Saturday, March 31, 2012

Vietnam’s Expansion and Colonial Diaspora 1471-1859 [extract]

Nam Tienand Indochina’s First Genocides against Cham and Khmer populations

My Son "traditional" Cham dance Vietnam 

NB: To help cool off some of the heat generated by this article, KI Media [sorry, School of Vice] decided to post a video clip of 'traditional' Fan Dance of "ethnic Cham people" in Vietnam. Also to ensure some of our Vietnamese 'brothers' stay entertained whilst assiduously monitoring and distracting KI Media instead of condemning human rights violations of every manner committed against the peoples of Vietnam of all ethnic origins, a traditional Vietnamese opera aria or song is reproduced above, with thanks to Bayon TV!. Need translating? Don't ask School of Vice; ask Mr Heng Soy! [School of Vice]

(Heng Soy's translation of the song above. Sorry to butt in!)
“It is thought that the majority of Chams were killed, driven off, or assimilated by the Vietnamese. Chams still exist today as an ethnic minority in Vietnam — though its number is relatively small (about 40,000) in comparison to the 30,000 Cham families in the eleventh century.”
Vietnamese "volunteers" in Cambodia during the 1980s. Military incursions by Dai Viet  [Vietnamese State] into neighbouring countries had been a constant thread throughout Vietnamese history. “In the 1978 border war with Cambodia, the new socialist government of Vietnam used the Khmers as an advance column in their invasion into Cambodia.”
Crowd-friendly Vietnamese cops armed with batons trying to keep festival goers in line at a traditional Khmer ox race event in Cambodia's former territory of Lower Cambodia [Kampuchea Krom]
“To be sure, however, the Nguyen’s colonial[ists] did displace the local populations of the Chams and the Khmers, whose “displacement but not replacement” is still today not assured.”

“Like the Chams, the Khmers were also “discredited” of their role in developing the commercial areas near Saigon. Their contribution to the Vietnamese vocabulary and phrases is often overlooked. This is also true regarding their religious practices, which the Vietnamese have adopted, including elements of Theravada Buddhism. Other cultural borrowing from the Khmers includes agricultural implements and foods, medicines, and different areas of arts.”
"Indochinam"

In Vietnamese history, a theme that transcends across time and space is the advance or the march to the south (“nam tien”). The southern advancement, as noted by Michael Cotter, is unique in that “it transcends the different periods of Vietnamese history – pre-Chinese, Chinese, independent, colonial, and contemporary” in which each has “its own theme.” [1]

As discussed in earlier blogs, Chinese colonial diasporas had both indirect and direct effects on the southern advancement.

For Vietnamese, they have been “victims” of Chinese colonial diasporas — being physically, psychologically, culturally, and intellectually displaced. However, as noted by other scholars, the “Vietnamese will to [in]dependence was too strong,” there must have been “a special Vietnamese collective identity of some sort,” [2] and the “harmony between the Vietnamese . . . and their environmental conditions has proved to be so deep that no race has been able to resist their advance.” [3]


Simply, Vietnamese have always maintained their relationships with the collective memory and myth about their birth place and never more passionately than when displacement and disunity was imposed by foreign rule.

However, Vietnamese collective will to resist had to be modified because of Chinese military power in which resistance had to include strategic form of borrowing and localizing ideas of foreign powers in order to make and strengthen local cultural statements about its “Vietnamese cultural core.”

Cultural borrowing came from both north and south. And until late in the 14th century, Buddhism had acted as a common ground between Vietnam and southern states of the Cham and Khmer, during times of both peace and war; for instance, Vietnamese prince who married Cham princess and the Vietnamese Buddhist monk who practiced Indian asceticism. [4]

Vietnamese, on the one hand, were successful in localizing external influences in which what were borrowed were considered essential and integral to the culture at that particular time. But such situation sometimes was inevitably imperfect and had led to tension and stress within the society on the other. [5]

This was the case, when after repelling the Ming invasion (1407-1427), the Le emperors began to adapt the Ming Chinese model and began to transform ideologically, bureaucratically, and militarily.

