Institute of International Affairs, Graduate School of International Studies,

Seoul National University

THE VIETNAMIZATION OF THE CHAM DEITY P NAGAR

Author(s): Nguyn Th Anh
Source: Asia Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1 (June 1995), pp. 55-67
Published by: Institute of International Affairs, Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul
National University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/43105706
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AsiaJournal
, Volume2, Number1 (1995)

THE VIETNAMIZATION OF THE CHAM DEITY

P NAGAR

Nguyn Th Anh
EcolePratique
desHautesEtudes

P Ino Nagar (Yang P Nagara in Cham inscriptions), or the "Lady of

the Kingdom," is the great goddess represented under the features of
Bhagavti Um Siva's Sti, and set within the same worship enclosure as a
linga in the sanctuary the remnants of which can still be seen near
Nhatrang ( Thp B, the Lady's Tower).1 According to the second
inscription of P Nagar's stele, this temple would have been erected by
Champa's legendary sovereign Vichitrasagara in the year 591 of the
Dvparata era (Bergaigne 1888: 67). It had been ransacked many times,
notably in 774 following a Javanese foray,and in 950 by Khmer invaders
who took away the gold statue consecrated to the mother goddess by king
Indravarman III. But it had been restored each time. In 965, Jaya
Indravarman I replaced the statue carried off fifteenyears earlier with
Uma's effigycarved from a block of black basalt. While proceeding with
the repairs of the sanctuary in 1050, Jaya Paravesmaravarman I gave it
slaves, among whom were Khmers, Chinese, Burmese, and Siamese. After
having repelled the Khmer and Vietnamese invasions of 1149-1151,Jaya
Harivarman I multiplied religious establishments at this sacred place. The
temple of P Nagar was thus a very revered religious center,the spiritual
heart of ancient Champa.
However, by giving Uma's divine form to the tutelary deity of their
kingdom, the Chams apparently did no more than to continue a very old
worship that preceded their Indianization. In their hymn to P Vang Ino
Nogara, they used to sing that, born from clouds in the sky and foam of
the sea, the deity had materialized in the shape of a piece of eaglewood
floating on top of the waves; that she had ninety-sevenhusbands, among

1 Parmentier 1906:291-300),
(1902:17-54; J.Boisselier
(1963:207-10), VanLun(1974:
Nguyn
259-67).

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56 NGUYNTHANH

whom P Yang Am was the most powerful favorite;that she had

given
birth to thirty-ninedaughters, who had become goddesses like their
mother; that it was she who had created the earth, eaglewood and rice;
that the air surrounding her had the pleasant aroma of rice and that she
animated the sacred figtree(Cabaton 1901: 110; Van Dinh Hy 1978: 143-72;
Nguyn Duy Hinh 1990: 10-23). It would not be entirelyexact, though, to
inferthat the Chams conceived P Nagar chiefly as a divinity of
plants
and trees (Cadire 1918: 48). Attributing to the great goddess all the
blessings that could be bestowed upon men, they actually considered her
as the very personificationof the fertileearth. This beneficentnature of the
deity had made it possible, or at least easy, forthe Vietnamese to adopt her
cult (Trn Van Ton 1967: 120-21).
P Nagar's integrationinto the Vietnamese pantheon in all
probability
kept pace with the progressive absorption of Champa by the successive
dynasties of ancient Vietnam. In the inscriptioncomposed in her honor in
1856 by the great mandarin Phan Thanh Gian and graven on a stele near
her temple at Nhatrang, she was designated in full as Thin Y A Na Din
Phi Cha Ngoc Thnh Phi.2 It had been thought that this
appellation
resulted from a process of Vietnamization bringing
simultaneously into
play the translation and the phonetic expression of the differentelements
composing the name given to the deity by the Chams: Thinwould thus be
the translationof "Yang" (Heaven), and YANa the pronunciation of "Ino"
(mother). Another interpretationlinked Thin and Y together,ascribing to
the term the meaning of "benefiting from Heaven's protection." But it
would be more likely that "Thin YANa" originated from the Sanskrit
"Devayana," of which only the element "Deva" had been replaced by its
Sino-Vietnamese equivalent "Thin."3 As for Din Phi (the Lady of Din)
and Cha Ngoc Thnh Phi (the Saint Lady Princess Pearl), these
components reflected local particulars that may have only distant
connections with the Chams. The shrine of Din mountain in the south of
Vinhxuong districtof Khnh-ho province had indeed been built in 1797
by the governor Nguyn Van Thnh to express gratitude to the "Lady
Princess Pearl" for having answered his wish of ridding the area of its
tiger scourge ( Dai-Nam Nht Thng Chi, tinhKhnh-ho: 80). On the other
hand, the "Map of the Pacified South" (BtnhNam D), supposedly drawn

