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chicago jersey - Forms of visual art

The remnants of classical Cham art extant today consist mainly in temples of brick, sandstone sculptures in the round, and sandstone sculptures in high and low relief. A few bronze sculptures and decorative items made of metal remain as well. There are no works of marble or other higher quality stone. Likewise there are no paintings or sketches. The people of Champa wrote, and perhaps also sketched, on leaves, which have not withstood the hot and humid climate of coastal Vietnam. Items made of chicago jersey perishable materials, such as wood, for the most part have not survived.

Metal statues and jewelry

The remaining works of art made of metal include bronze statues of the Mahayanist deities Lokesvara and Tara dated approximately 900 A.D. and associated with the Buddhist art of Dong Duong. An even older bronze statue of the Buddha bears a strong resemblance to Indian Buddhist statues of the Amaravati style; scholars doubt that it was originally from Champa, surmising instead that it must have come into the country as part of the maritime trade that linked India with Southeast Asia and China.

This Cham kosa, or chicago jersey metal sleeve to be fitted over a linga, is the face of Siva, as can be recognized from the third eye in the center of the forehead and the chignon hairstyle known as jatamukuta.

We have abundant textual evidence of much classical Cham art that once existed that has been lost to the ravages of time and the depredations of human vandals, looters, and conquerors. For example, the early 14th century Chinese historian Ma Duanlin reported the existence of a large statue of the Buddha made of gold and silver; the current whereabouts of this statue are unknown. The Cham kings themselves have left us stone inscriptions describing the gifts of now lost precious objects they made to the shrines and sanctuaries of the realm. Especially noteworthy was the practice of donating decorated metallic sleeves (kosa) and diadems (mukuta) to important lingas and the divinities with which they were affiliated. For example, an inscription on a stone stele dated approximately 1080 A.D. and found at My Son reports that King Harivarman donated a "large, resplendent golden kosa adorned with the most beautiful jewels, more brilliant than the sun, illuminated day and night by the rays of shining gems, decorated by four faces" to the deity Srisanabhadresvara, a local embodiment of Siva. A few years later, around 1088, Harivarman may have been outdone by his successor Indravarman, who donated a golden kosa with six faces (facing in the four cardinal directions, toward the Northeast and the Southeast) topped off by a nagaraja (serpent-king) ornament, and decorated with precious gemstones including a ruby, a saphire, a topaz, and a pearl. Neither of these treasures has survived.

The written sources, including the Chinese books of history and the Cham inscriptions, also report on some of the catastrophic events, primarily acts of war, that led to the loss of Cham art. In the second quarter of the 5th century A.D., according to the historian Ma Duanlin, a Chinese general named Yuen Kan sacked the capital of Champa, making off with many "rare and precious objects," including "tens of thousands of pounds of gold in ingots coming from statues which he had smelted." Similarly, at the beginning of the 7th century a marauding Chinese general named Liu Fang made off with "eighteen massive tablets of gold" commemorating the 18 previous kings of Champa. It is to be assumed that in the centuries that followed, frequent raids and conquests by Khmer and Vietnamese armies, which led to the eventual destruction of Champa as an independent political entity, likewise resulted in the removal of any portable works of art, including of course any works made of precious metals.

Temples of brick

The profile of the 13th century temple Po Klaung Garai near Phan Rang includes all the buildings typical of a Cham temple. From left to right one can see the kalan, the attached mandapa, the saddle-shaped kosgrha, and the gopura.

Unlike the Khmer of Angkor, who for the most part employed a grey stone to construct their religious buildings, the Cham built their temples from reddish bricks. Some of these brick structures can be still be visited in the Vietnamese countryside. The most important remaining sites include My Son near Da Nang, Po Nagar near Nha Trang, and Po Klaung Garai near Phan Rang.

Buildings constituting a temple

Typically, a Cham temple complex consisted of several different kinds of buildings.

The kalan was the brick sanctuary, typically in the form of a tower, used to house the deity.

The mandapa was an entry hallway contiguous with a sanctuary.

The kosagrha or "fire-house" was the construction, typically with a saddle-shaped roof, used to house the valuables belonging to the deity or to cook for the deity.

The gopura was a gate-tower leading into a walled temple complex.

These building types are typical for Hindu temples in general; the classification is valid not only for the architecture of Champa, but also for other architectural traditions of Greater India.

Most significant temples

The temple of Po Nagar is near Nha Trang.

The culturally most important temples of historical Champa were the temple of Bhadresvara located at My Son near modern Da Nang, and the temple of the goddess known as Bhagavati (her Hindu name) or Yan Po Nagar (her Cham name) located just outside modern Nha Trang.

The temple of Bhadresvara was the principle religious foundations of northern Champa (known as Campadesa, Campapura or nagara Campa in the inscriptions). Scholars have identified the temple of Bhadresvara, a local incarnation of the universal deity Siva, with the edifice "A1" at My Son. Though today A1 is in the process of devolving into a pile of rubble, it still existed as a magnificent tower when French scholars described it at the beginning of the 20th century.

The temple of Yan Po Nagar was the principle religious foundation of southern Champa (or Panduranga, a word that is the basis for the modern name "Phan Rang.") Its buildings date from between the 8th and 13th centuries A.D. The temple remains standing to this day across the Cai River from Nha Trang, and is in relatively good condition.

Sandstone sculptures

A decorative theme that originated in Java, and from there emanated to other parts of Greater India, is that of the makara sea monster disgorging some other being. In this 10th or 11th century Cham sculpture, the makara disgorges a naga.

The Cham created freestanding sandstone sculptures in the round, as well as haut-relief and bas-relief carvings of sandstone. In general, they appear to have preferred sculpting in chicago jersey relief, and they excelled especially at sculpture in high relief. Cham sculpture went through a marked succession of historical styles, the foremost of which produced some of the best works of Southeast Asian art.

The subject-matter of Cham sculpture is drawn mostly from the legends and religion of Indian civilization. Many of the sculptures are representations of particular Hindu and Buddhist deities, most prominently Siva, but also Lokesvara, Visnu, Brahma, Devi, and Shakti. Such sculptures may have served a religious purpose rather than being purely decorative. Any sculpture in the round of an important deity that is completely forward-oriented, not engaged in any particular action, and equipped with symbolic paraphernalia, would have been a candidate for ritual or devotional use. Cham sculptors also created numerous lingas, phallic posts linked symbolically with Siva (if the cross-section is a circle) or with the trimurti (if the post is segmented, consisting of a lower square section symbolic of Brahma, a middle octogonal section symbolic of Visnu, and a top circular section symbolic of Siva). The ritual uses of the linga are familiar from modern Hinduism.