Lady Po Nagar/Yan Po Nagar (杨婆那加),[1] was the founder of the Cham people according to legends. According to the myth of Pô Nagar, she was born from the clouds of the sky and the foam of the sea. Her physical form was manifest in a piece of eaglewood floating on the waves of the ocean. She is also said to have had ninety-seven husbands and thirty-nine daughters who became goddesses like their mother. Pô Nagar was the goddess who created the earth, eaglewood and rice. It is told that there was even the aroma of rice in the air around her. The Chams looked upon her as a goddess of plants and trees. She was considered nurturing like the earth and she granted blessings to her followers.[2][3][4]
Cham tradition says that the founder of the Cham state was Lady Po Nagar. She hailed from Khánh Hòa Province, in a peasant family in the mountains of Dai An. Spirits assisted her when she drifted on a piece of sandalwood to China, where she married a Chinese crown prince, the son of the Emperor of China, with whom she had two children. She then became Queen of Champa.[5]
- ^ "芽莊朝拜女神". orientaldaily.on.cc. Retrieved 5 Feb 2020.
- ^ "芽莊"吳哥窟"，供奉著越南的"媽祖"，距今已有千年歷史". www.klook.com. Retrieved 21 July 2022.[title missing]
- ^ "旅行中的兔子". www.gushiciku.cn. Retrieved 21 July 2022.[title missing]
- ^ "在越南，五天學會過馬路（下）—芽庄". packortravel.com. 12 May 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2022.[title missing]
- ^ Oscar Chapuis (1995). A History of Vietnam: From Hong Bang to Tu Duc. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 39. ISBN 0-313-29622-7.
According to Cham tradition, Lady Po Nagar was the builder of the Cham nation. She was born into a farmer family in the Dai An Mountains of Khanh Hoa Province. With the assistance of spirits, she hid in a piece of sandalwood which drifted across the sea toward China. There, she married a royal heir and bore two children. Later she went back to Champa, and there she founded the Cham nation, of which she was the first queen.