Dong Son

In 1924 a considerable number of graves packed with burial gifts were discovered in the Vietnamse village Dong Son in the Tonkin plains, not far from the city Thanh Hoa. In the next decennia, similar diggings across North and Central Vietnam lead to similar finds. Particularly striking was the level of bronze-casting of this prehistoric culture, that was called after the place of the first excavation.

The Dong Son culture spread from its centre along the middle reaches of the Red River to the Quang region, southwards past Cloud Col and northwards past the Dongtin lake, reaching Yunnan, Guangdon and Guanxi in China. Near the end of the Dong Son culture, Chinese influences grew, until the Han-dynasty took over the Tonkin plain in 111 BC, turning the region politically and culturally into a Chinese satellite.

We know the Dong Son people were excellent sailors and experienced rice farmers who used a tide-based irrigation system. They lived in large communities of pile dwellings, built on relatively high places in the river valleys. They lacquered their teeth black and tattooed their bodies. Their art features images of rituals, with figures lifting their hands in prayer and in early times performing human sacrifices. However, a great deal about their culture and daily lives remain hidden in the mists of time.

     The Dong Son drum

The use of bronze in the region of what is today Northern Vietnam, probably goes back to the 15th or 14th century BC, when archaic communities slowly developed into hierarchic societies. The Dong Son bronzes are mostly weapons, jewellery, utensils and ritual objects.

A special place is taken by the completely bronze drum, an instrument restricted to Southeast Asia, and still in use in recent times. Scientists have studied the drums intensely, but have not yet reached an agreement on their date or precise function. They possibly go back to the 8th or 7th century BC and they definitely occupied an important place in the religious life of the Dong Son people.

Until recently, similar drums were used as rain drums for fertility rituals in several areas of Southeast Asia. The Wa, a minority in the Chinese province Yunnan and Northeast Burma, still use wooden drums today to implore the gods for rain. Chinese sources say the bronze drums were used since time immemorial by southern peoples as ceremonial instruments, and that they were therefore also symbols of wealth and power.

Maybe the bronze drum was developed out of the rice mortar: stampers music is mentioned by the early Chinese authors as an important part of the southern peoples social life. The resemblance of the Dong Son depiction of the drum-like recipients that were used as mortar and the contemporary rice mortar in the Vietnamese highlands, is in any case remarkable.

The drums were often used as burial gifts. High-ranked and wealthy people received a big drum, others a smaller one. At the end of the Dong Son culture (1st century BC - 1st century AD) also miniature drums were made, probably to serve as burial gifts, possibly also used as bells.

Over the years the Historical Museum of Vietnam repeatedly tried to reproduce a typical Dong Son drum, the famous Ngoc Lu drum, but without satisfying results. This fact bears witness to the skill of the ancient casters. Investigation of pouring holes, spurs, soldering joints and traces of filing and paring, augmented by actual experiments and ethnological comparisons, have given us a fair idea of the casting process, but we still do not know how they acquired the artistic mastery of free-hand drawing on clay mould decorations, which were later cast in perfect harmony of positive and negative lines. Allthough the casting technique is known, present-day technicians have as yet failed to reproduce the Ngoc Lu drum, or any Dong Son drum for that matter.

     Decoration of Dong Son objects

Dong Son drums and other bronze objects are generally decorated with geometric patterns and figurative images. The abstract patterns are usually crosses, waves, cable-, comb- and tooth-motifs. In the last phase of the Dong Son culture and the following centuries, also Chinese motifs were in vogue, like the lucky-charm ruyi-motif or the stylised character shou (long life).

The principal figurative motif is the parade of vessels, mainly on the side of the early drums. Even though this image clearly occupied a central role in the ritual life of these people, its meaning is not clear. On these and other scenes we also notice groups of feather-bearers, or bird people: apparently warriors with high feather-hats. Also animals were depicted, mainly water animals: long-beaked waterfowl, fish, crocodile-dragons and tortoises, but also deer and others. On the whole there was a clear tendency to stylise these figurative elements, so that in the latest drums they are still hardly recognisable.

The decoration of the drumheads is built up round a central star, probably the sun, around which are concentric circles, filled in with various motifs and images.

Bibliography
Girard-Geslan, Maud (ed.), Art of Southeast Asia, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1998, p. 23-27.
May, Jochem and Graf von der Schulenburg, Stephan, Die Nachbarn im Sden, Frhe Keramik und Bronze aus Vietnam, Museum fr Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, 1998, p.16-22, 94-102.

Pham Huy Thong, Dong Son Drums in Viet Nam, The Viet Nam Social Publishing House, Japan, 1990, p. 262-271.
Rawson, Philip, The Art of Southeast Asia, Thames and Hudson, London, 1967, p. 9-16.