The history of Bronze wares in Vietnam
The most famous bronze wares to have come out of Vietnam are the Dong Son drums, intricately patterned drums cast by people of the Dong Son civilization, which Vietnamese archeologists date from the seventh century B.C. to the first century A.D. The graves of ruling-class people from the Dong Son period also contain a wealth of bronze artifacts, including dagger blades, swords, axes, arrowheads and crossbow triggers.
While modern-day scholars still debate the function of the massive Dong Son drums, these drums may have evolved from the rice mortar. 'Pestle music' - that is the sound made when pounding rice - is mentioned in ancient Chinese texts as an important ritual element for southern peoples. Moreover, the tympanums of some Dong Son drums depict scenes of people pounding drum-like vessels that are similar to modern-day scenes of peasants pounding rice.
Moving into the Christian era, the best bronze casters in Vietnam were Buddhist monks. De Cau and Dong Mai, two villages in Bach Ninh province, both claim 11th century monks as the founders of their village's bronze craft. These monks, named Quoc Tai and Tran Lac, were said to be students of Vietnam's most famous bronze caster, a legendary figure named Khong Lo.
According to a Vietnamese folk tale, Khong Lo was a monk during the reign of King Ly in the 11th century. The King of Dai Viet - as Vietnam was then known - ordered Khong Lo to go to China to obtain some black bronze.
Upon reaching the Chinese court, Khong Lo asked the Chinese monarch for a bag of black bronze so that the king of Dai Viet might cast some statues as offerings to the Buddha. The King readily agreed, reasoning that, with his vast stores of bronze, he would never miss a single bag.
Upon seeing the solitary monk with his small sack, the Chinese king's storekeeper joked that perhaps Khong Lo would like to carry off a statue of a buffalo, made from solid gold. The monk replied that all be required was a sack of black bronze. But Khong Lo was actually carrying a magic sack, which, no matter how much was crammed inside, never became full. So it was that Khong Lo obtained a huge quantity of black bronze, which he carried back to Dai Viet.
Back home, Khong Lo divided the bronze into pour parts. With one part he cast the nine-tiered tower of Bao Thien; with another part he cast a massive Buddha statue; with the third part he cast a urn big enough to hide ten men; and with fourth part he cast a huge bronze bell. When this bell was finished, its peals could be beard as far away as the Chinese capital.
Black bronze, it is said, is the mother of gold, For this reason, upon hearing the peals of giant bell, the golden buffalo statue at the Chinese king's court woke up and ran towards Dai Viet, where it settled beside its 'mother'.
Khong Lo worried that whenever the bell was struck it would attract golden objects. To avoid antagonizing Dai Viet's neighbors, the bell was thrown into Hai Noi's West Lake. Hearing the peals of the bell as it sank beneath the waves, the golden buffalo statue followed, which is why West Lake is sometimes called 'Golden Buffalo Lake'.
While fanciful, this story contains some elements of truth. The four bronze objects described in the folk tale did exist, and were collectively known as 'the Four Holy Objects'. Moreover, there is a connection between bronze-casting and West Lake. The most famous bronze-casters in Vietnam came from five villages to settle in Ngu Xa (the name of which translates as 'Five Villages'). Founded during the Le Dynasty in the 15th century, this hamlet is located on the eastern bank of Truc Bach Lake, the small lake that, today, is separated from West Lake by Thanh Nien Road.
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