Художественное оформление "Кала" в Чампе (Решения по привлечению посетителей к объектам древнего искусства Вьетнама)

1. Introduction

In the context of development, integration and globalization, the issue of traditions is always raised in the trend of cultural contacts and exchanges. The question raised in cultural and artistic activities is how to inherit and promote the quintessence to both maintain cultural identities and promote and pass completely all on to the next generations. The values of Vietnam’s Ancient Fine Arts have helped readers get more multi-dimensional perspectives on an ancient art culture of the Cham people in Vietnam, as well as knowledge of antique decorative patterns, introducing the cultural beauties to the world. This is urgent for orientation in the general context of current development “culture is the spiritual foundation, both the goal, as well as the driving force of development”.

The Cham people are a part of the Vietnamese ethnic community, having been the owners of a flourishing culture with unique characteristics. In which, the art of architecture and sculpture with significant Champa features contributes to the diversity of arts of Vietnam. Champa faith bears considerable imprint of the religions adopted from India, especially Hinduism (mainly the form of Shiva). Throughout the 

history of the Champa people, these religious ideologies have dominated and strongly influenced all aspects of life, both materialistically and spiritually. Indian religions bear many similarities with the beliefs of the Champa people, so “they voluntarily assimilated quickly with that religious culture”. In the spiritual life, religion plays an important role, worshipping many gods to protect the kingdom and the nation. The gods are created as artistic symbols expressing strong creativity, attributing to the special attraction of Champa culture.

During the field trip to find materials for the subject, the writer came to survey the Tra Kieu area - Quang Nam Province, which was the capital of Simhapura during the reign of King Bhadravarman around the fourth century with now only the rampart buried in the stone cliffs remain, and was led to a collection of antiquities by the late Father Anton Nguyen Truong Thang. The late priest also kept a number of antefixes with the decorative patterns of Champa art style in Tra Kieu and My Son areas, most of which was the face of the Kala jester. That also lays the premise for the author to carry out this article, to study the decorative image of Kala, one of the ancient fine arts of Champa decorative art in Vietnam, thereby proposing some solutions to create the viewer's attraction with traditional ethnic patterns of Vietnamese ancient art in the new era.