Myanmar (Burma)
Karen People

Bronze
19th century
Height: 16.5 in, Diameter: 16.5 in
Idiophones – Struck Idiophones – Gong

The Dong Son drum (also called Heger Type I drum) is a bronze drum created by the Dong Son culture in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam.  These drums were produced from about 600 B.C.E. until 300 C.E.  Although originally found in what is now northern Vietnam, the dongson rain drums have since been produced and found in other countries in Southeast Asia and as far away as Indonesia. These bronze drums are often called “frog” or “kha” drums. The booming of the drum, whether set on the ground or suspended by its handles is likened to the roar of distant thunder or the bellow of a bullfrog.  

This Karen people frog/rain (pam klo’) drum is decorated with frogs stacked atop each other, symbolic of water and rain, on the perimeter of the top (tympanum). Other decorations include concentric rings on the tympanum where a star pattern is found at the center. This geometric motif is interpretable as a fertility symbol. More specifically, the bands incorporating short parallel lines are said to represent rice stalks; the double strands of interlaced undulating lines formed into ovals are rice grains; the concentric circle motifs are snails; the lozenges are paddy fields; and the central star is the life-giving sun. Protruding on opposite sides of the cylinder are two elephants and two snails.  These motifs have been used to establish a relative chronology of the development of Karen drums over approximately one thousand years.  This bronze Burmese Karen frog/rain drum (pam klo’) is classified as Heger Type III.

As the rain drum made its way throughout Southeast Asia and China, it took on meanings unique to the assimilating culture. In Burma the drums are known as frog drums (pha-si), after the images of frogs that invariably appear at four equidistant points around the circumference of the tympanum.  The Karen tribal people, who live in the low mountains along the Burma – Thailand border are animistic. They believe that the sounds produced by the drums pleased the ‘nats,’ spirits, who lived in the trees and around nature.  They also used the drums in ceremonies to summon ancestors.  Thus, ownership of a frog (rain) drum brought much status and prestige.