THE DEBUT CELEBRATION FOR THE BOOK
“BANGSA CHAMPA:  IN SEARCH FOR A DISTANT ETHNIC ROOT”
AUTHORS:  DO HAMIDE AND DO ROHIEM

Meaningfully, It is not only a ceremony for the celebration of a debut of a book; it is not simply a meeting of fellow countrymen either; nearly 300 Champa people have actually gathered at Orange County in the spirit of going back to look for the ancestral roots, for the ethnicity of the Champa people in the backgrounds of a multicultural society, and on the spirit of a nation that no longer subsists.
The term “Bangsa Champa”, of the Champa language, which may mean “stock”. “ancestral roots”, “race”...of Champa was selectively picked up for the title of a study and research work of the two elder Chams, DO HAMIDE (Do hai Minh) and DO ROHIEM.
The elder DOHAMIDE of Champa nation, with a Vietnamese name “Do Hai Minh”, was born  in 1934 in the village of Koh Taboong, Chau Doc, in the Mekong Delta of South Viet Nam. He graduated from The National Institute of Public Administration, specifically from The Highland Special Department in 1958, and the Field Administration Department in 1963. In 1967, he got the Master’s of Arts Degree in Comparative Politics from the Graduate School of the University of Kansas, U.S.A. DOHAMIDE had significantly contributed in the past to the establishment of official relations between the Islamic Cham Communities of Viet Nam and the Islamic World. As co-author of Bangsa Champa book,  DO ROHIEM, also of Cham orgin, was born in 1937 in Koh Taboong village, Chaudoc, and graduated from the National Institute of Public Administration, in The Highland Special Department in 1960 and the Field Administration Department in 1967. Later, he had undertaken the post graduate training programs in England, Taiwan and the Philippines.
As told by the elder DO HAMIDE, “Bangsa Champa” does not include the part dealing with the national history. The national history of numerous peoples, particularly the peolpe whose name was wiped out from the world map such as The Kingdom of Champa has been usually considered under different political prisms, with plenty of fixed ideas or divisive inertia. This book rather aims at looking back to the Champa ethnic roots for the following Champa generations to maintain their original culture. The elder DO ROHIEM, the co-author of the book, explained the distinction between history and culture is one of the main and delicate features in this book. Very little of the historical vestiges or historical documents had supplied records on the backgrounds of the formation, development and the disparition of the Kingdom of Champa. We have not emphasised upon the history; the French scholars had done it. They found out, collected and installed the historical vestiges in the show rooms.  The Kingdom of Champa was not as such. It was only of a specific period of time in history. The history, however, is not as rigid as the numbers of days, months, years as recorded in the historical documents. Culture is moving and changing continuously. “There had been two particular cultures. The Champa culture took its roots from the culture of Sa Huynh that co-existed alongside with the neighbouring Dong Son culture of the Vietnamese people. I had only written down and focused on the integration of the Champa culture in the society of Viet nam.”
‘Lin YI’, ‘Hoan Vuong” or “Chiem Thanh” was the diiferent names used by the Chinese and Vietnamese to indicate the Kingdom of Champa that was originally a united nation stretching from Quang Binh to Phan Thiet in the East and The Highlands of Central Viet nam in the West. In the Southward territorial expansion of Vietnam, according to the introduction of the book “Bangsa Champa”, the Kingdom of Champa was wiped out from the world map after getting through the final miserable years at the beginning of the 19th century, like a wavering kerosene lamp in the land of Panduranga at the today Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces.” For a long time, the history and culture of the Kingdom of Champa had almost formally left no trace except for a number of inscriptions on rocks. When the French came to Indochina, a system of ancient temples as well as inscriptions bearing the continuous years from the thirteenth century had been discovered groups after groups. The most salient features in the Cham temples system is the My Son vestige compound that is located at 68 kilometrs from Da Nang at the West of South West.
