… Poet Inrasara is a renowned Cham poet of Vietnam whom I met on the last day of the festival. He is a native of Panduranga village of Champa . He is a Hindu. The term Champa refers to a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is today central and southern Vietnam from seventh century up to 1832.
Then the kingdom of Champa disappeared. It was conquered by Vietnam There were 1,20,000 Hindus.
They became refugees to Cambodia, Malayasia, Hainan in the north of Myanmar. The Cham people worship Brahma, Vishnu and mainly Lord Shiva. Their letters originated from Brahmi script of India. Inra means thunder of God and Sara is the arrow of Indra. Their king Gangara went to India in the 4thcentury. He revealed that there is also Bani religion worshipped by the Cham people. It is a mixture of Hinduism and Islam. They worship all Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Mohammad Allah. There are many Cham Hindus and Bani religion worshippers in Vietnam though Cham people do not worship Islam in Vietnam but in Cambodia. He said that Hindus donot face any problem here. Poet Inrasara educated us in brief about the Cham culture and religion. The Cham poet humbly said this in his poem Gratitude- there is still a Cham son to take care for the Cham language… though utterly insignificant, I still must be present…
Dr Mousumi Ghosh (Assistant Professor of Economics, “The Poets and The Ladies I Met At The Second Asia Pacific Poetry Conference In Vietnam”)