Burma Karen Rain Drum  

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Bronze Drums - An Animist Art Form

by
Dr. Richard M. Cooler ,
Professor Emeritus
Art History of Southeast Asia, Northern Illinois University
Original link @ http://www.seasite.niu.edu/burmese/cooler/Chapter_1/Chapter_1.htm

The use and manufacture of bronze drums is the oldest continuous art tradition in Southeast Asia. It began some time before the 6th century BC in northern Vietnam and later spread to other areas such as Burma, Thailand, Indonesia and China. The Karen adopted the use of bronze drums at some time prior to their 8th century migration from Yunnan into Burma where they settled and continue to live in the low mountains along the Burma - Thailand border. During a long period of adoption and transfer, the drum type was progressively altered from that found in northern Vietnam (Dong Son or Heger Type I) to produce a separate Karen type (Heger Type III). In 1904, Franz Heger developed a categorization for the four types of bronze drums found in Southeast Asia that is still in use today.

Heger’s four drum types

The Karen Drum Type or Heger Type III

The vibrating tympanum is made of bronze and is cast as a continuous piece with the cylinder. Distinguishing features of the Karen type include a less bulbous cylinder so that the cylinder profile is continuous rather than being divided into three distinct parts. Type III has a markedly protruding lip, unlike the earlier Dong Son drums. The decoration of the tympanum continues the tradition of the Dong Son drums in having a star shaped motif at its center with concentric circles of small, two-dimensional motifs extending to the outer perimeter.

Tympanum of a Karen Bronze Drum

Complete Tympanum of a Karen Drum

Detail of Tympanum of a Karen Drum

Detail of Tympanum of a Karen Drum

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.

Frog on Tympanum of a Karen Drum

A Karen innovation was the addition of three-dimensional figures to one side of the cylinder so that insects and animals, but never humans, are often represented descending the trunk of a stylized tree.

Stylized tree with snails and elephants

Detail of stylized tree with snails and elephants

Detail showing a complex arrangement of snails, elephants, trees squirrels and other animals.

The frogs on the tympanum vary from one to three and, when appearing in multiples, are stacked atop each other. The number of frogs in each stack on the tympanum usually corresponds to the number of figures on the cylinder such as elephants or snails. The numerous changes of motif in the two- and three-dimensional ornamentation of the drums have been used to establish a relative chronology for the development of the Karen drum type over approximately one thousand years.

The Karens speak several languages that linguists have had difficulty classifying. Karen groups often speak different languages, some of which are not mutually intelligible. Hence, the Karen peoples are an exception to the basic assumption that an ethnic group can be defined by the fact that all its members can converse in a single tongue. There are at least three major cultural and linguistic divisions among the Karen: the Karreni or the Red Karen, who cast the bronze drums, the Pwo Karen, and the Sgaw Karen, as well as a number of other splinter groups who have scattered into the mountains below the Shan Plateau.

Two Red Karen Women

A Sgaw Woman

Two Sgaw Karen couples

These hillside people practice swidden or slash-and-burn agriculture and speak a language that is very different than that of the lowland Burmese. The practice of slash-and-burn agriculture consists of burning the forests and then using the ashes from the burnt timber as fertilizer for the fields.

A swidden field ready for planting

Broadcasting rice in swidden field

The fertilizer lasts for only several years, never more than six, and at that time the Karen must pack and move everything to a new site where a different section of the forest is burned. A number of hillside groups practice slash-and-burn agriculture and periodically move through each other's hereditary territory to new lands. These people move back and forth across the Thai border with little regard for the national boundary. Slash-and-burn agriculture is perilous in that after the forest is burned, seeds must be planted and then rains must occur quickly and consistently until the plants are well established. If this does not happen, the plants will wither and die or insects and animals will eat the seeds. It is not unusual for the Karen to be forced to plant four times in order to reap a single harvest. For the Karen, the bronze drums perform a vital service in inducing the spirits to bring the rains. When there is a drought, the Karens take the drums into the fields where they are played to make the frogs croak because the Karens believe that if the frogs croak, it is sign that rain will surely fall. Therefore, the drums are also known as "Karen Rain Drums"

Bronze drums were used among the Karen as a device to assure prosperity by inducing the spirits to bring rain, by taking the spirit of the dead into the after-fife and by assembling groups including the ancestor spirits for funerals, marriages and house-entering ceremonies. The drums were used to entice the spirits of the ancestors to attend important occasions and during some rituals the drums were the loci or seat of the spirit.

