Bronze drum

Bronze drums are ancient artifacts found in various cultures in Southeast Asia and southern China. The drums were cast in bronze using the lost-wax casting method. The drums were both musical instruments and cult objects. They are decorated with geometric patterns, scenes of daily life and war, animals and birds, and boats.^[1]

Ngọc Lũ bronze drum's surface, 2-3rd century BC, Vietnam

History

 

A Đông Sơn drum in Guimet Museum, Paris

The earliest written records describing the drum appeared in the Shi Ben, a Chinese book dated from the 3rd century BC. The Hou Hanshu, a late Han dynasty book dated to the 5th century AD, describes how the Han dynasty general Ma Yuan collected bronze drums from northern Vietnam to melt down and recast into bronze horses.^[2]

Bronze drums are venerated in Vietnamese folk religion.^[3] Thần Đồng Cổ (bronze drum god) along with excavated bronze drums were worshipped in several temples such as the Đồng Cổ Temple in Thanh Hóa and the Cao Sơn Temple in Hanoi.^[4] The 14th century book Việt Điện U Linh Tập mentioned the Bronze drum cult as early as in 1020.^[5]

In 1902, a collection of 165 large bronze drums was published by Austrian archaeologist Franz Heger, who subdivided them into a classification of four types.^[6] Chinese archaeologists classify them into the heavier Yue drums, including the Đông Sơn drums, and the Dian drums, which has eight subtypes.

In China, during the Great Leap Forward campaign from 1958 to 1960, people were mobilized to collect all metal materials, including ancient bronze wares, were melted down to producing steel in backyard furnaces. Many ancient bronze drums were destroyed as the result.^[7]

Types

Đông Sơn drum (Heger I)

Main article: Đông Sơn drum

 

Castings on the Ngọc Lũ drum's surface

Đông Sơn drums were produced from about 600 BC until the third century CE by the Đông Sơn culture centered in the Red River Delta. They were classified into five groups by the Vietnamese scholar Pham Huy Thong. One iconic pattern found on the top of all Đông Sơn drums is a "star" image, with various number of spikes radiating out from a center, its meaning is unknown at present. The majority of drums found have a 12-pointed star image, while Cổ Loa, Ngọc Lũ, Sông Đà, Thượng Lâm feature a 14-angled star. The Hoàng Hạ drum has a 16-pointed star and Bình Đà drum has a 6-pointed star. Đông Sơn drums are also found in the islands of Indonesia and were discovered as far as in Java and New Guinea and is seen as proof of trade connections between these regions.^[8]

Dian drum

 

A Dian bronze drum

Dian was a 3rd to 2nd century BC kingdom situated in Yunnan, southwestern China. The Dian people were sophisticated metal workers, they used both the piece mould method and the lost wax method to cast large bronze objects. Ritual burials of Dian elites were accompanied by large bronze drums filled with cowrie shells. The tops of the drums were removed and replaced by bronze lids and the bronze drums sometimes turn into a type of ritual vessel, containing votive objects. A large number of Heger I drums were excavated in Yunnan such as Shizhaishan (1975) and Shaguo (1983) are referred to as Shizhaishan type drums.^[9]

Wanjiaba drum

In 1976, Chinese archaeologists discovered a Type I drum in Wanjiaba (万家坝), Chuxiong prefecture, Yunnan. They usually feature simple or no decorations. By 1990, Chinese archaeologists had identified 29 Wanjiaba-type bronze drums, of which 26 were found in Yunnan, one in Vietnam, and two in Thailand. As a result, Chinese scholars began to discard Heger's classification to support the view that southern China, not Vietnam had yielded the earliest bronze drums, and that Wanjiaba was the birthplace of the bronze drum.^[10] This claim has fueled objections from Vietnamese archaeologists who classify Wanjiaba drums, also found in Vietnam, to belong in the late Heger I period.

Heger II (Li-Lao drum)

Main article: Li Lao drum

 

A Hegel II bronze drum found in Pingnan, Guangxi, China

Li-Lao drums, named after the Li people from Hainan, are classified by Franz Heger as type II to distinguish with the Dian-Dong Son drums (Heger I). Li-Lao drums were found in Guangdong, Guangxi, the Red River Delta and the Muong hills.^[11] The Li-Lao drums are known for their large diameters and sizes and frogs figures. However, decorations on Li-Lao drums are much lesser and impressive than their predecessor. The drums are still being used by some Muong communities.

Heger III (Karen drums)

Karen drums a decorated with 12-pointed stars and two pairs of frogs on the tympanum surface. They are found in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Yunnan. They are still being used by the Karenni people as rain drums.