2 Thistexthasbeen inDai-NamNhtThngChi,tinhKhh-ho
recapitulated Van-Ho
(Saigon:
Tng-Thu,n23:91-93).
Itstranslation
byBuuCminVit-Nam KhaoCTpSan,3 (1952): 233,
is reproduced
inNguyn DuyOanh(1974:115-19).
Ithasservedas a basisforsuchaccounts
ofThin-
Y-A-Na's
legend byDoThiHnh(1914a:163-66)
andA.Saliet(1926:11-14).
3 I amindebted
toProf. KhcKhamforthisinterpretation.
Nguyn

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THE VIETNAMIZA
HON OF THECHAMDEITYP NAGAR 57

up in 1594 but more probably redelineated in the seventeenth century),

indicated "the Tower of the Princess Pearl" (Cha Ngoc Thp) at the site of
the Nhatrang sanctuary (Hng-Dc Ban d: 138-67).
P Nagar's legend, as it was related in Phan Thanh Gian's inscription,
had also been thoroughly Vietnamized, or should we say
"Confucianized": neither her polyandry nor the large number of her
children were mentioned. She was moreover depicted as an immortal( tin
nu) who repeatedly transformed herself into a trunk of eaglewood to
repair to China where she became a prince's spouse, then to return
thereafterto her formercountry where she devoted herselfto the task of
instructingthe inhabitants while not hesitating to resort to supernatural
powers in order to impose respect. Such an image was assuredly more
familiar to the mentality of the Vietnamese governing class than the
naturism with which the deity was originallypermeated.
Metamorphosed in her name as in her legend, P Nagar, transformedto
Thin-Y-A-Na, has been taken since the nineteenthcenturyfor a veritable
Vietnamese deity. Only the "Y-A-Na" component of her appellation and
the presence of eaglewood blocks in temples consecrated to her worship
are reminiscent of her Cham origin. Does this mean, however, that the
conclusion once formulated by Henri Parmentier ("in their need for
simple explanations of a pantheon they are not much acquainted with,the
Vietnamese have considered Bhagvati's representationas that of just any
deity") [Parmentier 1902: 802] should be unreservedly subscribed to? It is
more than likely that throughher attributesas a mothergoddess, source of
life,distributingor stopping rainfalls,favoringor destroyingcrops, giving
health or death, P Nagar could well have been regarded by the
Vietnamese as an avatar of the other celestial queen mother, the Taoist
Saint Mother of the Fairies, the Chinese Xi Wangmu, that they had long
been familiarwith. But, it is not impossible that the Vietnamese monarchy
had taken into account the potential for religious energy that might still
reside in the Cham divinityin spite of the defeat of the Cham people, and
wanted to incorporateher into its hierarchyof spiritsand genii, in order to
check such potential, or even to make use of it. In any case, P Nagar's
assimilation by the Vietnamese monarchy seems to have gone through a
complex process, the differentstages of which could nevertheless be
perceptible.

