The Beauty of Dong Son

Nearly a century ago, a local villager in Đông Sơn (Hàm Rồng Ward, Thanh Hóa City) discovered a bronze drum and various ancient bronze artifacts along the banks of the Mã River. This marked the beginning of the discovery and study of the Đông Sơn culture—one that would later gain worldwide recognition. It was the culture of the ancestors of the Vietnamese people, who lived approximately 2,700 to 2,000 years ago.

The Đông Sơn culture offers a vivid picture of ancient Vietnamese life—of people who cultivated wet rice, fished, and ventured into the Eastern Sea, leaving behind exquisitely crafted bronze drums and jars. Their level of civilization ranked among the most advanced in Southeast Asia and southern China at the time. The Đông Sơn people also had a strong sense of aesthetics, creating remarkable visual artworks—some of which survive to this day.

We visited the private collection Kinh Hoa, owned by Mr. Nguyễn Văn Kinh in Tây Hồ, Hanoi. It houses four officially recognized national treasures: two bronze drums and two bronze jars. This collection alone contains masterpieces of ancient craftsmanship—works no traditional bronze casting village in Vietnam today can replicate.

The Đông Sơn people depicted themselves vividly: wearing feathered headdresses and skirts made from bird plumes during festivals. Some appear dancing, hands outstretched; others are paddling boats, holding oars. Lively figures can be seen beating leather drums, standing on boat decks with long spears, drawing bows, holding axes, or preparing to sacrifice cattle in ritual scenes. One image shows a couple pounding rice together; another, a group playing bronze drums.

Human figures are differentiated by status: leaders stand on raised platforms with headdresses of up to five feathers, while rowers often appear bare-chested, wearing only loincloths. Some naked figures—without feathered headgear—appear in sacrificial contexts, perhaps prisoners or ritual offerings for rain ceremonies.

Many motifs are stylized, reduced to curves and short lines, yet still suggest human eyes with a central dot—a motif some scholars refer to as “fluttering flags.” Birds in flight are a common pattern, especially long-beaked, wide-winged ones likely representing storks. Others resemble pelicans, with large heads and short tails.

Domesticated and familiar animals also appear: humped cattle, deer with antlers (possibly sika deer), long-tailed foxes. Sea creatures like crocodiles, fish, horseshoe crabs, and turtles are also realistically depicted. One curved-roof stilt house shows a man and woman entwined inside; another, round-roofed, is thought to be a granary.

Decorations often include floral patterns and long boats—typically six in a row—with rowers and rudders, placed around drum borders. Musical instruments like panpipes and drums, daily tools, weapons, and sheaves of rice appear on drum handles and jar surfaces.

Beyond decoration, Đông Sơn artisans sculpted bronze into dagger handles shaped like humans, elephants, or snakes. The Kinh Hoa collection includes a jar lid adorned with six pelicans, while later Đông Sơn drums have toad-shaped figurines in relief.

This decorative and sculptural artistry is unique—unmistakable among contemporaneous cultures. The technique involved parallel lines, raised blocks, saw-tooth patterns, and tangent circles within geometric bands. Their style was often abstract, even surreal: birds shown in profile have wings depicted from above; deer bodies bear human heads like sphinxes. Perspective rules were ignored—a perched bird might span the full length of a stilt house.

They also skillfully contrasted raised and sunken patterns on bronze, creating visual depth and tonal variation—despite using only one material: brass.

Over 2,000 years later, the Đông Sơn people have left behind an invaluable artistic legacy that helped shape the cultural identity of Vietnam

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