Lady Po Nagar

Lady Po Nagar/Yan Po Nagar (杨婆那加), 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.

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.