It appears that the oldest use of the drums by the Karen was to accompany the protracted funeral rituals performed for important individuals. The drums were played during the various funeral events and then, among some groups, small bits of the drum were cut away and placed in the hand of the deceased to accompany the spirit into the afterlife. It appears that the drums were never used as containers for secondary burial because there is no instance where Type III drums have been unearthed or found with human remains inside. The drums are considered so potent and powerful that they would disrupt the daily activities of a household so when not in use, they were placed in the forest or in caves, away from human habitation. They were also kept in rice barns where when turned upside down they became containers for seed rice; a practice that was thought to improve the fertility of the rice. Also, since the drums are made of bronze, they helped to deter predations by scavengers such as rats or mice.

When played, the drums were strung up by a cord to a tree limb or a house beam so that the tympanum hung at approximately a forty-five degree angle.

Karen drum being played

The musician placed his big toe in the lower set of lugs to stabilize the drum while striking the tympanum with a padded mallet. Three different tones may be produced if the tympanum is struck at the center, edge, and midpoint. The cylinder was also struck but with long strips of stiff bamboo that produces a sound like a snare drum. The drums were not tuned to a single scale but had individualized sounds, hence they could be used effectively as a signal to summon a specific group to assemble. It is said that a good drum when struck could be heard for up to ten miles in the mountains. The drums were played continuously for long periods of time since the Karen believe that the tonal quality of a drum cannot be properly judged until it is played for several hours.

The drums were a form of currency that could be traded for slaves, goods or services and were often used in marriage exchanges. They were also a symbol of status, and no Karen could be considered wealthy without one. By the late nineteenth century, some important families owned as many as thirty. The failure to return a borrowed drum often led to internecine disputes among the Karen.

a. Animist Drums and Buddhism

Although the drums were cast primarily for use by groups of non-Buddhist hill people, they were used by the Buddhist kings of Burma and Thailand as musical instruments to be played at court and as appropriate gifts to Buddhist temples and monasteries. The first known record of the Karen drum in Burma is found in an inscription of the Mon king Manuha at Thaton, dated 1056 AD. The word for drum in this inscription occurs in a list of musical instruments played at court and is the compound pham klo: pham is Mon while klo is Karen. The ritual use of Karen drums in lowland royal courts and monasteries continued during the centuries that followed and is an important instance of inversion of the direction in which cultural influences usually flow from the lowlands to the hills.

b. Casting the drums

The town of Nwe Daung, 15 km south of Loikaw, capital of Kayah (formerly Karenni) State, is the only recorded casting site in Burma. Shan craftsmen made drums there for the Karens from approximately 1820 until the town burned in 1889. Karen drums were cast by the lost wax technique; a characteritic that sets them apart from the other bronze drum types that were made with moulds. A five metal formula was used to create the alloy consisting of copper, tin, zinc, silver and gold. Most of the material in the drums is tin and copper with only traces of silver and gold. The Karen made several attempts in the first quarter of the twentieth century to revive the casting of drums but none were successful.

Karen drums casting - 1923

During the late 19th century, non-Karen hill people, attracted to the area by the prospect of work with British teak loggers, bought large numbers of Karen drums and transported them to Thailand and Laos. Consequently, their owners frequently incorrectly identify their drums as being indigenous to these countries.