According to the elder DO HAMIDE, “the generations of offsprings of Champa still subsist under the form of ethnic minorities in Central Vietnam. The survival requirements had pushed up the formation of ethnic communities. These communities, however, have been ruled by different political statutes varying from assimilation, integration to acculturation” The spiritual and cultural identity of Champa, the kinship as well as the popular traditional festivals have assembled the Champa people into communities. All the meanings behind the formation of communities of the Champa people are displayed through the two words “Bangsa Champa”. “All the spirit in these two words resides in the sentiment of love of the Champa people that makes the Champa people  attach themselves to their predecessors.”
In an interview, a beautiful Champa girl named Yen said: “I was studying at the second year of university in Vietnam, when I moved here. My Cham name is Da. I speak Cham at home”. I asked:”How about the Vietnamese?” She answered: ”Vietnamese is my second language !” Yen is a member of the Association for the Champa Cultural Preservation.
Old lady Thi Tui, in a Vietnamese heavy of Champa accent said:”I came from Sacramento. We came here by two buses in order to meet our fellow countrymen.” I asked:”What language are you speaking at home now ?” Old lady Thi Tui told that at home she is speaking Cham.
Quite a few Champa young men who were interviewed that day had told that they are speaking Cham at home; meanwhile the Vietnamese is only a supplementary language.
Anh Sari, from the Cham Community of Fullerton, said: ”At home, our children often ask us about the ethinic roots of Champa people. I teach my children that Champa was a Kingdom with a long standing culture”. I asked: ”Then, did you told your children that the Vietnamese people had invaded Champa ?” He smiled and said ”I did not use the term “Invade”. I told them that the Vietnamese, on the way of moving southwards, had gotten through our homeland.” According to Anh Sari, the two kingdoms had been involved in discords in the past. The ups and downs and the predominent position of the two nations had changed with the time. “When we were weak, we lost. I do not use the term “Invade” I teach my children to clap their hands by two hands.  Clapping by one hand makes people hear nothing.”. He added that in Vietnam, his name was “Anh Sari”. Emigrating to the United States of America, requiring “first name” and “last name”, he selected “Anh” as the first name and “Sari” as the last name. Actually, one of the responsibilty of his Association is to strive to maintain the Champa culture in the daily life of the young generation. In that responsibility, moreover, he is teaching his children to read Qur’An in Arabic.
Speaking in the debut ceremony of Bangsa Champa, Dr Mai Thanh Truyet stated : “It’s time for the Champa people to get rid of the marginal life as well the  secondary citizen complex in a multicultural society.” The two authors DO HAMIDE and DO ROHIEM had clearly showed in their book a process of mutual integration in front of the globalization trend in all fields within which there no longer persists any image of confrontation. There still is only an harmonious mixing up in living together in the spirit of equality.
The harmonious cultural mixing up between Champa and Vietnam had been more emphasized by the historian Tran Gia Phung: “The Champa influence (upon the Vietnamese) that lasted for a long time has become so familiar that now and then the Vietnamese no longer would pay attention to it.” One of the specific features that was raised up by Professor Tran Gia Phung in his speech, was the story of “the Vietnamese women of the Southern region who have been more and more respected thanks to the contacts with the Champa society in the process of the Vietnamese Southward expansion. The Champa society had originally followed the matriarchy.”
The Bangsa Champa book is considered as a final contribution aimed at illuminating as a whole the ethnic roots of Champa people. As stated in the preface, “As a Champa people living in the traditional faith of Islam, we believe in the Heaven’s orders..., this book is primarily dedicated to the generations of Champa people who are growing up and are hurstling in the crowd of daily life, as well as friends who would care about inquiring about Champa”.
The debut ceremony of the book took place on the 8th of January 2005 in the Operations Room of Nguoi Viet Daly newspaper. It was sponsored by The Southeast Asian Culture and Education Foundation (S.E.A.C.A.E.F.), The Volunteers for the Integration of Ethnic Traditins (V.I.E.T.) and The Vietnamese American Science & Technology Society (V.A.S.T.S.)
THIEN GIAO (Nguoi-Viet.com)
Translated by Siti Sofia Chau
(ChamChaudoc.com writing Staff)

