Pejeng drum

Pejeng drum

A pejeng drum discovered in East Java, displayed in the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore.

Pejeng drum (also Pejeng-type drum) is a type of bronze drum found across the archipelago of Indonesia. The artifact was produced across the Indonesian archipelago between the 1st and 2nd century AD. They are one of Indonesia's finest example of metalworking. Examples of Bronze Age Pejeng drum, such as the Moon of Pejeng, was the largest bronze drum in the world, indicating the advance of metal casting technique and the active trade in the archipelago in the first millennium AD .

Archaeology

The separately-cast head (the tympanum) of a Pejeng-type drum found in Sumba.

The first record of the use of bronze and iron appears in the Indonesian archipelago was around 500 BC. Most of the earliest bronze objects were probably used for ceremonies e.g. highly-stylized axes and kettledrums. Some drums were shaped in a form known as the Dong Son, a type of bronze drum which originate from northern Vietnam and are spread along the Sunda Islands e.g. Sumatra, Java, Nusa Tenggara and even the Kai Islands near Papua. The spread of the Dong Son drum indicates trade among the kingdom in Southeast Asia. Other bronze drums represented local variation.

The Pejeng drums, named after the Bronze Age village of Pejeng in Bali, were the Indonesian-archipelago variation of the Dong Son drum. Pejeng drums differ from the earlier Dong Son drum in that they were made in two pieces (mantles and tympana) cast separately using the lost wax method. They were cast in Java and Bali in the first millennium AD. The Balinese variation are among the most impressive metal artifacts in the late prehistoric period of Indonesia. The Moon of Pejeng kept in the village of Pejeng, was the largest Pejeng drum in the world. Such enormous drum would have had great social value for the owners. Neither copper nor tin, the raw materials for bronze making, are available in Bali. The existence of huge bronze drums in Bali indicates an intensive inter-island trade between Bali and other parts of Indonesia during the first millennium AD. Trade was also more expansive in Bali, as pottery decorated with Indian-styled rouletted designs, were found at Sembiran and Pacung in the north part of Bali, indicating a trade as far as India within the archipelago in the 1st or 2nd centuries AD.

Pejeng drums may have been used as a king of regalia by chiefs who wanted to be considered as international elite. At Plawangan, a Pejeng drum was found in burials, together with other precious objects e.g. gold necklace and iron spearhead. In Bali, the Moon of Pejeng, the largest drum of this type, was simply kept in villages.

Appearance and construction

The pejeng drum.

Pejeng drum have a symmetrical appearance with three parts consisting of the barrel where the handle is placed (upper body), the head or the tympanum (top part), and the base (bottom part). The pejeng drum differs from the Heger 1 type, in that the tympanum protrudes about 25 centimetres (9.8 in) beyond the body, and was probably cast separately from it. In the middle part of the drum are evenly spaced handles.

Pejeng drums were made using lost-wax casting. The difference from the earlier Dong Son drum is that the body and tympana were cast separately. A wax model in the shape of a drum was made around a hollow clay core. Standardized geometric pattern of human or animal were impressed into the wax using incised stone moulds. The geometric patterns were pressed onto for the tympana and the upper sides.

Cited works

• Bellwood, Peter (2001). "Ceremonial Bronzes of the Pre-Classic Era". In Miksic, John (ed.). Ancient History. Indonesian Heritage. Archipelago Press. ISBN 9813018267. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• I Wayan Ardika (2001). "Late Prehistoric Bali". In Miksic, John (ed.). Ancient History. Indonesian Heritage. Archipelago Press. ISBN 9813018267. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)