page_title: Art of Champa
section_title: Temples
hierarchical_section_title: Art of Champa / Forms of visual art / Temples
caption_attribution_description: English: Cham tower Chien Dan in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam
context_page_description: Champa was an Indianised civilization within the Greater India that flourished along the coasts of what is now central and southern Vietnam for roughly a one thousand-year period between 500 and 1500 AD. The original Chams were probably colonists from the Indonesian islands, who adopted as their principal vocations those of trade, shipping, and piracy. Their cities were ports of call on important trade routes linking India, China and the Indonesian islands. The history of Champa was one of intermittent conflict and cooperation with the people of Java, the Khmer of Angkor in Cambodia and the Đại Việt of what is now northern Vietnam. It was to the Đại Việt that Champa finally lost its independence.
  The architecture of the Indian rock-cut temples, particularly the sculptures, were widely adopted in South Indian, and Indianised architecture of Cambodian, Annamese and Javanese temples. The artistic legacy of Champa consists primarily of sandstone sculptures - both sculpture in the round and relief sculpture - and brick buildings. Some metal statues and decorative items have also survived.
context_section_description: Unlike the Khmer of Angkor, who for the most part employed a grey sandstone 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 Mỹ Sơn near Da Nang, Đồ Bàn near Quy Nhơn, Po Nagar near Nha Trang, and Po Klong Garai near Phan Rang.
caption: Chiên Đàn temple in Quảng Nam province.
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