Burmese Tattoo Manual  

Posted by ေရွးျမန္မာ in



Object types - Tattooing manual / manuscript

Materials- Paper
Techniques - Drawn
Production place - Made in Burma
Date - 19thC


Description
One (of five) pages of a tattoo manuscript. The manuscript is a digest of tattoo designs for a potential client to choose from, and would have been used by the tattooer to advertise his range of work.

In the top half, this page has two frontally faced tigers, in drawn in black ink and coloured in red and yellow, respectively. Their torsoes are divided into grids of auspicious symbols. Around them are lines of text. In the lower half are a series of smaller prancing tigers, also with auspicious symbols marked around them. The botttom quadrant of the page is delineated in red ink and shows two more cursory animal figures and some text.

These five acquisitions (2005.6-23.01-05) constitute pages from the same illustrated manuscript, obtained from three different sources. The leaves, though now separated, were presumably ordered originally as a "parabaik". The pages have all now been glazed and taped at the edges.

The basic format is of rows of animals (mostly tigers but chicks and monkeys are also seen) along with text (in black ink though red is seen in two cases). In some instances the text is embedded in, or around, the animal. In one instance, the outline of the animal's body is made up only of auspicious letters and numbers. The tigers prowl across the page in rows, for the most part coloured in yellow and orange - or in a combination of the two. In one section of the manuscript the body of the tiger is dissected into individual circles filled with auspicious numbers -one circle for each of the four legs, one for the head and one for the tail. Magic squares are evident throughout, and at one point (.05) there are two rows of animals standing above concentric circles, presumably the planets (the peacock [sun] and rabbit [moon] are clear).

Inscriptions
Inscription Type: inscription
Inscription Script: Burmese
Inscription Language: Burmese
Inscription Comment: page/s of illustrated manuscript
Current Location - British Museum, London

Dimensions
Length: 43 centimetres (glazed)
Width: 29 centimetres (glazed)


Condition
Each page is very worm-eaten, though for the most part not destructive of the overall design and legibility of the manuscript.

Curator's comments
Tattooing is a ritual component prevalent throughout South East Asia, including Burma and Cambodia. For a full discussion of the art of ritual tattooing in Cambodia see, Bernon, "Yantra et Mantra", Phnom-Penh, 1998. Olivier de Bernon's well-designed book on the subject reveals how many similarities there are between the arts in Cambodia and Burma and how both systems of magic stem ultimately from India via Thailand.

In her magesterial survey of Burmese culture, "Burmese Crafts, Past and Present", Sylvia Fraser-Lu writes, " Virtually every young man, from a prince of the realm to a village farm boy, delighted in being adorned from the waist to the knee with artistic blueish-black effigies of powerful agile creatures, such as cats, tigers, monkeys and ogres surrounded by a flowering tracery of protective letters from the Burmese alaphabet...The primary function of tattooing was talismanic. It added to male charismsa by offering the bearer a number of advantages, such as invulnerability against all sorts of weaponry, protection against evil spirits and disease, and success in love affairs." (p.138)

Tattooing and the concomitant construction of auspicious space are important aspects of traditional Burmese scoiety and many objects already in the collection illustrate this feature. Tattooing equipment and tattoo diagrams on cloth have been aquired in recent years as also have other objects from elsewhere in Southeast Asia which are convered in similar indications of auspiciousness. The use of magic squares helpfully links these pages to Cambodian notions of what is protective.

Burmese paintings of various types are represented in the collection, but until now nothing of this very striking type has been acquired. These pages make very useful and complementary additions to the collections as well as our abilities to speak about Burmese culture.

19th C Burmese Tattoo Manual  

Posted by ေရွးျမန္မာ in

Object types - Tattooing manual / manuscript

Materials - Paper
Techniques - Drawn
Production place - Made in Burma
Date - 19thC


Description
One (of five) pages of a tattoo manuscript. The manuscript is a digest of tattoo designs for a potential client to choose from, and would have been used by the tattooer to advertise his range of work.