This transformation enabled the Vietnamese state (Dai Viet) under the Le dynasty (1428-1524) to stabilize its southern and western frontiers. But in doing so, the conviction in the essential unity of their territory and people and cultural relativity began to take dual form or multiple forms (or even change character).

The External Expansion of Dai Viet

The transformation of Dai Viet was, in part, the result of its population becoming a specialist in wet-rice cultivation, which fostered “the trade, population growth, and resource concentration that promote state power and societal expansion.” [6]

Importantly, the state began to adapt the Ming Chinese model.

For example, it took on the Chinese ideals of bringing ‘civilization’ to the ‘uncivilized,’ which were applied to its relations with Champa and the Khmers. It also adapted Chinese meritocratic civil service examinations as the method of recruiting educated talent to service the government. [7] Moreover, Dai Viet had acquired gunpowder technology from China, although Vietnamese also had contributed to Chinese gunpowder technology by locally producing better techniques such as the wooden wad and possibly a new ignition, which was then exported to China. [8] Arming itself with new gunpowder technology, Dai Viet’s large and well-organized military force was able to achieve its military ends more easily than before. [9]

Indeed, under the Le dynasty, the Vietnamese state began to transcend its displacement and, according to one opinion, gradually developed into “a bigger hegemonist,” conceiving themselves as superior to all other peoples in Southeast Asia. [10]

But probably more accurate is that the transformation of Dai Viet changed the balance of power in mainland Southeast Asia. Yet, that balance was tenuous and was hampered by the eventual rise of two separate entities with two different representations of “what was a good Vietnamese.”

Notwithstanding, as a result of the above transformation, Dai Viet, on the one hand, were able for the first time, since independence, to stabilize its southern and western frontiers. But Dai Viet also took advantage of its new capabilities to end its conflicts with Champa over areas (that of Quang Binh, Quang Tri, and Thua Thien) where the two mingled since the fifth century.

Between 1361 and 1390, Champa, under Che Bong Nga’s rule, conducted an interrupted series of victories against Vietnam, including the sacking of Vietnam’s capital of Thang Long several times and were able to retrieve Champa’s old northern provinces that it lost earlier in 1301 through a marriage alliance that did not endure. But after Che Bong Nga’s assassination in 1390, Champa had to hand back the provinces to Vietnam, yet these areas were still contested until the fifteenth century. However, in 1471, the Dai Viet’s military force appeared to have overwhelmed the Chams. One thousand Dai Viet warships and 70,000 troops captured Champa’s capital of Vijaya. According to Vietnamese source, more than 30,000 Chams were captured and over 40,000 were killed. In part, the fall of Champa in 1471 was due to the fact that it did not have access to firearms. [11] Thus, the year 1471 marked the rise of Dai Viet.

Vietnamese had by then conquered the northern part of Cham country, as far as the southern border of today’s Binh Dinh province. However, Cham kings continued to rule from this region, although less autonomous then earlier Cham kings. In addition, however, there were southern Champ polities, including a fourth Cham region (Kauthara) located near present day Nha Trang, which had been a part of Cham country since the beginning of Cham history.

On Vietnam’s western borders, Tai peoples were actively crossing Vietnam’s western borders, causing a series of conflicts between the two. But by the late 1470s, Dai Viet was able to claim Tai hill territories, bringing the Tai ethnic groups in modern Vietnam. [12] Taking advantage of its military technology, Dai Viet also pursued aggressive actions against Thai and Laos principalities. Its armies marched as far as the Irawaddy River in modern Burma. [13] As a result, by the early 1480s, kingdoms of northwestern mainland Southeast Asia, such as the Laotian kingdom of Lan Ch’ang and Thai principality of Ai Lao sent tributes to the Vietnamese capital.

