Abstract:
The Kingdom of Champa was one of the oldest "Malay" Kingdoms in the Malay World.
Throughout its known existence from the 2nd to 19th century AD, the Kingdom has left many
heritages, which are proof of a very highly civilised nation. Various influences had penetrated into
the lives of its people, influences from the Indian subcontinent, Hinduism and Buddhism; later the
influence from the West Asia, namely the Islamic teachings. All these three main world religions
form the basis of the Champa people way of life, mainly the Cham's. This paper tries to give the
overview of the Cham civilisation which remains rooted in their ways of life until the present day.
Through the acceptance of the three main world religions, historical documents such as the
richness of its epigraphy, monuments, statuaries and later historical records on paper, manuscripts
were found and preserved, though some were lost. The latest of the Champa documentations were
in the form of dictionaries. The latest two dictionaries produced in 2010 were of great challenges to
the compilators, be it in the Pallava or Arabic borrowed forms known as Jawi script.