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58 NGUYNTHANH

II

The most ancient Vietnamese text concerning the Lady of the Cham
kingdom is to be found in the collection of tales entitled Vit Din U Link
Tp (Potent Spirits of the Vit Domain). In the preface writtenin 1329, its
compiler, L T Xuyn, declared his intention of recording the authentic
account of "the mysterious affairs of the spirits ... capable of great
accomplishments ..., worthyof being honored with temples and sacrifices/7
Among the twenty-eightspirits thus distinguished, four were connected
with the eleventh century expeditions against Champa. One of those
appeared under L Thnh-tong's reign (1054-72). This is the summary of
the relation of the encounter between the Vietnamese sovereign and the
Cham spiritand what followed:
Duringthe 1069expedition, when crossingtheHon estuary,a heavystorm
blowsup suddenlyand theroyalboatis in dangerofcapsizing.A verybeautiful
youngwomanappearsthento thekingas ifin a dream,sayingto him:"I am the
spiritoftheEarthofthesouthern realm,havingincarnated myselfin a treefora
long time in waiting. Our encounter today answers my desires. I mean to help
youin yourundertaking." Havingclearedhismind,l Thnh-tng has theshore
searched.A treetrunkbearinga resemblance to theapparitionis thendiscovered.
The kinghas it placed in his boat,bestowingthetitleof "ImperialLady of the
Earth" (Hu Th Phu Nhn) to the spiritwhose it seems to be the material
representation. The stormabates at thatmoment,and it is possible forthe
expeditionto pursue. The royal armyis easily victoriousin Champa, as if
supportedby supernatural powers.On his way back,thekingstopsat theplace
wherethe spirithas appeared,withthe intentionof havinga sanctuarybuilt
there.But a new stormbreaksout,subsidingonlyat theannouncement of the
royaldecisionof bringingthespiritto thecapital.A templewas subsequently
constructed at thevillageofAnlng(orLng,nearH-ni)forthecultoftheLady
oftheEarth.Supernatural manifestations areveryfrequent there;thosewhomake
funarepunishedat oncewitha sicknessorsomeothermisfortune.
UnderLAnh-tng's reign(1138-75), rainputsan end to a longdroughtonly
afteraltarshave been set up under the Lady's auspices to offerpropitiatory
thekinghas indeedbeen notifiedby herin a dreamthatone of her
sacrifices:
attendants,theCu-mang spirit,is in chargeof makingrain.In 1285,thedeityis
honoredwiththetitleofHu ThThanDia KyNguynQuart(spiritof theEarth
presidingat thesacrificemound).In 1288,thetwocharacters NguynTrung(loyal
to Heaven),are added to thisappellationand in 1313thefourcharactersng
ThinHo Duc (torespondtoHeavenin ordertotransform and procreate).4

4 See thequc-ngu Thislegendwasretold

inLT Xuyn(1960:47-48).
translation at later
ina fifteenth
dateswithsomevariants, LinkNamChch
text,
century Qui(1960:114-15)and

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THE VETNAMIZA
TONOF THECHAMDEITYP NAGAR 59

This female spirit of a country south of the L kingdom, assuming

material formin a tree trunkand settingoffrain at will, could certainlybe
none other than P Nagar. She was, however, given the name of Hou tu fu
reti,a divinity venerated in differentareas of Tang China, and introduced
into Vitnam perhaps since the ninth century,at the time of the governor
Gao Pian. But, in spite of this confusion of appellations, it is by no means
possible to be mistaken about the Lady's identity: the titles she was
invested with are indicative of the powers attributedto her fromthe start
by the Chams, and of the tenor of her cult. Furthermore,the term nguyn
trungitselfseems to imply a notion of stiffness,which lends support to the
hypothesis presuming that the representationof the deity brought back by
I Thnh-tng might not have been a simple piece of wood found on a
beach, but the very object of the Cham cult, in other words a set of
lingayoni (Ta Chi Dai Trung 1989: 114-15).
The fact,as related, that at l Thnh-tng's approach the deity woke up
from her reverie in her tree, nevertheless deserves to be noted. The tale
does not insist at all on the point that the spirit residing "under the
southern skies" had actually been abducted. The "Lady of the Earth" is on
the contrarypresented as a foreigndivinitycoming of her own freewill to
place herself under the Vietnamese sovereign's patronage. She is not the
only one: VitDiti U Link Tp displays the continual discovery under the
firstl of new spirits turningup to declare themselves as loyal protectors
of the royal authority.As Keith Taylor has pointed out, this profusion of
local deities aroused by royal virtue reveals a carefullyconsidered political
thought: the task of the kings must be to establish new harmony between
the supernatural and the temporal powers of the country,and to maintain
relations of confidence and loyalty with the differentlocal spirits,in order
to attract them into the "center" and include them in the Vietnamese
identity then in the process of being formed (Taylor 1988: 20-59). At any
rate, the firstVietnamese dynasties proved to be very inclusive regarding
the ethnic origin of beliefs,as well as theirdoctrinal orientation:they were
disposed to receive and domesticate spirits coming fromevery horizon. In
the case of P Nagar dressed in the clothes of the Hu-th Lady and
assigned to residence at Lng village, her elevation to the rank of guardian
of the kingdom and "president" of the sacrificeesplanade also involved a
furtheradvantage: it was of importance not only to gain an additional
support in the world of the spirits,but above all to appease the resentment