In sum, the purpose and scope of Dai Viet’s external expansion was initially to stabilize its southern and western frontiers, of which had been militarily contested throughout the centuries without a clear winner, at least until 1471. Its external expansion was dynastic in nature, which was clearly reflected by the reign of Le Thang Tong (1460-1497) who sought to stabilize his state by securing its borders to prevent any repeat of foreign invasions, such as the Ming invasion of 1407-1427. The degree of success in stabilizing its borders, as well as going beyond its borders, was, in large part, due to the unilateral-monopolistic timing, as put forward by Frank Darling. [14] That is, Dai Viet’s external expansion occurred because of a “power vacuum” in which Dai Viet with the new gunpowder technology and under a more bureaucratic state were able to exert power in the region, limited by the available resources and the stability of the Le court.

Vietnam, however, did not develop a permanent colonial phase or colonial diaspora until the beginning of the sixteenth century. Even though Vietnam was active in acquisitioning Cham lands, it occurred at long intervals. In occupying Cham lands, the Le emperors would appoint frontier military governors with the rank of viceroy (kinh-luoc), but would also retained Cham officials in the administration in some regions. The purpose and scope of Vietnamese military and penal colonies were to consolidate their gains, to provide support for expeditions, and to relieve population pressures. [15]

During this period, Vietnamese rulers did not pay much attention to the specific matter of expansion into Champa, until the arrival of the Nguyen lords who eventually sought a southern autonomous state, separate from the northern state under the Trinh lords.

The Nguyen’s Colonial Diaspora

Vietnamese southern expansion or colonial diaspora under the Nguyen family can be described as a frontier movement, originating because of political and military unrest and conflicts at home; and expanding through military conquests, treaties, and “most difficult to document, colonization by transfrontiersmen.” [16]

In 1524, when the Le emperors were usurped by the Mac family, the Trinh family and Nguyen family both professed their loyalty to and attempted to restore the Le emperors. However, after the restoration of Le in 1592, the Trinh family gradually acquired all the important posts at the Le court so that the Le emperors were reduced to being “nominal” rulers. [17] Meanwhile, the Nguyen family saw the Trinh as usurpers and decided to officially break with the Trinh in 1600 and return to Thuan Hoa (modern Hue), where years earlier they were emplaced by the Trinh to establish control over the southernmost frontiers. Between 1627 and 1672, the Nguyen lords were able to defend Trinh’s expeditions, as well as defending Cham’s reacquisition of its former territories. By 1672, Trinh lords, whose militarily failures to defeat the Nguyen left them weakened, agreed to a division of the two states at the boundary of the Linh River. This resulted in a relatively stable coexistence of “two Dai Viets” for a little more than one hundred years.

The Nguyen, despite having a smaller population with a smaller number of trained officials, accordingly adjusted their organizational structure and localized themselves to their new geographical terrains and frontier influences, including redeveloping trading centers, absorbing local populations, and interacting with foreign merchants.

For example, in the former Cham territories, one of the key characteristics of the Nguyen administration was the use of Chams and of lower-class Vietnamese. It also redeveloped the commercially oriented society center in Hoi An, which had been pioneered by the local Cham population who still constituted a key component in the labor and basic patterns of the region’s trading center after the Vietnamese takeover. [18] Unlike the traditional northern economy, the Nguyen’s economy had a “fundamental basis in foreign trade.” [19] This attracted Vietnamese immigrants, as well as Chinese refugees who fled from the Manchu dynasty, arriving at various times in present day areas of Hue after 1636, further transforming the Hoi An region “into its now recognizably Vietnamese form.” [20] Moreover, from its contacts with foreign merchants, the Nguyen state was able to arm itself with modern weapons provided by Portuguese merchants, which assisted them to defend the Trinh expeditions as well as to continue the expansion of its control farther south.

