Southern Archipelagos

Looking at a map of the archipelagos concerned in the south of eastern Asia, the first impression is its immensity, from Malaysia to Indonesia and neighboring islands.
A kind of huge trapezoidal form spanning thousands of kilometers, most of which is covered by water. A very minor share is devoted to a few ranges of islands, sometimes as big as Borneo (measuring 1.5 times the size of France) and sometimes appearing as near- invisible seeds on the waters.
Fourteen thousands years ago, at the end of the last glaciation, before the rise of the sea-levels of about one hundred and twenty meters, most of these islands were part of the south-Asian mainland, meaning that a great number of archipelagos inhabitants had common roots and probably always maintained recurrent commercial and cultural routes using rowing or sailing boats in accordance with the monsoons’ winds.

The typical Heger I decoration as already noted is characterized, from among others, by adornments of birds and/or feathered humans and/or boats motifs which could be compared to local ceremonial and religious environments for elites (mana) in the Polynesian or (semangat) in the Malay worlds. As it was first pointed out by (EFEO) Madeleine Colani and Victor Goloubew (around 1930) historical links between Red River mainland and Borneo (Kayak) or other islands existed for long. As a result of early movements of populations, west/east, north/south, and vice versa, bronze designs were probably influenced by both cultural sides, continental and oceanic. Be that as it may, the drums were apparently welcomed as part of an ancestral heritage by southern Archipelagos, and quickly became put in the tombs. Therefore these drums were apparently never produced locally at the difference of basic bronze articles, for example axes or arrows, melted from metallic ingots coming from abroad. Drums probably came ready-made from the northern Red River valley or Guangxi, as “deluxe” items which had to be transported with care, meaning at high cost for their customers, between MSEA (Mainland) and ISEA (Island South East Asia). The Mainland routes, taking at least three months, has been already described in corresponding chapters, covering the main waterways including successively the Mekong basin (via present Laos and Thailand central plateau) down to the Chao Praya and other southern Thai rivers, and then the Malaysian waters before western Indonesia.
The Maritime routes, taking less than one month when winds permitted a “sea- connection” from Tonkin/Bac Bao gulf to southern islands was another way to import, supported by the relatively great number of drums found in the eastern part of Java or other islands. Probably via the main harbors known to have been centres of great direct currents of trades, ceramics, metals, jewelry, mirrors, over the centuries.
Foreign objects concentrations, including not only bronze drums in central Java or south Sumatra, demonstrated the connections early established between chiefdoms so far away. Were the maritime drums’ routes largely subsequent to the mainland routes as brightly suggested by Mrs Ambra Calo? Probably, pending exact bronze dating techniques and also the fact that, once they reached the islands, the drums entered a series of extended intra or inter-island trade networks; complicating a diagnosis about their point of entry.
Bronze drums remain highly respected up to the present day, if not worshipped at times individually by Hindus and Moslems. Generally the discovered specimen came from digging works, public if a road or private if a house was concerned, not permitting their conservation in situ but in museums.
To facilitate possible trips or researches our presentation will be based on the main museums where most of the imported antique bronze drums can be seen today. In total, nearly forty old pieces, chiefly “mushroom typed”, were discovered in Java, mainly in eastern territories, ten or so in the south of Sumatra as in present-day continental Malaysia, and less in the other islands including Borneo, poor results certainly due to the rare research up to now. Astonishingly no one was found in Bali so famous for its Pejeng production to come.
As they were all produced far away, these drums’ descriptions will not be too detailed again after previous chapters China and Vietnam. All their designs, geometrical or not, are classical and their local success apparently meant that they were as much understood or at least welcomed as in the northern countries, may be with a better acceptance for the feathered dancers or the sailing boats in such equatorial and maritime environments.
Traces are missing about their local uses and importance at that time, with the exception of a few carved monoliths showing the transport of a drum. (Fig. 1)
Only their presence in tombs told us that they were part of the basic human beliefs and not simply fashionable pieces for rich owner’s collection.
Consequently their presentation for southern Archipelagos will be more a kind of brief catalogue based on a necessary selection. Things will be different at the end of this chapter when looking at the local bronze drums “hour glass” productions, so-said Pejeng and Moko types.

The two museums of Jakarta (National), and Surabaya (Negeri Mpu Tantular), contain the main early drum discoveries kept in Indonesia from the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Nusa Tengarra Province; their Pejeng and Moko collections will be further related.

Two rooms are devoted to early imported bronze drums, one in the old building containing the first findings, another in the contiguous new aisle. Usefully it is pointed out that, at least in the old times, no copper or iron or lead ores were discovered in Indonesia, meaning also no great expertise in metallurgy, the name of “Paleometallic” age covering these displays.

From the three Heger I drums in the new aisle of the Museum (Fig. 2), the two biggest with 4x1 frogs came from West Tengara and Sangeang Island and a smaller (D60/H40 cm) without frogs was found in Kur island (Maluku Province), imported probably from Guangxi as far as it displays very exceptionally Chinese letters cast with the drum (and not later) during the Easter Han period at the beginning of CE.