bytheeighteenth scholar
century in
L QuDon,inhisworkKinVanTinLuc,composed
1777(1977:432-33).

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60 NGUYNTHANH

of the conquered people by honoring their principal goddess. The latter,

anyhow, was treated in full as a Vietnamese divinity: she was heralded
each time the Trn court conferred supplementary titles to the spirits
considered the most powerful and the most devoted to the fortuneof the
capital cityof Thang-long, in 1285 afterthe Mongol invasion was repelled,
in 1288 after the defeat of the Yuan troops, and in 1313 after a new
victorious expedition against Champa and the capture of its sovereign Ch
Chi (JayaSimhavarman IV).
And yet, as an imported deity,the spirit of Lng needed all the same to
continue to draw on the fervor of her former worshippers in order to
preserve all her magical power. But Thang-long's vicinitywas swarming
with a Cham population that each Vietnamese expedition against Champa
enlarged with its lot of prisoners of war and slaves.5 The habits and beliefs
of these deported people tended to exert an insidious effect over the
customs of their victors, which Confucianism, then in expansion, could
not tolerate. The edict of the tenth moon of 1374 prohibiting the Cham
language constituted the firstsign of the uneasiness of the authorities in
the face of an influence deemed pernicious ( Dai Vit Su Y Ton Thu t. ii:
166; Nguyn Th Anh et al. 1990: 52). A century later, a decree was
promulgated on the ninth day of the eighth moon of 1499 to forbid the
people, fromprinces to ordinary subjects, to take Cham women as wives
(Dai Vit Su Y Ton Thu t. iv: 17; Nguyen Th Anh et al. 1990: 90). The
pretext advanced for this prohibition was "to preserve the purity of the
morals." The discriminatorymeasures were to reach their height in 1509
with the order to exterminateall the Cham residents of the neighborhood
of the capital (Nguyen Th Anh et al. 1990: 49, 51). These massacres were
supposedly triggeredby the discovery of a plot having large ramifications
among the Cham community. But the enactment at the same time
prohibiting "magicians from manufacturing talismans, sorcerers from
wearing long hair, [and] craftsmenfromdisplaying the cult of theirpatron
saints," attested that the causes of the event did not arise solely fromracial
discrimination: it suggested the willingness of the Confucian literati in
power to use radical means to curb the extension of practices too
heterodox fortheirtaste.
The vexatious measures imposed on the Cham population relegated in
North Vietnam might well have pulled the Hu-th Lady down fromher
greatness and reduced her to the modest condition of a simple village
' Thelastgreat of1471,
expedition whichallowedtheVietnamese
tolaydefinitively
handson
Champa'scapitalVijaya, back30,000
brought prisoners, withthekingofChampa
together
and50members oftheroyalfamily 1928:237-39).
(Maspero

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THE VIETNAMIZA
HON OF THECHAMDEITYP NAGAR 6l

