The thousand-year-old Đọi Tam drum village
Located at the foot of Đọi Mountain, in Đọi Sơn commune, Duy Tiên district, Hà Nam province, the Đọi Tam drum village is one of the few craft villages in Vietnam that knows the exact birth and death years of its founding ancestor. Legend has it that in the spring of 987, upon hearing that King Lê Đại Hành would come to the area for the Tịch điền (ploughing) ceremony, two brothers, Nguyễn Đức Năng and Nguyễn Đức Bản, cut down a jackfruit tree and used buffalo skin to make a giant drum to offer the king. The drum's thunderous sound led to them being honored as "Trạng Sấm" (Thunder Trạng). The founding ancestor Nguyễn Đức Năng (925-990) is worshipped as the village's Second Holy God at the Đọi Tam communal house, a national architectural and artistic monument.
For over a millennium, Đọi Tam drums have been integral to Vietnamese spiritual and cultural life, from battle drums and court drums to festival and temple drums. The village produced two of Vietnam's largest Sấm drums and the drum set used in the 1000th anniversary of Thăng Long Hà Nội.
The two core materials: buffalo skin and jackfruit wood
The uniqueness of Đọi Tam drums lies in the combination of mature buffalo skin and mature jackfruit wood, encapsulated in the folk saying: "Buffalo skin, jackfruit body, hit little, sound much".
Buffalo skin processing
Artisans buy buffalo skin on sunny days and dry it immediately. The skin, preferably from mature buffaloes, is scraped thin, stretched, sun-dried, and then cut into circles matching the drum's size. This meticulous process ensures durability and prevents rotting.
Making the drum body from jackfruit wood
Unlike other regions using different woods or animal skins, Đọi Tam retains the tradition of using mature jackfruit wood, sourced mainly from Hòa Bình, Thanh Hóa, and Nghệ An. The wood is cut into curved staves that are joined tightly into a perfect circle. Staves must never be spliced, as this would ruin the sound quality. A poorly joined or warped drum body cannot produce a good drum.
Drum skin stretching: the pinnacle of craftsmanship
The final stretching of the skin is the most challenging step, requiring a keen ear for sound. It's not just about pulling the skin taut and nailing it with bamboo pegs. The artisan must calibrate the tension so the drum produces the required tone for its purpose: school drums need a resonant, echoing sound, while chèo drums need a deeper, more mellow tone. The artisan must also identify the drum's musical note within an ensemble. After stretching, the drum is sanded, painted, and decorated.
The village's vitality today
The village currently has about 500 craftsmen, including 5 master artisans and 30 skilled workers. Traditionally, techniques were passed only to sons, who started learning at 12-13 and could make large drums by 16-17. The Sấm drum is reserved for the strongest and most experienced men.
Đọi Tam drums are now exported to South Korea, Japan, and China. Master artisan Phạm Chí Khang, Chairman of the Đọi Tam Drum Production and Business Association, emphasizes the village's constant innovation in designs, from temple and school drums to decorative ones. By combining with spiritual tourism and nearby attractions like Long Đọi Sơn pagoda, the village offers visitors hands-on experiences of the drum-making process, helping preserve this unique cultural heritage and promote Vietnam's image internationally.
