Last year, a large metal drum was donated to the ethnographic collection of the National Museum of Finland. It is known as a “rain drum” or “frog drum”, which adds to its intrigue. Rain and frogs are obviously related, but how do they relate to the drum?

The drum was brought to Finland by Sakari Tuomioja, a politician, diplomat, UN official and Chair of the Economic Commission for Europe. His son Erkki Tuomioja recalls that it was given to his father at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s when he was a special representative of a commission investigating the financial situation of Laos. In Finland, the drum was used as a sidetable in the Tuomioja household.

It likely dates back to the turn of the 1800s and 1900s. However, its design is much older, as the origin of these drums goes back to the Bronze Age Dong Son culture in what is now northern Vietnam and southern China. The Dong Son culture prevailed during the first millennium BCE and continued into the first centuries CE. It is known for high-quality metal work.

The large bronze drums were made by casting, and the original Dong Son drums could weigh up to 100 kilos. Based on the excavation findings, their production is timed between 600 BCE and 100 CE. Since then, the drum type also spread to the rest of Southeast Asia, South China, Thailand, Laos and Malaysia, and probably through trade routes as far as Java and western Irian Jaya.

The pattern decorating the drum’s surface used both geometrical and descriptive motifs, such as people working, celebrating and playing drums, as well as boats, war motifs, and birds and other animals. The surface decoration of the drum donated to the collection includes simple circles, triangles, diamonds and plant motifs, as well as plenty of ring-like raised belts. At the centre of the metal drum film is a traditional 10-point star or sun pattern. On both sides of the drum are two lugs, below which are three small elephants descending along the side of the drum in a line and, on the edge of the drum film at regular intervals, are four small sculptures depicting three frogs standing on each other’s backs.

Frogs are associated with rain and lush earth

The frog motif indicates what the intended use of the drum is. Stan Florek from the Australian Museum writes on the topic:

Frogs indicate wholesome environment – a source of human wellbeing. Their actual and metaphorical role in our life and culture was cherished for millennia. It is believed that the frog drums in Southeast Asia were used to call rain to ensure a bountiful crop.

Elephants can also be considered to be related, maybe not directly to rain, but to water and thus to growing crops and general well-being.

Early drums have been found at burial sites and, in addition to burial and rain-making rituals, they may have been used in other ceremonies, such as weddings, and warfare, as the motifs of the early drums suggest. These valuable drums have also been status symbols and heirlooms. In the case of later drums, only a piece of the drum may have been buried with the owner, such as a lug or a frog sculpture.

Drums became collectibles and instruments of influence

The bronze drums also have newer meanings and contexts where they have been used. During the wars in the former Indochina region in the 1970s, many drums ended up on sale and in the hands of foreign collectors, and today they are sold for large sums of money in international online stores for antiques. The ethnographic collection of the National Museum of Finland also includes another rain drum, one bought by a collector from an antique shop in Bangkok, Thailand in the 1980s (VK6496:112). It is probably younger than the drum gifted to Sakari Tuomioja (VK6531), and possibly manufactured to be sold.

Dong Son drums are also linked to political relations in another way. Western researchers began excavating and researching drums in the late 1800s, and it was not until the 1950s and 1960s that research became largely the responsibility of Vietnamese and Chinese researchers. However, due to the deterioration of relations between China and Vietnam, the latter of which became united in the late 1970s, the bronze drum was the subject of a heated debate on issues such as its geographical and ethnic occurrence and origin. It was not until the relations between the two countries improved that archaeologists continued their joint discussion on the topic at the 1988 International Symposium on the Bronze Culture of South China and Southeast Asia.

Bronze drums are still a highly prized symbol of culture and history in Southeast Asia, and the drum that Tuomioja received as a gift is a good example of the use of valuable cultural objects as a token of diplomatic courtesy. Many have also seen items received as gifts by President Urho Kekkonen from different countries at his home museum in Tamminiemi, Helsinki.

Text: Pilvi Vainonen
Photos: Ilari Järvinen, National Heritage Agency

Sources

Dong Son Drum. 1.3.2025 Dong Son drum - Wikipedia

Florek Stan, 2016. Our Global Neighbours: Frog Drum. Australian Museum. 28.2.2025 https://australian.museum/blog-archive/science/our-global-neighbours-frog-drum/

Frog Drums and Their Importance in Karen Culture. Arts of Asia September/October 1983.

Heger Frantz, 1902. Alte Metalltrommell aus Sudostasien.

Miniature Drum with Four Frogs. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1.3.2025 Miniature Drum with Four Frogs | Vietnam | Bronze and Iron Age period, Dongson culture | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Solheim Wilhelm, 1989. A Brief History of the Dongson Concept. Asian Perspectives. Vol. 28, No. 1 (1988 – 1989), pp. 23–30. University of Hawai'i Press. 1.3.2025 content

Xiaorong Han, 1998. The Present Echoes of the Ancient Bronze Drum: Nationalism and Archeology in Modern Vietnam and China. Explorations in Southeast Asian Studies. Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1998. A Journal of the Southeast Asian Studies Student Association, University of Hawai’i. 1.3.2025 The Present Echoes of the Ancient Bronze Drum: Nationalism and Archeology in Modern Vietnam and China