guardian spirit. But, giving proof of the vitalityand the fervorof the faith
of which she was the object, she was not long in embodying herselfin a
new saint mother ( Thnh mu), the princess Liu-Hanh. According to
tradition,in 1557 was born to the familyof the mandarin L Thi Cng of
the village of Vn-ct (Nam-dinh province) the immortal Ging-Tin,
exiled on earth by the Emperor of Jade because she had broken a cup
containing the drink of immortality.Having paid the penalty of her fault,
she was reinstated in the celestial Palace in 1578. As she could not erase
from her mind the memory of her passage on earth, she was allowed by
the Emperor of Jade to returnto the earthlyworld with the titleof princess
Liu-Hanh. Thereupon, she went down again to earth in the company of
two waitingmaids, manifestingherselfin numerous places, working many
miracles, but also often plaguing the people. It was to prove their
gratitude forher benefactions that the inhabitantsof Ph-ct in Thanh-ho
province built a temple to worship her. This cult spread in the kingdom to
such an extent that the court of L Huyn-tng (1663-71) deemed it
necessary to put an end to it by ordering the destruction of the sanctuary
of Ph-ct. But before the wrath of the deity, who took vengeance by
disseminating epidemics and epizootics, the king was obliged to have her
temple restored and to confer to her the title of princess M-Hong
("Yellow Mother", i.e. Terrestrial Mother). Later on, after having
miraculously enabled the royal army to prevail over usurpers, she was
rewarded with the title Ch Thang Ho Diu Dai Vuong (literally "Great
marvelous king,powerful conqueror").6
The legend of Liu-Hanh had certainly been elaborated from popular
data by scholars, principally the eighteenth century poetess Don Thi
Dim, who strewed her tale Vn-ct thn nu truyn (The story of the
goddess of Vn-ct) with pieces of verse. They had adorned it with
religious ingredientsborrowed fromTaoism, or even fromthe mythof the
Chinese "Queen of Heaven," Tianfei or Tianhou sheng mu, who was
likewise given as a historical personage, born in the family of a Fujian
seaman under the Song, and deified later in the fourteenthcentury.In
consequence, the goddess no longer bore evidence of the same attributes
as the original divinity of whom she was the avatar. It may even be said

6 Liu-Hanh'slegendwasthetheme of"ThetaleofthegoddessofVn-ct/'
oneoftheliterary
piecescomposing DonThiDim's Truyn KyTnPha(Newcollectionofmarvelous tales).
SeeChanHing-ho andthequc-ngu
(1986:24-41), translation
byNgLpChiand(1914b:
167-81),Nguyn DongChi(1975t.iv:212-23).Thetemple ofLiu-Hanh
inThanh-ho was
popularly knownas "dnSong"theSongshrine (Dai NamNhtThngChitinhThanh-ho
1970t.ii:257).

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62 NGUYNTHANH

that through Liu-Hanh, P Nagar, afterhaving transformedherselfin the

Hu-th Lady, had reached a superior stage of Vietnamization, in order to
clear her way into the royal palaces and temples of North Vietnam. Ta Chi
Dai Trung supposes that the southern mother goddess, Thin-Y-A-Na,
henceforthhid herself under the image of Liu-Hanh's two attendants:
Ngoc-Huong ("perfume of pearl"), because she was also called the Lady
Princess Pearl (B Cha Ngoc) in the areas conquered fromthe Chams; and
Qu Huong ("perfume of cinnamon"), because cinnamon, a natural
product of Thanh-ho replaced eaglewood as her divine symbol (Ta Chi
Dai Trung 1989: 205-6). But, whatever the reason may have been, the
mother goddess acquired by means of Liu-Hanh's attributesthe strength
of a powerful religious phenomenon. In the eighteenth century,her cult
had already extended beyond its local bounds to reach the capital:
according to Pham Dinh H and Nguyn n, the authors of Tang Thuong
Ngu Luc (Random notes on the changes in this world), a Taoist immortal
was, so to speak, evicted by Liu-Hanh from his shrine in Thang-long
(Dam Nguyn 1962: 168-69). Anyway, we have all the grounds for
believing that the princess Liu-Hanh ranked as a firstclass tutelaryspirit
at the time of the revision of the codes of dress and of worship for the
state-supported local gods, revision ordered by the lord TrinhSm in 1767,
in an endeavor to mobilize the supernatural world to the succor of the
declining L dynasty (see L Qu Dn 1977: 62-63).