Cả ngày thứ bảy 23 tháng 10 năm 2010, tại phòng họp được trang hoàng xinh xắn với những chậu hoa lan sắc màu rực rỡ của tòa soạn Nhật báo VIET HERALD, đường Moran, Little Saigon, Nam California, Hoa kỳ, một buổi triển làm các công trình sáng tác văn học, biên khảo, dịch thuật của các cựu Ðốc sự tốt nghiệp Học Viện Quốc Gia Hành Chánh, Saigon,  đã được Hội Ái hữu cựu sinh viên Quốc Gia Hành Chánh Nam California tổ chức, lôi cuốn đông đảo khách trong và ngoài giới Quốc Gia Hành Chánh đến tham dự và trò chuyện trao đổi thân mật trong một bầu không khí vui tươi đầy tình nghĩa gắn bó và tương kính.
Trong số sách báo và tài liệu được trưng bày, như được nhận thấy, qua bức hình bên trên, các công trình biên khảo và biên dịch của cựu Ðốc sự cao niên QGHC gốc Chăm Châu Ðốc là DO HAMIDE và DO ROHIÊM, được một số thân hữu quan tâm thăm hỏi, trong đó, đặc biệt nhứt là cụ Huỳnh văn Lang, nguyên là nhà sáng lập tiên khởi tập chí văn học và biên khảo nổi tiếng tại Saigon trước năm 1975, đã đăng tãi vào khoảng năm 1959-60 loạt bài nghiên cứu đầu tiên về dân tộc Chăm và Islam của tác giả DO HAMIDE.
Các công trình nghiên cứu của DO HAMIDE và DO ROHIÊM được trưng bày bao gồm:
Về Bangsa Chăm: - Dân Tộc Chàm lược sử (1965)
với Lời đề tựa của Cố Giáo Sư Nghiêm Thẩm
nguyên Giám Ðốc Viện Khảo Cổ, Saigon
nguyên Giáo sư Trường Ðại học Văn Khoa , Saigon

• Bangsa Champa:

Tìm về với một cội nguồn cách xa (1995
        Về Ugama Islam:

• Islam:  Ðức Tin và các Ứng dụng (1995)
• Sự nghiệp Nabi Muhammad (1994)
• Tâu-Hid (1995)
• Sách hướng dẫn có minh họa giúp hiểu biết về Islam (2010)

Hình thức tham gia triển lãm kể trên tạo cơ hội cho bậc trí thức Chăm Châu Ðốc mở rộng vòng tay gây tạo và phát huy hiểu biết về Chăm Châu Ðốc và Islam cùng lòng tương kính với xã hội thân hửu bao quanh.
Ban chủ biên
www.chamchaudoc.com

SUMMARY
Books on Champa and Islam in the Exhibition organized
by the Alumni Association of the National Instute of Public Administration
The well known study and translation works authored by the elder brothers-in-Islam DO HAMIDE and DO ROHIÊM on the religion of Islam (Islam: Beliefs and practices, The life of Prophet Muhammad,, Tauheed) and the Cham Nation (A Condensed History of the Cham People, Bangsa Champa” In search of a distant ethnic rơot) were displayed amid other books, magazines, art works produced by the Field Administrators, former graduates of the National Institute of Public Administration, at the Exhibition organized by the Ntional Public Administration Alumni Association of South California, on Saturday October 23, 2010 at the Conference Rơom of the Headquarters of the Viet Herald Daily Newspaper, located at Moran Street, Little Saigon, South California.
This has been indeed a valuable opportunity for the Cham Chaudoc community to reach out to promote the mutual understanding in the surrounding society.