As noted by recent works in Vietnamese historiography, in the Nguyen, we see a new version of being Vietnamese. Although these works tend to describe the Nguyen as breaking or escaping from the past and from the ancestors in order to create ways of being Vietnamese, [21] it is probably more accurate to say that the Nguyen was not rigid in conforming with the traditional culture in the north, which led to a more open, multiethnic society with emphasis on foreign trade.

“. . . since the early 1620s Khmers were gradually displaced and were pushed out of their villages into Cambodia or into marginal lands near the sea; and by 1780, the Vietnamese controlled most of the southern territories that comprise present Vietnam. During the 18th century, military colonies were used to expand in this region, which settled disputes between Khmers and encroaching Vietnamese, although in the favor of Vietnamese settlers.”
This was true for both the central areas and the Mekong Delta areas. In the latter, Vietnamese had moved into southern plains by the early 1620s, due the political and military vacuum left by the declining Khmer kings. By this time, the Khmer court based in Phnom Penh was faction ridden and was subservient to Siamese (Tai) influence. This allowed the Nguyen to exert its influence in the Khmer court, including the marriage of a Vietnamese princess to a Khmer king in 1620. Three years later, the Khmer king granted permission for Vietnamese immigrants and traders to move into the areas, culminating in 1689 the establishment of a viceroyalty over the provinces around Saigon (Cotter254). [22]

Compared to the central areas, the Nguyen saw the Mekong Delta as more extensive and fertile for growing rice. It also used this area to utilize captured Trinh soldiers and lower class immigrants from the north to settle and develop this area. Chinese immigrants also had important role in redeveloping this region’s trading center. As a result, this region was ethnically pluralistic. From one perspective, these individuals and groups found southern Vietnam as a land of promise, where they could make a fresh start. [23] For instance, captured soldiers were expected to clear the land in which they were given farm implements and food to eat. So in several years “they could produce enough for their own needs,” and after twenty years after “their children can be soldiers of the country.” [24]

To be sure, however, the Nguyen’s colonial[ists] did displace the local populations of the Chams and the Khmers, whose “displacement but not replacement” is still today not assured.

A common perception is that the institutional weakness of Cham society, “a weakly institutionalized state system that depended upon personal alliance networks to integrate a fragmented population,” had sealed its fate. [25] Yet, the Chams were never easily conquered. In fact, it may be the same decentralized system that allowed the Chams for centuries to contest and stir rebellion against the Vietnamese. Despite the Nguyen’s presence in the Cham territories since the 1550s, it was until 1611 that Cham territory of Kauthara (modern Nha Trang) disintegrated and not until 1771 that Panduranga-Champa (modern Phan Rang) fell. However, over the centuries Cham society could not withstand the Vietnamese advancement, sometimes in “massive convulsions or in fits and starts.” [26]

It is thought that the majority of Chams were killed, driven off, or assimilated by the Vietnamese. [27] Chams still exist today as an ethnic minority in Vietnam — though its number is relatively small (about 40,000) in comparison to the 30,000 Cham families in the eleventh century. To some degree, because the Nguyen’s purpose and scope of its colonial diaspora were of political and economic domination “with less concern about Cham social and religious life,” Chams were able to retain some of their culture, including their language, religious beliefs, matrilineal kinship patterns, and the practice of non-intensive rice growing. [28] And often overlooked or discredited is the contribution of Chams in the Hoi An region as international trade center. It is very likely that “Vietnamese immigrants encountered the well-established patterns of behavior of the peoples who preceded them and very likely continued to live alongside them.” [29] For instance, Vietnamese had been shaped by the Cham maritime logic in rebuilding Hoi An, learned to grow rice in terraced land, adopted local Cham deities such as Po Nagar, took up a form of Siva worship, lived in Malayic-style stilt houses, traveled in Cham-style boats, tilled with Cham plows, buried their dead in Cham-style graves, and practiced piracy and barter in slaves. [30]

