Marriage Customs of the Champa People in Kampong Cham Province – Cambodia

Abstract

This research aims to study the provisions of marriage in Islamic Sharia, and to study the marriage customs of the people of Champa, in Kampong Cham Province, the Kingdom of Cambodia. It also aims to study the comparison between the provisions of marriage in Islamic Sharia and its application in the marriage customs of the people of Champa in Kampong Cham Province, the Kingdom of Cambodia. In this study, the researcher followed the inductive approach by collecting and extrapolating information about the topic. He also followed the descriptive analytical approach by studying the phenomena or problems, describing them, and analyzing them in a scientific manner. The research reached several results, the most important of which are: 1) The people of Champa hold their wedding parties for two days, announcing their wedding with songs morning and evening. They consider this a necessary matter, and they feel inferior and ashamed if they do not hold these parties, and the responsibility for holding them usually falls on the bride. 2) Champa women adorn themselves with blushing, bleaching, and the like at the wedding party by attaching the bride’s wigs, plucking eyebrows, installing and coloring artificial nails, and false eyelashes. They seat the newlyweds on a special seat for them, called the bride’s platform, for photography and display to those attending that party, and their friends bring gifts and other things. 3) A number of the bride's companions come to her house on the wedding night, prepare food and invite people to eat it while preparing the bride and groom's room. They stay all night until the morning. 4) One of their customs on the wedding night is that widows do not participate in the ceremony because they believe that the bride will be like them one day. 5) It is also among their customs on the wedding night that the bride’s relatives come and sit in front of the bride and groom’s room to hear the conversation that took place between them, for fear of not wanting each other.