left|thumb|Drum from [[Sông Đà,
Vietnam. Dong Son II culture. Mid-1st millennium BCE. Bronze.]]
The
Đông Sơn culture was a prehistoric
Bronze Age culture that was centered at the
Red River Valley of
northern Vietnam. Its influence flourished to other parts of
Southeast Asia, including the
Indo-Malayan Archipelago from about 1000 BC to 1 BC.
The Dong Son people were skilled at cultivating rice, keeping buffaloes and pigs, fishing and sailing with long dug-out canoes. They also were skilled bronze casters, as can be seen in the famous
Dong Son drums, which have been found widely in
Southeast Asia and the lower reaches of southern China.
left|thumb|Bronze figurine, Dong Son culture, 500 BCE-300CE. Thailand.The Dong Son culture is linked to the
Tibeto-Burman culture, the
Dai culture in
Yunnan and
Laos, the
Mon-Khmer cultures and the culture associated with the
Plain of Jars in Laos. Similar artifacts have been found in
Cambodia along the
Mekong River dating back to the 4th millennium B.C. Dong Son influence is seen throughout South-East Asia, from the
moko drum of Alor, Indonesia (suspected of originating with Dong Son bronze drums) to the design of
keris knife.
To the south of the Dong Son culture was the proto-Cham
Sa Huynh culture.
Origins
The theory based on the assumption that bronze casting in eastern Asia originated in northern China; however, this idea has been discredited by archaeological discoveries in north-eastern Thailand in the 1970s. In the words of
Clark D. Neher, currently Distinguished Teaching Professor in Dept. of Political Science at
Northern Illinois University, "Bronze casting began in Southeast Asia and was later borrowed by the Chinese, not vice versa as the Chinese scholars have always claimed".
This interpretation is supported by the work of modern Vietnamese archaeologists. They have found that the earliest bronze drums of Dong Son are closely related in basic structural features and in decorative design to the pottery of the Phung Nguyen culture. It is still uncertain whether the bronze drums were made for religious ceremonies, to rally men for war, or for another secular activity. The various discerning images and arrow points engraved on the drums has raised speculation that the drums may have been used as a local seasonal calendar. Furthermore, the recurring images of a figure holding a scroll of paper and the finding of these dated papers at various sites may point to the Dong Son as the first peoples who began the paper making process.
However, as of now, these are only theories proposed by Vietnamese scholars.
The bronze drums were made in significant proportions in Vietnam and parts of Southern China and were then traded to the south and west to places such as
Java and the
Bali islands. Thus it became valued by people with very different cultures. The Dong Son bronze drums exhibit the advanced techniques and the great skill in the lost-wax casting of large objects, the
Co Loa drum would have required the smelting of between 1 and 7 tons of copper ore and the use of up to 10 large castings crucibles at one time. Most scholars agree the Dong Son drums display an artistic level reaching perfection that few cultures of the time could rival.
Expansion of the Dong Son culture
The discovery in the late
17th century of large, elaborately incised drums in mainland and island Southeast Asia first alerted Western scholars to the existence in the region of distinctive early bronze-working cultures. Ranging in height from a few inches to over six feet, up to four feet in diameter, and often of considerable weight, such drums are the most widely dispersed products of the Dong Son culture. Examples produced in Vietnam, in addition to works made locally, have been found in South China, throughout mainland Southeast Asia, and in Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Irian Jaya.
The function of these drums, often found in burials, remains unclear: they may have been used in warfare or as part of funerary or other ceremonial rites. Models of the drums, produced in bronze or clay, were made to be included in burials. This small bronze example has the rounded top, curved middle, and splayed base often found in drums from Vietnam. The central loop and the four small frogs on the tympanum are characteristic features of examples produced from the
3rd century BC to the
1st century A.D. The starburst pattern in the center of the tympanum, a standard motif on Dong Son drums, is surrounded by a row of linked concentric circles and crosshatching. These designs are repeated around the side of the top section and just above the base. On the center of the drum, four stylized scenes showing warriors. Many bronze drums of the Dong Son period have been reported in South and Southwest China,
Burma, Thailand, Laos and
Indonesia.
In Vietnam, approximately 140 drums were discovered in many locations throughout Vietnam from the high land region of the north to the plains of the south and as far as to the
Phu Quoc island, in the Gulf of Thailand.
See also
