Beat This Rong House Drum
By virtue of being at the right place at the right time, Above the Fray is privileged to have acquired a huge, museum-quality, window-rumbling, Jarai Rong House drum. Over each end of this drum stretches a taut, thick water buffalo hide – one side is from the hide of a male, the other a female. The hide was originally tacked on using only bamboo pegs, although a few nails were applied some years (generations?) back to hold one section of hide tightly to the frame. Under the hides and hidden from view – save a 2 inch wide strip in the middle from which the drum hung – is an ancient hollowed tree trunk giving the meter-wide drum its frame, and echo.
Josh wakes the neighbors on the Jarai Rong House drum.
The 200 lb. drum (carefully shipped home in a custom-made, 1.5 m3 padded wooden crate) is thought to be 150 or more years old. We were told it was obtained when two villages merged, and the extra drum was sold to help develop the newly expanded village. We continue to search for any knowledgeable articles and research on Rong Houses, and specifically Rong House drums.
A close-up of the center of the drum, where the decades of wear on the wood have brought out the grain, and the holes in the water buffalo hide, some pegged by bamboo “nails,” are visible.