The huge one (D120 / H100 cm) was partly broken with a large hole on the bulb (Fig. 6) as was the medium one (D100 / H70 cm) but their sculptures, when not rubbed out in some places, are nicely done with their central star and added in-relief frogs or their “a-plat” elephants on the bulb. Not speaking of the classical designs already mentioned for the old aisle specimen.

Built at about twenty kilometers from the town centre where until recently the old one was located this new museum is not as rich, in terms of bronze drum’s, as the Djakarta National, but a visit is valuable. Even if several notices are bizarre, doubling the age of the Đông Sơn’s culture for example.
Near a half-dozen “mushroom type” drums are on display and may be the most interesting was discovered by chance in 1981 in Kradenanrejo (Lamongan district - East Java). It was part of a child burial container made of two assembled bronze drums: on the top was a Heger I (D49/H42 cm) covering a Pejeng type bronze drum, the double drum containing the teeth and bones of a child with ornaments and pottery. (Figs. 7-8)
Although partly broken and corroded, this duo carries of course a lot of emotional values and demonstrates a kind of affiliation between Heger I and Pejeng. Another classical bronze drum with child bones (secondary) burial was also found in Plawangan (central Java).

The last one found in Tuban (east Java) without tympanum is interesting because it was upturned and contained a bronze figurine of an elephant (H32 cm), and also a bronze axe possibly cast in Java with imported ingots in absence of local copper ores. (Fig. 9)

The discovery of a pair of drums at Kampong Sungai Lang (Selangor) had since been classified as a symbolic burial for a personage of a high social status in his community. The excavation revealed that the drums were buried face down on a sandal hardwood plank of two meters long believed to have been taken from an old boat. They were enclosed in earth piled up as a mound measuring about 5 m. at ground level and 1 m. at its peak.
A circular array of pots surrounded the drums; under one pot numerous red glass beads were also found and radio carbon techniques for the wooden planks suggest a late century BCE dating. The largest drum has four three-dimensional toad motifs (4x1 - one lost) and two dimensional bird motifs on its beautiful remaining tympanum (D45 cm) with a twelve rays central star. (Fig. 10)

Road improvements in 1964 at Batu Buruk (peninsula) led to the discovery of a pair of Red River Valley drums (D45 and 36 cm) buried upside/down and soon reduced to fragments by bulldozers. Apparently, in their inverted position, they were used as containers with an iron spearhead attached (with rust), weave traces, glass beads, pottery. (Fig. 11)
A bronze bell (H50 cm) was found in the vicinity, and in the region many others with the same casting and designs, meaning that they came also from the north as products of the same sophisticated bronze family at large. Once again we can imagine, as in Thailand (Ongbah) or elsewhere the early existence of warehouses for expensive cultural materials imported in harbors or transit points of the Malay Peninsula.

The museum is situated in the Old ex-Governor Palace. The most interesting bronze drums of this Museum having rich projects of acquisitions are based on Indonesian productions, Pejeng and Moko “hour-glass shaped” paving the way for the second part of this chapter.
Previously, the presence of two old “pots” cleverly presented side by side in the same showcase must be mentioned. Probably contemporaneous, their dimensions are comparable but one is only a container with a cover and the other a Heger I “mushroom typed” bronze drum (D55/H45 cm) without frogs on the top but aquatic designs everywhere with boats and feathered people and animals. Their precise findings are unknown and their very classical styles have already been described but they are, for sure, members of the same ceremonial family so many times already attested. (Fig. 12)

In the village of Manuaba (central Bali) stone moulds carved with the typical decoration of Pejeng drums were found, now revered in the local Hindu temple (Pura Pusen – Desa - Masceti) (Fig. 18). From their examination, it can be deduced that an adapted methodology using stone was practised; several sections were joined by inserting the tympanum with rim to the other mantle’s parts; handles and other major “in relief” decorations being casted separately and then added. The alloy, from imported ingots or recuperation processes in absence of local ores, was strongly based on copper, with low tin, for a very thick result.
Depending on further analysis, the stone moulds were carved in the “reverse” shape to imprint wax or clay; the molten metal was poured and the remaining clay broken after solidification. At least we can admire the great quality of the Manuaba stone mould’s sculptures, probably made for the upper section of a mantle.

Gianyar (central Bali), a location associated with the earliest Balinese Royal power (10th century ce), is also a place where tablets of Mahayana (Tantric) Buddhism from 8th ce were found in the Pakerisan River valley.
There, long time unearthed and found by chance the so-called Moon of Pejeng is kept in Pura Penataran Sasih. It was the state temple of the Royal dynasty and the huge bronze drum, despite its dimensions and weight, was put on the top of a small dedicated temple inside the great sacred enclosure. (Fig. 19)
You must know to pay attention under the roof to the large tympanum (D160 cm) facing the coming visitor who can only get a lateral and partial and bad view of the cylinder 198 centimetres long of the partly hidden drum, three meters above the ground.