This page is larger than the others and has slightly different detail. In additon to a considerable amount of text, there are images of a tiger, a dragon, an elephant and a (Burmese) Nat-like figure. They stand above concentric circles with animals presumably representing the planets (the peacock [sun] and rabbit [moon] are clear). On the other side of this page, the body of a tiger is dissected into individual circles filled with auspicious numbers -one circle for each of the four legs, one for the head and one for the tail. Magic squares are evident throughout.

These five acquisitions (2005.6-23.01-05) constitute pages from the same illustrated manuscript, obtained from three different sources. The leaves, though now separated, were presumably ordered originally as a "parabaik". The pages have all now been glazed and taped at the edges.

The basic format is of rows of animals (mostly tigers but chicks and monkeys are also seen) along with text (in black ink though red is seen in two cases). In some instances the text is embedded in, or around, the animal. In one instance, the outline of the animal's body is made up only of auspicious letters and numbers. The tigers prowl across the page in rows, for the most part coloured in yellow and orange - or in a combination of the two.

Inscriptions
Inscription Type: inscription
Inscription Script: Burmese
Inscription Language: Burmese
Inscription Comment: page/s of illustrated manuscript


Dimensions
Length: 43 centimetres (glazed)
Width: 29 centimetres (glazed)

Current Location - British Museum, London
Condition
Each page is very worm-eaten, though for the most part not destructive of the overall design and legibility of the manuscript.

Curator's comments
Tattooing is a ritual component prevalent throughout South East Asia, including Burma and Cambodia. For a full discussion of the art of ritual tattooing in Cambodia see, Bernon, "Yantra et Mantra", Phnom-Penh, 1998. Olivier de Bernon's well-designed book on the subject reveals how many similarities there are between the arts in Cambodia and Burma and how both systems of magic stem ultimately from India via Thailand.

In "Burmese Crafts, Past and Present", Sylvia Fraser-Lu writes, " Virtually every young man, from a prince of the realm to a village farm boy, delighted in being adorned from the waist to the knee with artistic blueish-black effigies of powerful agile creatures, such as cats, tigers, monkeys and ogres surrounded by a flowering tracery of protective letters from the Burmese alaphabet...The primary function of tattooing was talismanic. It added to male charismsa by offering the bearer a number of advantages, such as invulnerability against all sorts of weaponry, protection against evil spirits and disease, and success in love affairs." (p.138)

Tattooing and the concomitant construction of auspicious space are important aspects of traditional Burmese society and many objects already in the collection illustrate this feature. Tattooing equipment and tattoo diagrams on cloth have been aquired in recent years as also have other objects from elsewhere in Southeast Asia which are convered in similar indications of auspiciousness. The use of magic squares helpfully links these pages to Cambodian notions of what is protective.

Burmese paintings of various types are represented in the collection, but until now nothing of this very striking type has been acquired. These pages make very useful and complementary additions to the collections as well as our abilities to speak about Burmese culture.

Burmese Tattoo Manual 19th C  

Posted by ေရွးျမန္မာ in



Object types - tattooing manual / manuscript

Materials - Paper
Techniques - Drawn
Production place - Made in Burma
Date - 19thC


Description
One (of five) pages of a tattoo manuscript. The manuscript is a digest of tattoo designs for a potential client to choose from, and would have been used by the tattooer to advertise his range of work.

Here monkeys and a bird appear in addition to tigers. There are magic squares all around and the figures of the animals are interspersed with text.

These five acquisitions (2005.6-23.01-05) constitute pages from the same illustrated manuscript, obtained from three different sources. The leaves, though now separated, were presumably ordered originally as a "parabaik". The pages have all now been glazed and taped at the edges.