III

Even if it may be proven that the goddess Liu-Hanh personified the

profound transmutationundergone by Thin-Y-A-Na in order to outlast in
North Vietnam, her cult, characterized by obviously matriarchal traits,
could of course develop only because of the deep crisis that shook the
political structuresduring the eighteenthcentury,and together with them
the social convictions of Confucianism. In the Nguyn's southern
principality, however, the uprooted population, more or less liberated
fromConfucian ethic's constraints,appeared quite receptive to the beliefs
and religious rites of the formeroccupants of the country,impregnated as
they were with naturism and sexualism. Consequently, the worship of
certain Cham local spirits could have been adopted just as it was. Hence,
all the more, the perenniality of the cult rendered to the mother goddess
P Nagar, under the Vietnamized appellation of Thin-Y-A-Na of course,
but also under the name of "B Cha Ngoc" (the Lady Princess Pearl),

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 TIONOF THECHAMDEITYP NAGAR
THE VIETNAMIZA 63

which does not contain a single Cham phoneme. Incidentally,it should be

noted that the Do Ngang (the Transversal Pass) marks out the southern
limitof the extension of the shrines consecrated to Liu-Hanh, as shown in
the Nguyn's "Unified Geography" ( Dai Nam Nht Thng Cht): south of
Quang-bnh province indeed, only mentions of Thin-Y-A-Na can be
found. Moreover, concerning the province of Binh-thun, this
encyclopedic work contains a passage explicitly acknowledging Thin-Y-
A-Na's Cham origin:
The hamletofBnh-thuy is theplace ofworshipofthestatue
(Ho-da district)
of Thin-Y-A-Na Din B Cha Ngoc. Behindtheshrinethereare fiverocks...
Accordingto tradition,thosewere eaglewoodblockscomingthroughair from
nowhere:the aborigineshad been unable to take hold of themand timehad
transformed themintostone.Thereis also a slab of blue stonebearingthetwo
characters"thiny."Awedbyitssupernatural manifestations, had
theaborigines
erecteda temple.In thebeginningofGia-Long'sreign,an officialwas appointed
foritsupkeep(Dai NamNhtThngChTinhBinh-thun 1965:46).

In his study of the beliefs and religious practices of Hu area's

inhabitants, Lopold Cadire enumerates a considerable number of
shrines set up to worship Thin-Y-A-Na (Cadire 1918: 1950). This seems
to suggest that the Nguyn's center of power never ceased to steep in an
atmosphere deeply influenced by the deity's spiritual imprint. Under
these circumstances, it is reasonable to assume that Thin-Y-A-Na's
presence was bound to have an effectupon the Nguyn's conceptions of
the next world, as well as their manner of using them for their political
-
design. This may be evidenced by the Celestial Mother's pagoda ( Thin
mu), allegedly raised in 1601 on the spot where, the year before,a lady in a
red dress and a pair of blue trousers would have appeared to announce
the advent of a legitimate lord in the southern territories( Dai Nam Thuc
Luc Tin Bin 1962: ch. 1; see also Bonhomme 1915: 173-92). This pagoda
had nevertheless existed long before the lord Nguyn Hong took refuge
in the region of Thun-ho. It was already referredto in a work composed
in 1555, the "Modern Compilation of the District" ( Chu Cn Luc
1961). The 1601 pseudo foundation then reveals beyond all question the
purpose of the ancestor of the Nguyn to secede since that moment, by
placing himselfunder the aegis of a spirit not enfeoffedto the Thang-long
court. The Nguyn's Celestial Mother thereforecould be none other than
the Lady of the Southern Kingdom, Thin-Y-A-Na. The providential
natures of the latter's beneficent interventions, surely, were enough to
obliterateher ethnicorigin.
The establishment of the Nguyn's political power was thus not at all