Heger IV

 

Tân Độ drum, a Heger III type drum, found in Hà Tây, Vietnam

Heger IV drums are found in China and Vietnam, they are sometimes decorated by Earthly Branches animals and other Chinese elements.

Pejeng drum

Main article: Pejeng drum

Pejeng drums are Bronze Age kettledrums being made across the archipelago of Indonesia between the 1st and 2nd century AD. Examples include Moko drums in the island of Alor. Some scholars identify the design and decorations have their likely origin in the Đông Sơn culture of Vietnam. In Bali, the Moon of Pejeng is the largest drum of this type.

Symbols

In Vietnamese culture, Dong Son drum is an important national symbol of the Hùng Kings founding myth. The drum and images of the its decorations, such as the Lạc bird, can be found in various modern settings such as logos, decor patterns and merchandises. It is used as a ritual object in the Hung kings veneration festivals.

The Hy Cuong drum, found in 1990 in Co Tich Village, near the Hùng Temple in Phu Tho province is the largest bronze drum ever found in Vietnam with 93 centimetres in diameter. The drum is said to date back to between 3 BC and 1 AD, is viewed as a national treasure and is in exhibition at the Hung Temple, which is dedicated to the Hung Kings.^[12]

Bronze drum is a cultural symbol of the Zhuang in southern China. The Zhuang folk tale, The origin of the bronze drum tells bronze drums that are like "stars" to ward off evil spirits.^[13] A giant bronze drum, six metres in diameter is a landmark in Huanjiang town, Guangxi. It was recognized as the largest bronze drum by Guinness World Records.^[14] Bronze drum dance tradition is maintained by ethnic Yi and Zhuang in some villages in Wenshan,^[15]

The bronze drum is also an important cultural heritage of the Karenni people, to them the drums are known as frog drums (Hpà-si), after the images of frogs that appear around the tympanum. Frog drums are played by the Karenni to bring rain and in other rituals.^[16]

Bronze drums are still being used ceremoniously in Southeast Asia by various ethnic groups, such as the Lolo people, Zhuang people, Karenni people, Khmu people, Miao people, Muong people and Qabiao people. They are generally struck in the center with a soft mallet, and on the side with a wooden or bamboo stick. In Thailand, bronze drums are also used in some ceremonies in temples, where it's called the Mahorathuek (มโหระทึก).

Gallery

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  Decorative container depicting bronze drums. Dian Kingdom, Yunnan

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  Long Doi Son drum, a Heger IV drum in exhibition at the National Museum of Vietnamese History, Hanoi

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  Miniature bronze drum, Hanoi Museum

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  Wanjiaba drum, Yunnan Provincial Museum

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  The separately-cast tympanum of a Pejeng-type drum found in Sumba

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  The flag of the Karenni people features the surface of a bronze drum

See also

• Đông Sơn culture
• Space of gong culture

References

1. Heidhues, Mary Somers (2000). Southeast Asia: A Concise History. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 19–20.
2. "Dong Son Drums - Symbols of a Maritime Bronze Age Society in Asia".
3. "Results of survey and excavations undertaken at Dong Co temple relic, Tu Liem district, Hanoi". Vietnam Museum of History.
4. "Tạ Đức, Cao Sơn, Bronze Drums, Nationalism and History – le Minh Khai's SEAsian History Blog (And More!)".
5. "Đền Đồng Cổ". Hanoi Tourism Department.
6. Higham, Charles (1996). The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia. Cambridge World Archaeology. ISBN 0-521-56505-7.
7. "Vanishing bronze drums raise concern". Shenzhen Daily. 1 November 2012.
8. Diamond, Jared (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel – The Fate of Human Societies. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. p. 307. ISBN 0-393-03891-2.
9. Interpreting Southeast Asia's Past: Monument, Image and Text. NUS Press. 2008. ISBN 978-9971-69-405-0.
10. Han, Xiaorong (2004). "Who Invented the Bronze Drum? Nationalism, Politics, and a Sino-Vietnamese Archaeological Debate of the 1970s and 1980s". Asian Perspectives. 43 (1): 7–33. doi:10.1353/asi.2004.0004. hdl:10125/17200. S2CID 55076970.
11. Han, Xiaorong (1998). "The Present Echoes of the Ancient Bronze Drum:Nationalism and Archaeology in Modern Vietnam and China". Explorations in Southeast Asian Studies. 2 (2).
12. "Hung Temple's Bronze Drum and Dong Son Bronze Drums – a sacred symbol of the Vietnamese people". 6 May 2019.
13. 广西民间故事(二) pages 129-133
14. . Archived from the original on June 29, 2018.
15. [southern Yunnan. https://www.chinaculturetour.com/yunnan/bronze-drum-dance.htm]
16. "Karen Drum 2 K".