The basic format is of rows of animals (mostly tigers but chicks and monkeys are also seen) along with text (in black ink though red is seen in two cases). In some instances the text is embedded in, or around, the animal. In one instance, the outline of the animal's body is made up only of auspicious letters and numbers. The tigers prowl across the page in rows, for the most part coloured in yellow and orange - or in a combination of the two. In one section of the manuscript the body of the tiger is dissected into individual circles filled with auspicious numbers -one circle for each of the four legs, one for the head and one for the tail. Magic squares are evident throughout, and at one point (.05) there are two rows of animals standing above concentric circles, presumably the planets (the peacock [sun] and rabbit [moon] are clear). (TRB)

Inscriptions
Inscription Type: inscription
Inscription Script: Burmese
Inscription Language: Burmese
Inscription Comment: page/s of illustrated manuscript


Dimensions
Length: 43 centimetres (glazed)
Width: 29 centimetres (glazed)

Current Location - British Museum, London
Condition
Each page is very worm-eaten, though for the most part not destructive of the overall design and legibility of the manuscript.

Curator's comments
Tattooing is a ritual component prevalent throughout South East Asia, including Burma and Cambodia. For a full discussion of the art of ritual tattooing in Cambodia see, Bernon, "Yantra et Mantra", Phnom-Penh, 1998. Olivier de Bernon's well-designed book on the subject reveals how many similarities there are between the arts in Cambodia and Burma and how both systems of magic stem ultimately from India via Thailand.

In her magesterial survey of Burmese culture, "Burmese Crafts, Past and Present", Sylvia Fraser-Lu writes, " Virtually every young man, from a prince of the realm to a village farm boy, delighted in being adorned from the waist to the knee with artistic blueish-black effigies of powerful agile creatures, such as cats, tigers, monkeys and ogres surrounded by a flowering tracery of protective letters from the Burmese alaphabet...The primary function of tattooing was talismanic. It added to male charismsa by offering the bearer a number of advantages, such as invulnerability against all sorts of weaponry, protection against evil spirits and disease, and success in love affairs." (p.138)

Tattooing and the concomitant construction of auspicious space are important aspects of traditional Burmese scoiety and many objects already in the collection illustrate this feature. Tattooing equipment and tattoo diagrams on cloth have been aquired in recent years as also have other objects from elsewhere in Southeast Asia which are convered in similar indications of auspiciousness. The use of magic squares helpfully links these pages to Cambodian notions of what is protective.

Burmese paintings of various types are represented in the collection, but until now nothing of this very striking type has been acquired. These pages make very useful and complementary additions to the collections as well as our abilities to speak about Burmese culture.

19th C Burmese Tatoo  

Posted by ေရွးျမန္မာ in




Object types - Tattooing manual
manuscript - Drawing

Materials - Paper
Techniques- Drawn
Production place- Made in Burma
Date -19thC


Description
One (of five) pages of a tattoo manuscript, in Burmese. The manuscript is a digest of tattoo designs for a potential client to choose from, and would have been used by the tattooer to advertise his range of work.

This page is larger than the others and has slightly different detail. In additon to a considerable amount of text, there are images of a tiger, a dragon, an elephant and a (Burmese) Nat-like figure. They stand above concentric circles with animals presumably representing the planets (the peacock [sun] and rabbit [moon] are clear). On the other side of this page, the body of a tiger is dissected into individual circles filled with auspicious numbers -one circle for each of the four legs, one for the head and one for the tail. Magic squares are evident throughout.

The basic format is of rows of animals (mostly tigers but chicks and monkeys are also seen) along with text (in black ink though red is seen in two cases). In some instances the text is embedded in, or around, the animal. In one instance, the outline of the animal's body is made up only of auspicious letters and numbers. The tigers prowl across the page in rows, for the most part coloured in yellow and orange - or in a combination of the two.

Dimensions
Length: 43 centimetres (glazed)
Width: 29 centimetres (glazed)

Current Location - British Museum, London

Condition
Each page is very worm-eaten, though for the most part not destructive of the overall design and legibility of the manuscript.

Curator's comments
These five acquisitions (2005.6-23.01-05) constitute pages from the same illustrated manuscript. The leaves, though now separated, were presumably ordered originally as a "parabaik". The pages have all now been glazed and taped at the edges. Tattooing is a ritual component prevalent throughout South East Asia, including Burma and Cambodia. For a full discussion of the art of ritual tattooing in Cambodia see, Bernon, "Yantra et Mantra", Phnom-Penh, 1998. Olivier de Bernon's well-designed book on the subject reveals how many similarities there are between the arts in Cambodia and Burma and how both systems of magic stem ultimately from India via Thailand.