Similarly, since the early 1620s Khmers were gradually displaced and were pushed out of their villages into Cambodia or into marginal lands near the sea; [31] and by 1780, the Vietnamese controlled most of the southern territories that comprise present Vietnam. During the 18th century, military colonies were used to expand in this region, which settled disputes between Khmers and encroaching Vietnamese, although in the favor of Vietnamese settlers. [32] In the 1978 border war with Cambodia, the new socialist government of Vietnam used the Khmers as an advance column in their invasion into Cambodia. Like the Chams, the Khmers were also “discredited” of their role in developing the commercial areas near Saigon. Their contribution to the Vietnamese vocabulary and phrases is often overlooked. This is also true regarding their religious practices, which the Vietnamese have adopted, including elements of Theravada Buddhism. Other cultural borrowing from the Khmers includes agricultural implements and foods, medicines, and different areas of arts. [33]


Source: University of Houston

226 comments:

«Oldest   ‹Older   201 – 226 of 226
Red Neck said...

4:43 am

Yep all Asians are dumb. Look@ this Vid, the Asian women gone under the knives to have their noses smaller instead of flat.

Anonymous said...

4:33 AM

LOL. EOM

Anonymous said...

Yeah, if this freaking 4:43 AM doesn't know how to communicate and to get acrossed, it's his own freaking problem and he is the one that is dumb and stupid and to blame!!!

Anonymous said...

To 4:43:

Here you go again and again. How much long will you do that?

Khmer Yeurng

Anonymous said...

Heh you the Viet @ 4:43 AM, you sound disliking this blog, but why do you keep coming and whining here, you stupid motherfucker. Do the Viet kick you out from their blogs as well? You are not here to discuss about history, but you are here to hijack us by using the Viet pussy.

Anonymous said...

4:43 AM,

Here you go again. How much longer will you continue to do that? Please stop your bad language. Thank you.

Khmer Yeurng

Anonymous said...

Red Neck @ 5:10 AM, if you think that all Asians are dumb that is ok, because the Red Necks are dumber. That is how the nickname Red Neck comes to be.
They can even do simplest arithmetic; they have to count their fingers and toes like apes.

Anonymous said...

Dear Ki-Media,

Would you please increase the number of comments from 200 to 300 so that we can view all the comments in one page.

Thank you, Ki-Media.

Khmer Yeurng

Anonymous said...

God's View Of All Nations:

~Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

~All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

~Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

~It is he (God) that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

~That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Yep, we all are as grasshoppers, less than nothing. Man has nothing to boast of himself, but let him boast in God, his Creator.

Do you understand? Where is that Glorious Khmer Empire Now? If we continue to kick against the truth there wouldn't be any of Cambodia left in the future to come if God so determined man can't alter his will.

Really, All was vanity and vexation of spirit that brought the Empire crumbling down. What more witnessess do we need that we are nothing of ourselves? Are we like pigs that like to return to its mud holes and like dogs that return to its vomit?

~The fear (reverent) of the LORD is the Beginning of Wisdom, but fools delights in mockery~

W~W

Anonymous said...

4:33AM,

You must be kidding that you can still eat BAAY KDAING since most KI warriors are in the age of between 50 to 70.

I bet you can't even eat jello without having to wear your dentures!!!



BAAY KDAING

Anonymous said...

This 4:33AM to BAAY KDAING @ 9:39 AM.

Do you think an old fart like me cannot eat BAAY KDAING?
I show you how it is done ok.
First you soak the BAAY KDAING in the hot water and after one hour, voilà.

Anonymous said...

4:33am can't even eat jello without wearing dentures....let a lone Baay Kdaing!




Baay Kdaing

Anonymous said...

This is why Khmers are forever uncivilized. You just cannot teach monkeys to think logically and scientifically like human. Monkey Khmers just couldn't and refused to be civilized in their thought process. The same reason why Cambodia will always be a shit hole unless some other races come in and develope it, then push the monkeys into the jungle or out the whatever islands are left at sea. It looks like they are beggin the Chinese Commnunist to domesticate them, but that won't happen, China has enough mouth to feed, we just need more resources from monkey land

Anonymous said...

