The True Voice of Degar People
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More than two thousand years ago, our people were in possession of most of south Indochina. These lands stretched from what is now the 17th parallel in the north of Vietnam to the tip of Ca Mau in the south; and from the eastern coast to the mountains with their fertile valleys. In 192 AD, the ethnic Vietnamese occupied the Red River Delta along the coast while the Cham people were found in Hoanh Son spur. At this time, the Vietnamese were under the domination of the Chinese. When the Vietnamese gained their independence from the Chinese in 939 AD, their southern border would extend to the Hoanh Son mountain spur with Champa in the south.
As time passed, the Chams migrated south and established their kingdom in 875 AD at Indrapura in what is now Danang province. By the year 1069, however, the Vietnamese conquered and took these lands extending to the coastal plain north (which is the present city of Hue) from the Cham peoples. In 1306 Vietnamese control was extended to the Deo Hai Van region just above Danang. Following their crushing defeat of the Chams in 1471, the Vietnamese swept southward to the coastal plain just south of Qui Nhon.
Between 1611 and 1697, the remaining Chams were pushed to Bien Hoa and into Cambodia. Ever since, the Vietnamese descendants of Annam have illegally occupied our coastal regions. We – the Degar peoples who were living in the coastal plain — were forced to join those who had been living in the mountainous areas. During this period however, they never ventured into our mountain retreat (the Central Highlands) until after the French had colonized our territories. ......
The Degar population once numbered over 3 million during French colonialism. Today our race has dwindled to only a few hundred thousand survivors....
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