Over hundreds of years, Lam Yen drum village in Dai Minh Commune, Dai Loc District, Quang Nam province, has still kept the tradition of making drums, contributing to preserving the long-standing cultural beauty of the people of Quang Nam- Da Nang region.

Mr Nguyen Xuan An holding a newly completed drum.

Nearly 200-year-old drum-making village

In the course of the nation's history, the drum sound appeared quite early, always accompanying people's life and associated with cultural and religious events. Before the presence of loudspeakers, radios, and drum sounds was an echo to summon, encourage, urge and increase the morale of soldiers fighting against foreign invaders.

In daily life in villages and communes, the sound of drums is a tool for the announcement, promotion and alarm, associated with agricultural life, Tet holidays and the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Currently, the drum sound has been still regularly resounds in schools, on festive occasions. For the people of Quang Nam-Da Nang, that sound has a special place in people's minds. For hundreds of years, Lam Yen drum-making village has been known as the most famous place to make drums in the region.

In the last days of the year, the drum-making facility of Mr Nguyen Xuan An in Dai Loc District, Quang Nam province has been busy with the sound of planes and saws mixed with the sound of drum testing. From his early days of learning this professional at the age of 22, Mr An is now one of the most experienced drum makers in Lam Yen Village.

As shared by Mr An, nearly 200 years ago, the ancestor Phan Cong Tien and his family migrated from Hai Duong to the Central region and chose Dai Loc as a place to reside. Bringing his knowledge of making drums from his homeland, he embarked on building a business and passing it on to his descendants.

Having passed on the profession for 8 generations, descendants of the Phan family have still maintained, continued to keep their jobs, and spread the sound of Lam Yen drums to many regions across the country.

According to Mr An, those having long-term experience in making drums in Lam Yen have mastered how to make all kinds of drums. In fact, each type of drum will have a different size but the process is the same for each stage.

The drum body is usually made from jackfruit wood, and the drum surface is made of buffalo leather. After drying, buffalo skin will be shaved in a moderate proportion to seal the two sides of the drum and fix the tension with long ropes around the body. Then bamboo nails will be nailed around the point of contact between the buffalo skin and the drum body.

Currently, Mr. Phan Van Hiep is recognized as the person who made the largest drum ever in Lam Yen Village with a diameter of 2.3 meters and a height of 6 meters. Photo: Ngoc Quoc

Difficulties in keeping the traditional profession

After nearly two centuries of existence, Lam Yen drum-making Village has experienced many ups and downs. Mr Phan Van Hai, a resident of the village, Dai Loc district, is now 73 years old but still attached to the traditional drum-making profession of the Phan family. Mr Hai remembers almost 50 years ago, during the war against America, the people of the village had to be displaced everywhere due to enemy bombs and bullets scattered throughout the village.

In those difficult years, Mr Hai still did the job of making drums to make a living, and when the country was unified, Mr Hai and his family returned to their homeland. However, at this stage, people still had many so there was less demand for buying drums. From 1995 onwards, people's life has been better, and the drumming profession gradually stabilized again. Since then, Lam Yen drums made from jackfruit wood have been sold to many regions, contributing to spreading the unique cultural value of the traditional craft village.

In the past, when there was no support for machines, it was difficult and time-consuming to make drums. However, with the support of current modern equipment, workers can easily make tall and wide drums from monolithic wood. Mr Phan Van Hiep, Chairman of Lam Yen Drum Village Cooperative was recognized as the one who made the biggest drum ever with a diameter of 2.3 meters and a height of 6 meters from monolithic wood. Thanks to the support of machines, Mr Hiep boldly bought large-diameter wooden blocks and hollowed them out to form a monolithic drum body to keep its durability for a long time.

According to Mr Hiep, Lam Yen drums are not only famous in the Central region but also in many provinces and cities across the country. However, at present, Lam Yen's drum-making profession has faced lots of challenges. There was a time when Lam Yen village had about 20 households making drums, but now only 8 households still maintain the profession. For the time being, the drum makers have been all experienced elders as young people are no longer interested in the profession. Moreover, many types of drums are similar but have a cheaper price than Lam Yen drums. If in the past, drummers could sell hundreds of drums a year, now they can only sell a few dozen because they can't compete on price.

On the development journey of Viet Nam, traditional and cultural values need to be restored and maintained to meet the entertainment and spiritual demands of the people. For the time being, there is the danger of disappearing and losing the Lam Yen drum profession when people cannot live with the profession.

Therefore, it is necessary to have effective measures to maintain the craft village for the next generations, to focus on supporting and finding output markets for drum-making establishments, to have solutions to encourage young people to learn and maintain the Lam Yen drum-making profession, contributing to retaining the long-standing traditional culture of the most famous drum-making village in Da Nang- Quang Nam regions.

Reporting by NGOC QUOC- Translating by T.VY