Only one hour by car from Surabaya, Mojokerto is an historical centre of metallurgic activities from gold to brass. All artefacts can be made, from pots to statues, with a kind of monopole for Moko drums.
To cast them, after visiting three small workshops with few workers and archaic tools, the same rustic methodology was proudly passed down through generations. From old techniques modern changes concerned the alloy, bronze (copper/tin) being replaced by brass (copper/zinc) less costly albeit less beautiful, and also moulds now in cement to impress the decoration into the wax instead of stone for Pejeng and probably early Moko.
In brief, the sequence to obtain a Moko takes about four weeks, of which, for the mantle:

• two inner clay cores are molded
• mantle decorations (face motifs included) are printed on wax put inside (bivalve) cement moulds (pre-carved or using pre-formated plastic instead of wax)
• hot alloy is poured over the moulds, using adequate holes (heating from open earth oven to brick melting furnace)
• moulds are removed when metal cools off; sections and handles are welded
• final adjustments are made with a small hammer and glue if needed.

For the tympanum decorated or not, a circular wax model is created to cast it separately according to the same phases, another innovation versus the old Moko and Pejeng drums when the tympanum was possibly cast together with the upper section of the mantle.

Handles can be more than usually four (up to eight) and are spaced equidistantly around the mantle, cast separately, solid or perforated.
Historically the local customers were from Alor Island(s), with only few classical models produced, packed, and sent by sea from Java. (see Fig. 22)
Nowadays, producers are also making Moko “curiosities” according to requests from tourists or abroad, for example with any blazon replacing the faces... and to do so, German imported costly ores are considered the purest. (Fig. 23)
Question mark: Were Pejeng drums also cast, as well as in Bali, in the metallurgic area documented for long and including Mojokerto, Tuban and Gresik, now hosting large copper industrial plants? Pending the possible discovery of Pejeng moulds in that region.

Alor is a small but beautiful archipelago composed of eighteen inhabited islands (plus many small others) at the eastern end of the Indonesian territories, near Oriental Timor and other Papuan sites. They were frontiers between Portuguese and Dutch colonial possessions a long time ago, before Indonesia Independence giving birth to the present East Nusa Tengarra Province. Not so far away from Australia, 1300 km from Bali.
Cora, Alice Du Bois (1903-1991), from Harvard University, was among the first scholars to stay largely there just before WW2, publishing anthropologist studies. She mentioned how people, mostly Papuan and without central government, lived in small villages where women hunted, fished and worked in the fields while men were taking care of finances and metallic drums (about 20,000 recensed at that time), objects of profitable transactions. From Jakarta it took Cora Du Bois one week of navigation to reach the place nowadays accessible in four hours by plane via the small hub of Kupang, with the last thirty minutes on board a daily turboprop to the Alor main island, capital Kalabahi.
There was created in 2003 a small museum named “1000 Moko” which host today about fifty specimens of drums among other local remains while a small village has been restored in Takpala (20 kms away) with wooden thatched chalets housing Moko under their roofs. Generally Alorese people are very open to “discuss Moko”, most women of any cult (from Muslims - the majority - to Christians, mainly Protestants) having received as marriage presents drums made far away in Java; even if the importance given to them can vary greatly from simple folklore to revered ancestral values, in absence of any written archives.
“If they don’t get Moko, brides receive an equivalent amount of money”, which varies greatly between $50 for the basic new models in brass to $4000 for antique bronze ones - depending on social class. It is said that money is preferred by the younger generation...

The first place has been given to the unique old Heger I type found by chance in the northwest of Alor in 1972 at Kabupaten. Huge “mushroom-typed piece” (D92/H68 cm) with twelve rays central star the drum was unearthed by a peasant, having much suffered from its long burial (Fig. 26). One of the four big toads on the top is missing and the circular decorations around the tympan and the superior part of the mantle were nearly rubbed out but it closely resembles other pieces from North Vietnam’s Hai Chun province, made two millennia ago. In Alor it is revered as a direct ancestor and named Nekara Moko supposed to be part of the great family of Moko, appellation meaning locally metal-drum with a given name added.

By contrast all the other “hour-glass type” drums of the Museum look younger than Nekara, from the cleanest and lightest ones in brass correctly described as “very new” to the heaviest others in bronze described by contrast “very old”. All have four handles but some of them are completely undecorated, the cheapest, while the others bear the “classical” Moko sculptures. The latter are mainly composed of facial images of antique local if not Indian fertility Goddess—often with plants or animals including lizards, symbols of Alor. On average, Moko in the Kalabahi museum are sixty cms high, have tympan diameter of thirty cms, with few smaller exceptions (H40/D25 cm) - several adorned with a strong rope to hang them. No sculpture on the tympan “if to be played” (Figs. 24-28) says the curator.
The other Moko main sites are situated on the next Pantar island (about two hours from Alor by boat), particularly in Kiria and Helangdou villages where several drums are generally stored in attics and supposed to be played during festivities. (Fig. 25)