In "Burmese Crafts, Past and Present", Sylvia Fraser-Lu writes, " Virtually every young man, from a prince of the realm to a village farm boy, delighted in being adorned from the waist to the knee with artistic blueish-black effigies of powerful agile creatures, such as cats, tigers, monkeys and ogres surrounded by a flowering tracery of protective letters from the Burmese alaphabet...The primary function of tattooing was talismanic. It added to male charismsa by offering the bearer a number of advantages, such as invulnerability against all sorts of weaponry, protection against evil spirits and disease, and success in love affairs." (p.138)

Tattooing and the concomitant construction of auspicious space are important aspects of traditional Burmese society and many objects already in the collection illustrate this feature. Tattooing equipment and tattoo diagrams on cloth have been aquired in recent years as also have other objects from elsewhere in Southeast Asia which are convered in similar indications of auspiciousness. The use of magic squares helpfully links these pages to Cambodian notions of what is protective.

Burmese paintings of various types are represented in the collection, but until now nothing of this very striking type has been acquired. These pages make very useful and complementary additions to the collections as well as our abilities to speak about Burmese culture.

8th - 10th C Pyu Buddha Votive plaque  

Posted by ေရွးျမန္မာ in ,


Object types - Plaque

Materials - Terracotta
Techniques- Moulded
Production place- Made in Burma (Pyu)

Date - 8thC-10thC (this date according to Guy 2002; Luce suggests 10th-11thC)


Description
Terracotta votive plaque, pressed from a mould and depicting the Buddha of the past, the historical Buddha, and a bodhisattva, according to Luce, Maitreya. The plaque is shaped in an arch-like structure and the three figures are seated on lotus thrones below which are decorative designs. On the reverse can be seen the veins of a leaf, probably of a peepul tree, on which the plaque has been pressed while drying.

Inscriptions
Inscription Type: inscription
Inscription Script: Pyu
Inscription Position: bottom
Inscription Language: Pyu
Inscription Transliteration: Budha mga: psu: khnu
Inscription Comment: for transliteration see Luce 1969; p100

Inscription Type: inscription
Inscription Script: English
Inscription Position: reverse
Inscription Language: English
Inscription Content: U Mya 105
Inscription Comment: written in red felt-tip pen. This probably refers to figure 105 in a book on terracotta votive tablets.


Dimensions
Height: 8 centimetres
Width: 6.5 centimetres

Current Location - British Museum, London
Condition - Good

Curator's comments
Bibliography: Guy 2002 Burma, Art and Archaeology; Chapter 3. Offering up a rare jewel. p.28, fig 3.7. BMP.

Christies's SEA Modern and Contemporary Art Preview in S'pore  

Posted by ေရွးျမန္မာ in

CHRISTIE'S
HONG KONG AUTUMN 2010 SOUTHEAST ASIAN MODERN + CONTEMPORARY ART

PREVIEW IN SINGAPORE
OCTOBER 9 - 10 10AM - 7PM

VIEWING VENUEView map
ARTSPACE@Helutrans
39 Keppel Road, #02-04 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore

On view are also a selection of Asian Contemporary Art and
Chinese Modern Paintings.


AUCTION
29 November 10AM

VENUE
Grand Hall
Hong Kong Exhibition &
Convention Centre
No. 1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai
Hong Kong

ENQUIRIES
Florence Wee fwee@christies.com
+65 6235 3828
Walter Spies (Germany 1895 - 1942)
Balinesische Legende
I Nyoman Masriadi (Indonesia b. 1973)
Trombone
Painted in 1929
Estimate on request
Painted in 2010
HK$780,000 - 1,404,000
US$100,000 - 180,000

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