Field surveys with local Cham population helped to collect genealogical books going back to nearly 20 generations; those documents offer a real historical depth to our research, which was mainly thought as an archaeological at first.
Our investigation began somewhat by chance, when, visiting the « family Chê » temple, we discovered a Cham 14th century unpublished inscription. The chief of the Cham community explained that all Chê family descendants were staying in four villages around Huế city and that each branch of the clan has its own family books. I was looking forward to seeing them all in order to determine their importance.
Those genealogical books span nearly 20 generations. In four villages around Huế city, we were able to take pictures of booklets ranging from 12 to 126 pages, i.e. a total of nearly 750 pages, written either in Chinese ideograms, the Hán-Nôm, or in the Latin alphabet, the quốc ngữ.
Below is the inventory:
In Van Thê: two books of respectively 126 and 33 pages in Hán-Nôm, one 77-page book in quốc ngữ.
In An Đô: six books in Hán-Nôm respectively of 98, 24, 17, 28, 86, and 49 pages, and 5 more sheets.
In An Mỹ: two books in Hán-Nôm of 31 and 35 pages, a 12-page booklet that apparently transliterates one of those books.
In La Van: three rolls signed by Emperor Minh Mang, 6 sheets of ritual in Han-Nôm, three genealogical notebooks written in quốc ngữ respectively of 23, 50 and 44 pages, and 6 sheets in Hán-Nôm.
Until now, the first two books from Van Thê village have been translated by Mrs Nguyen Thi Duong from the Hán-Nôm Institut in Hanoi and Anne-Valérie Schweyer. This has made it possible to set up both a methodology, and a glossary, which has laid the ground for the publication of the rest of the genealogical books.
Those family documents are quite unique. They are related to a Cham ethnic minority surviving around Huế city. The inhabitants of the four villages know one another: they are nearly 200 Cham descendants in An Đô, 50 in La Vân, 10 in An Mỹ, and more than 300 in Van Thê, which forms a community of less than 600 persons. They are all united by their common origin. Once a year, the families of the four villages meet and clean the family graves together: this yearly family ceremony takes place in each village successively, and thus, each village hosts it every other four years.
The Cham descendants have kept these family books safe (even if they are in a bad state); the Chams thoroughly fill them in, as soon as they start their family. They also proudly show the 16 royal ancestors, members of this clan.
But those documents are in great danger, and undoubtedly are entitled to benefit from cultural heritage protection. They present a real historical interest, because they may date back to the 16th century, i.e. the time when Lords Nguyễns settled in the region. They make a counterpart to the Viêt family books, and could help to better understand the local history from the 16th to the 20th century.