The Utsuls are thought to be descendants of Cham refugees who fled their homeland of Champa in what is now modern Central Vietnam to escape the Vietnamese invasion.[2] After the Vietnamese completed the conquest of Cham in 1471, sacking Vijaya, the last capital of the Cham kingdom, a Cham prince and about 1,000 followers moved to Hainan, where the Ming dynasty allowed them to stay.[3] Several Chinese accounts record Cham arriving on Hainan even earlier, from 986, shortly after the Vietnamese captured the earlier Cham capital of Indrapura in 982, while other Cham refugees settled in Guangzhou.[4][5]
While most of the Chams who fled Champa to Cambodia, a small business class fled northwards. How they came to acquire the name Utsul is unknown.[citation needed]
Their population was greatly reduced during World War II by the Japanese that more than 4,000 Chams were killed in Sanya as Chinese armies were hiding among them from the invading Japanese.[6] Hundreds of Utsul Muslim houses and mosques in Sanya were destroyed by the Japanese in order to build an airport.[7]