Bustling Hoang Ha drum village

(Baonghean) - In addition to farming "two crops a year", people in Hoang Ha village, Dien Hoang commune, Dien Chau also maintain and develop a "father-to-son" profession that has been passed down for generations, which is drum making.

In the spring, the rain was drizzling like sifting flour, we followed the coconut-shaded road to visit Hoang Ha drum village. Mr. Nguyen Duc Duong, 85 years old, an elder in the village, said: "No one knows when the drum-making profession in Hoang Ha began, but my family has been making drums for 7 generations. I heard from the elders that Hoang Ha drums used to serve the rituals in Thang Long capital. Hoang Ha drum village was also ordered by Hue Festival to make 120 drums - a real honor for the whole craft village." Mr. Duong is now old and weak, but he still remembers the profession, and in his free time he passes on the "secret techniques" to his children and grandchildren. Children in Hoang Ha, 9-10 years old, watch their grandfather and father work every day, and the profession becomes ingrained in their blood without them realizing it, so many children, 14-15 years old, already know how to help their fathers make drums.

Drum production in Hoang Ha village (Dien Hoang - Dien Chau).

“January is the month of entertainment” for the world, but the people of Hoang Ha drum village are busy with the new drum season to serve the festivals after Tet. That is why, regardless of day or night, when approaching Hoang Ha village, you can hear the clacking sound of chisels, the sound of bamboo nails being hammered into joints, the sound of drum testing, the sound of saws cutting wood... According to the elders, for generations, Hoang Ha village has rarely passed on the profession to girls for fear of "revealing" the secret, but in the village there is still a girl following the drum profession. We returned to Hoang Ha drum village and witnessed 61-year-old Hoang Thi Bay, the only woman in the village who can skillfully make all kinds of drums. Mrs. Bay was busy hammering nails into the drums. She recalled her youth: At that time, when she was eighteen or twenty, she asked her father to let her follow the drum-making profession, but he refused because the drum profession was hard and tiring. But her love for the profession overcame all difficulties for Mrs. Bay to come to the drum profession. According to Ms. Hoang Thi Bay, to make a good drum, it must meet the standards of beautiful appearance and full, round sound... that is the "secret" that makes Hoang Ha drum village famous throughout the Central region.

Drum making is also very elaborate, first of all, the raw material must be focused on, the drum maker must choose a good jackfruit tree to get wood, then "split" and "sharpen" the tree trunk with even grain, split into small pieces to make the drum body with a thickness of 1.5 to 2 cm depending on the diameter of the drum. According to a certain formula, the drum body is joined together to fit into a round cylinder, buffalo skin after being carefully processed, dried is stretched at both ends to make the drum face, the skin is wrapped around a belt stretched up 8 sides, depending on the sound, the belt is winched to adjust the sound of the drum round as desired. The bamboo nail holds the drum face, taking the middle part of the bamboo body which is tough and flexible and never gets termites. The belt, taking the bamboo ribs of the right age.

Mrs. Bay's drum workshop mainly has 4 workers, Mrs. Bay is the "commander in chief" because she can do all the steps from using hammers to create frames to stretching drum skins, even using machines to create drum bodies, polishing and painting patterns on drum faces... Every month, her workshop also sells dozens of drums, and customers who come to receive the goods and test the sound of the drum faces are all satisfied. Mrs. Bay is excited: Thanks to the drum profession, my family has been able to raise 2 children to go to university and build a 2-storey house worth 600 million VND.

Next to that, the drum workshop of Mr. Nguyen Dinh Chieu's family is working at full speed to keep up with the festival orders after Tet. Mr. Chieu chiseled and said: In addition to medium and small drums, there are places that also order large drums with a surface radius of 1.6 meters. This type of drum is very laborious to make, the skin must be stretched over the drum surface to create a sound so that when played, the drum sounds like thunder. Thanks to its reputation and brand, Chieu's workshop is constantly busy, and many remote provinces such as Hai Phong, Quang Binh, and Quang Tri also come to place orders. Mr. Chieu's workshop also creates jobs for 4 young workers with a stable salary of over 3 million VND/person/month.

Each year, the facility produces 600 - 800 drums, using over 30m3 of jackfruit wood and nearly 1,000 buffalo skins to make drums. His facility makes everything from frog drums to medium and large drums. Despite the large number of orders, the craftsmen under his direction still ensure quantity and quality. In 2013, Nguyen Dinh Cat, Nguyen Dinh Chieu's younger brother, also established a new drum workshop, creating jobs for 6 workers. In addition to making drums, this facility also produces drum bodies for sale to markets in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh. The technical "advisor" for the two drum workshops above is 85-year-old Nguyen Duc Duong, Chieu and Cat's father. Mr. Duong shared: My children are all proficient in drum making, but we still need to pass on the experience of making "large" drums, "thunder" drums, how to adjust the sound for each type of drum to suit, the sound of festival drums is different from the sound of school drums, Cheo drums...

Hoang Ha village now makes drums with many steps made by machines, which is less laborious than before, such as using saws, planers, sanders, etc. Applying "industrialization" to production saves both time and effort for the craftsmen.

Currently, Hoang Ha village has nearly 200 households, of which over 20 households are engaged in drum making. Although it is a part-time job, it has created jobs for more than 100 workers, helping people improve their lives and even become rich. The drum making profession once declined, many people quit the profession, but in recent years, everywhere, historical relics are being restored, cultural customs are being restored, Hoang Ha drums are being sold a lot, mainly people come to order in mountainous districts to serve festivals and opera troupes, cheo, pagodas, temples... Therefore, many people have returned to the profession and opened new drum workshops. People in Hoang Ha village can now make all kinds of drums such as family church drums, village communal house drums, pagoda drums, festival drums, lion dance drums, wine drums, school drums, parish drums...

However, there are still concerns about the drum making profession as raw materials are increasingly difficult to buy and expensive. Jackfruit trees are being exploited massively and not replanted. Not to mention that many people have destroyed jackfruit trees to plant other trees with higher economic efficiency. Buffalo and cow hides are also becoming scarcer as most slaughterhouses sell them to shoe and leather sandal manufacturing facilities and factories. Another thing is that the younger generation is not interested in drum making. Hoang Ha has not been recognized as a craft village because the number of households participating is still small. Unlike other professions, many people who are not Nguyen want to learn the craft but cannot because only descendants in the family line are taught this family secret. The risk of loss is a concern for Hoang Ha drum village.

Leaving Hoang Ha village in the hustle and bustle of spring, we suddenly heard the deep and high sounds of drums being played from the village drum team practicing to prepare for the spring festival. The sound echoed throughout the countryside, so solemn.

Article and photos:Van Truong