opening the eyes. At the end of the rites, the god is thanked for his passage into his image.

After this, once installed in the stupa, the divinity is feted several times per day (at dawn and dusk, sometimes at noon and midnight as well). The celebrant, purified, rings a bell to wake the sleeping god, and anoints the statue with oil, camphor, flowers, sandalwood paste, but also, especially for the linga, with milk and water that are later gathered in the somasutra of the yoni.^[13]

This localized cult is only practiced on sculptures that, once installed, are never moved. Fixed, these must be distinguished from mobile sculptures, used in processions or for private devotion.

The Cham stupas were always built on hills, a strategic site to survey the surrounding area. Principally, however, these locations were chosen because they were regarded as the focus of magic powers, especially suitable for meditation and religious observance. This aspect also plays a part in the siting of Borobudur on Java, which likewise was built in the middle of nature in an attempt to concentrate supernatural power.^[14]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ananda K.C, History of Indian and Indonesian Art, New Delhi: 1972, p. 197.

[2]:

Ibid., p.197.

[3]:

Gabriele Fahr-Becker, The Art of Asia, Vol 2, Konemann: 1998, p.393.

[4]:

Ibid., p.201.

[5]:

Gabriele Fahr-Becker, The Art of Asia, Vol 2, Konemann: 1998, p. 393.

[6]:

Champa: History and Culture of an Indian Colonial Kingdom in the Far East 2nd to 16th Century A.D., Delhi, rep, 1985, p. 272.

[7]:

Ibid, p. 274.

[8]:

J. C. Sharma, Temples of Champa in Vietnam, Hanoi: 1992, p. 45.

[9]:

Daigoro Chihara, Hindu-Buddhist Architecture in Southeast Asia, Studies in Asia Art and Archaeology, trans by E. J. Brill, Leiden: 1996, p. 213.

[10]:

J. Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, Vol 1, Bk. III, Chapters III-VII

[11]:

Ibid.

[12]:

Daigoro Chihara, Hindu-Buddhist Architecture in Southeast Asia, Studies in Asia Art and Archaeology, trs by E. J. Brill, Leiden: 1996, p. 248.

[13]:

Daigoro Chihara, Hindu-Buddhist Architecture in Southeast Asia, Studies in Asia Art and Archaeology, trs by E. J. Brill, Leiden: 1996, p. 214.

[14]:

R.C. Majumdar, Suvarnadvipa Hindu Colonies of the Far East, Vol 1, Delhi: 2004, p. 158.