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The Cham culture including the special architecture and sculpture of Cham towers, colourful folk songs and dances and traditional festivals, is an important part of Vietnam's cultural diversity, according to Vietnamese folklorists.
Cham owers, dating back to the 6th-17th centuries, are located on highlands, hills and valleys, surrounded by ranges of mountains, in the central and southern central regions. Cham towers were built in groups of 2-3 towers or a main tower with secondary towers around the area. Many documents claim that Viet Nam has about 250 Cham towers, of them 40 towers and the ruins of many others have been found, including the My Son Relic Site in central Quang Nam province. My Son historic site with 70 towers and temples has been recognized as a world cultural heritage site by UNESCO. Other well-known Cham towers are Por Na Gar located next to Nha Trang City in Khanh Hoa Province, Po Sha Nu in Binh Thuan Province and Hoa Lai and Po Klaugn Harai in Phu Yen Province.
Cham towers were built with bricks and stones. No construction joints of glue were found between these bricks, but walls of Cham towers have stood firmly for thousands of years. The bricks were worn flat, but did not separate from each other. Cham towers are great and beautiful architectural projects with special decorative sculptures. Cham sculpture reflected the ups and downs in history of the Cham ethnic group as well as the Cham people's religion and culture.
Cham culture is a special mix of folk songs, folk dances, folk music, legends, fairy tales, poems, folk verses, and proverbs, depicting the aspirations of people in their daily life, work, love, and struggle for a fair society, peace and happiness. Traditional music instruments still play a key role in the Cham people's cultural life. Three groups of traditional instruments, which remain popular among the Cham ethnic minority community today, are percussion instruments with six special types such as the wooden bells, wind instruments with four types such as the tintinnabulum, and stringed instruments with three types such as the bowl-shaped sound box guitars. Cham people play traditional music not only to express their feeling and their passion but also to reflect their religion and culture. Their folk music today has joined with that of 53 other ethnic groups nationwide to improve Viet Nam's global integration and promote Vietnam's international prestige through exchanges of culture and art performances.
Their folk dances have been well preserved today with a number of items well known such as the fan dance, the scarf dance and the water - carrying dance. These folk dances are no longer limited to the Cham community's rituals and traditional festivals such as Kate to pray God and new year festivals but have developed into a stage art and are performed at many national art festivals.
Folk festivals are very much linked to agriculture, which dominates the Cham ethnic group's income. Religious festivals make up an important part of the Cham people's life. Most popular today are the Kate festival, and festivals at Holy sites and temples. The Cham ethic group in Vietnam has different names such as the Chiem Thanh and the Hroi. Their population is estimated at 140,000 and they mostly live in the four southern central provinces of An Giang, Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan and Phu Yen.
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