We must build a strong Khmer unity and don't let the neighbors look down on us and break up Khmer people. We have to remain strong not to label and call each other Khmer people bad names no mater what.

Khmer Yeurng

Anonymous said...

12:03 PM,

Whatever your intentions are, you know it and we know it, it just doesn't work. If it's your good intention, obviously it's time for you to re-evaluate your approaches and quit that "You Dumb Khmer" crap. If it's your ill-will mean spirited intention, we just want to tell you - QUIT IT ALREADY!

We can spot your fake writings miles aways, and we know who you are!

Jok Jap

Anonymous said...

12:03 PM,

The Communist Chinese need to domesticate the barbaric Viet with one child policy. Your parents screw too much and each year the children come out like rabbits – either your parents or your govt have to stop the population explosion.

You must be crazy and stupid for keep on coming to where you nut head think uncivilize.
Your action contradicts what your big mouth says; you love this place so much because you never smell the freedom that is why you are stuck here.

Anonymous said...

Cham people will reclaim their land back from the barbarous thief Vietnam soon.

Anonymous said...

Can't get to the rest of postings, Louk Heng Soy!

Anonymous said...

It is time for Cham people to reclaim their land back from the thief Vietnam.

Anonymous said...

i told you people in this region of the world hated each other. they lack education, you see. from my experience, only ignorant people use hate and racist, etc. highly educated people chose not to go that route because they understand better and can relate to it, etc, you know. yes, these people who use hate, race card, etc all need education and training to help them live peacefully side by side. they are no less than the wild animals out there without education and training, really. continue to emphasize to them to get a good education and also get training in ethical code of conduct and professionalism when it comes to dealing with other people in their life, etc...

Anonymous said...

12:19 AM,

Can you just get lost because according to our records you are one of those parasites to KI-Media! Nobody reads your nonsense, nobody cares...so please be a man, leave KI-Media alone, leave KI-Media now!

Anonymous said...

12:19 AM,

i know!
you know!
really!
ok!
etc!

Anonymous said...

Gentlemen,

Please do not sweat ourselves with small stuffs.
Let us concentrate ourselves in FIGHTING our
common ennemy.
Time may run out.
We must stop the Viet occupation of our country.
Yes it is a BENIGN OCCUPATION, but still an
occupation, nonetheless!

A Khmer Patriot

Anonymous said...

TO LOK.......4:33 AM

SAM MUK (LOK SEL OMBEE) HEUIL !
....................................
(Yesterday my wife was pissed off when I got home, she made me eating Baay Kdaing and Baay Ka-ork with salt).

Anonymous said...

7:57 PM

Are you trying to be funny? There is nobody laughing.
But if you try to pick a fight with 4:33 AM, you must be stupid and crazy.
Because you are so dumb you can’t even tell the difference between a fact and a fiction.

Anonymous said...

When I need a laugh, I go here to KI. When I go to the zoo, I drive down to Long Beach to watch yo monkeys. Seriously, stop living in the past, get your lazy ass up and do something with your life & for your people. Stop blaming your problems on others. The more blames, the more stupid you look because you, as the people, let it happens. No outsiders would dare to come in unless some of your own people has betrayed you (as your Kings did, aka Sihanouk, Pol Pot..). Watch Enemies of the People, from one of your own. Think before posting comments here as freedom of speech is a two way sword. People will judge Khmer here. Nations come and go. Khmer Empire ceased land from others. Champa fought with Khmer & Viets... By the way, in your dream, if UN ever hold a voting for Khmer Krom, Vietnamese population will outnumber Khmer & win anyway. You are too racist anyway, against the Chams in your country + Khmer Krom people... A majority of Khmer living in the US are former KR & their families.

Anyway, Khmer will always be Vietnam bitches.

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