What does CHAMS stand for? 

Chams

The Chams, or Cham people (Cham: Urang Campa, Vietnamese: người Chăm or người Chàm, Khmer: ជនជាតិចាម), are an ethnic group of Austronesian origin in Southeast Asia. Their contemporary population, a diaspora, is concentrated between the Kampong Cham Province in Cambodia and Phan Rang–Tháp Chàm, Phan Thiết, Ho Chi Minh City and An Giang Province in Southern Vietnam. An additional 4,000 Chams live in Bangkok, Thailand, who had migrated during Rama I's reign. Recent immigrants are mainly students and workers, who preferably seek work and education in the southern Islamic Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala, and Songkhla provinces. A large Cham diaspora also established in Malaysia following the turbulence during the Pol Pot regime, where they were quickly assimilated with the local Malay population. Cham people represent the core of the Muslim communities in both Cambodia and Vietnam.From the 2nd to the mid-15th century the Chams populated Champa, a contiguous territory of independent principalities in central and southern Vietnam. They spoke the Cham language, a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family. Chams and Malays are the only sizable Austronesian peoples that had settled in Iron Age Mainland Southeast Asia among the more ancient Austroasiatic inhabitants.

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