Degar

Degar, also called Montagnard, is a collective name for the indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands of southern Indochina, among them the Jarai, Rade, Bahnar and Mnong. The Jarai and Rade speak Chamic tongues of the Austronesian family, kin to Champa, while others speak Austroasiatic languages.

Chinese annals of the fourth century record the king of Lâm Ấp subduing the tribes west of Champa, and for centuries the highlanders traded with lowland Cham kingdoms while keeping village societies based on swidden rice farming, matrilineal descent and buffalo sacrifice.

The Vietnamese conquest of Champa in 1471 brought settlers to the coast but not the mountains, and in 1802 the emperor Gia Long received the nominal submission of several highland chiefdoms, which kept their autonomy under tributary arrangements. Isolated by terrain, the Degar preserved customs and landholding patterns distinct from the Cham and Vietnamese.