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64 NGUYNTHANH

detrimental to the prestige of the great Cham deity. But the conditions
under which her old sanctuaries had become Vietnamese temples and
pagodas are still farfrombeing evident. Trn Van Ton, forinstance, while
investigatingThin-Y-A-Na's temple built on the "Mount of the Jade Cup"
( Ngoctran, or Hn Chn in the vernacular), in the village of Hai-ct (Tha-
thin province), at six kilometers southwest of Hu, has formulated
differentsuppositions about the historyof the cult of the goddess mother.
He wonders in particular whether the inhabitants of Hai-ct were not
"descendants of the Cham worshippers of P Nagar who, while being
Vietnamized, transformed the Cham deity into a tutelary spirit of the
Vietnamese type" (Trn Van Ton 1969: 24; 1966: 257-58). The fact remains
that this site constitutesone of the high worship places of Thin-Y-A-Na,
and it is certainlynot by accident that the lord Nguyn Phc Chu had the
captured Cham leaders imprisoned here in 1693, after having struck
Panduranga fromthe map ( Dai Nam thuclue tinbin1962: chap. 7).
At any rate, in the nineteenthcenturythe piety devoted by the Nguyen
dynasty to Thin-Y-A-Na was of a special kind. To be sure, the constant
effortto maintain universal harmony induced the sovereigns to guarantee
worships according to carefully recorded rituals to all the powers of
nature, whatever they might be. They were however very keen on
acquitting their debts of gratitude to the goddess with exceptional
rewards. As soon as he acceded to the throne, the emperor Gia-Long
conferred to the divinity, henceforth designated under the official
appellation of "Thin Y A Na Din Phi Cha Ngoc," the titleof Hong nhn
ph t link ng thuongdang thn (Spirit of the supreme rank, immensely
merciful, whose assistance may be felt anywhere, who mysteriously
answers prayers). On the other hand, he granted her, in perpetuity,three
guardians for her temple in Nha-trang ( Dai Nam nht thngchi q. xi: Tinh
Khnh-ho1965: 93). The officialtextsalso say that,because of the celebrity
and of the power of the deity,the emperor Minh-Mang had her sanctuary
on the Ngoc-tran hill enlarged in 1832 (ibid.;Tha thienphu 1961: 81).
This special imperial favor perhaps explains the rather amazingly
tolerant attitude toward a popular religious trend that was then
developing, centering on shamanistic practices of spirit possession and
combining the two/ieities Thin-Y-A-Na and Liu-Hanh in a same cult of
the Saint Mothers. Measures in the line of the government's policy of

7 See Durand(1959).Thiscultassociates
Thin-Y-A-Na
andLiu-Hanh,
referred
to as the
CelestialMotherGoddess("ThnhMu ThuongThin"),witha MotheroftheHigher
Regionsor Forests
('ThnhMu ThuongNgn,"anda Mother ofWaters
('ThnhMu
Thoai").

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 TIONOF THECHAMDEITYP NAGAR
THE VIETNAMIZA 65

restorationof Confucian orthodoxy had been taken, notwithstanding.But

they did not in any manner prevent the new popular religion of the Saint
Mothers from staying very alive, until it was at last officiallyrecognized
by the king Dng-Khnh in 1886. Because of his pietism, the latterbecame
a ferventbeliever of this cult, to the great displeasure of his entourage of
mandarins. For the purpose of thanking Thin-Y-A-Na forhaving fulfilled
his wish of ascending the throne, Dng-Khnh immediately decreed a
change of the name of the temple of Ngoc-tran into that of "Hu Nam
Din" (temple of the benefactions granted to the Southern State), and to
bestow on the divinitythese titles:Hong-hu,Ph-t,Linh-ng,Diu-thng,
Mac-tung,Trang-huy, Ngoc-tran,Thin-Y-A-Na,Din-ngoc-phi,thuongdang
thn (Great benefactress, immensely merciful, answering to everybody,
intelligentand miraculous, silent assistant, solemn and good, of the Jade
Cup, Thin-Y-A-Na, Lady of Din mountain and of Pearl, spirit of the
supreme rank) (Nguyn Dinh Ho 1915: 361-65). There is, all the same,
something pathetic in this invocational dedication made to the tutelary
deity by a monarch enthronedby the French,in the twilightof his dynasty.

IV

The cult of Thin-Y-A-Na seems to represent a specific case of the

rehabilitationof a foreign deity by the differentVietnamese dynasties for
the purpose of legitimating their power. Through the progressive
assimilation of the legend of P Nagar into a mythology arranged in a
direction favorable to the development of monarchical authority, the
mental conditions of ancient Vietnam's political life could thus be in some
way apprehended. Diverse influences could have come into play in this
process. They did not, however, succeed in effacingthe Cham substratum
of the myth, which had remained surprisingly durable. This leads us to
surmise that, between Vietnamese and Chams, cultural interactions had
been in the past much deeper than has ever been thought.

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