How it began
The drums were made by people of the Dong Son tradition, a Bronze Age culture that thrived mainly in the Red River valley of what is now northern Vietnam. Smarthistory dates the drums to between 500 BCE and 100 CE. The culture is known from archaeological finds, and no individual makers are named. Its people were skilled at bronze casting and also made metal tools, jewelry and weapons, along with ceramic vessels and glass beads.
How it works
A Dong Son drum is cast in bronze, using either the piece-mold or the lost-wax technique. In lost-wax casting, molten bronze is poured into a clay mold in place of a wax model, and the clay is broken away once the metal has cooled. Wikipedia describes the drums as up to a meter in height and up to 100 kilograms in weight. The flat top, or tympanum, usually carries a sunburst at its center, ringed by geometric bands and scenes of people, including drummers, so the drums picture their own use.
How it spread
Dong Son drums have been found throughout Southeast Asia, including Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia. Smarthistory reads this distribution as evidence of far-ranging early trade networks and contact among the societies of the region.
What changed first
The drums were used mainly in elite burials and in rituals, which indicates their standing in the communities that made and received them. Their decoration records ceremonial activity and scenes of daily and agricultural life, and scholars treat the drums as historical documents for a period with no local written record.
Where it stands today
The best known and best preserved example is the Ngoc Lu drum, dated to the 3rd to 2nd century BCE. It was discovered in 1893 in Ha Nam Province, southeast of Hanoi, and is kept at the Vietnam National Museum of History in Hanoi. Other drums are held in museums such as the Musee Guimet in Paris. Scholars often rely on old photographs and line drawings to study the fine designs.
