High 6cm
Wide 3cm
Dongson religion and beliefs
SOMEONE GIVES A PIG TO ANCIENT FAITH
Of the motifs found on drums which are often referred to as rain drums, displayed shamans or shamans who sometimes disguise themselves as animals with horns, show Chinese influence or more distantly the influence of the steppe people. If this form is symbolized as hunting, then there is another symbol that shows agricultural activities, namely the sun and frogs (symbols of water). Actually, this nekara itself is associated with the agricultural cycle. By relying on its supernatural influence, this drum is beaten to produce a thunder sound associated with the coming of rain.
On these caskets, which are often kept in tombs, you can see the motif of a boat filled with people dressed and covered with heads made of bird feathers. It may represent the spirits of the dead sailing towards heaven which is located somewhere on the eastern horizon of the great ocean. In ancient society, the soul was often equated with a bird and perhaps from that period until now it is still being practiced by the shamans who during the Dongson culture were priests disguised as birds so they could fly to the kingdom of the dead to gain knowledge about the future.
After all, the nekara itself was obtained at the beginning of the 19th century and is still used for religious ritual ceremonies. So it can be concluded that the drums describe the life of the Dongson people from hunting, farming to death.
The large number of burial equipment shows the rituals carried out by the Dongson people. Among other things, the corpse is surrounded by all its everyday objects so that it can live normally in the afterlife. Later, as an effort to save money, only small objects were buried with the body. Then during the late Dongson culture, a new form of ritual emerged. Previously the tomb was in the form of a simple wooden coffin that was buried, while in the later so-called Lach-truong period, which probably began in the 1st century BC, a brick tomb in the form of a tunnel or rather a cave was found which was divided into three rooms by a wall. -roofed arched walls. Originally this device was associated with Greek influence on the afterlife, although in fact it shows the growing influence of the Chinese who thought that the spirits of the dead hid in caves on the slopes of sacred mountains, where the spirits of the dead lived. eternal.
The tunnel-shaped tomb can be said to be an imitation of the magical natural cave. Place the coffin in the middle room, then offerings are stacked in the adjoining room as food for the spirits and in the third room there is an altar which has lights carried or guarded by bronze statues. One can feel the influence of Hellenism, which marked the end of Dongson culture.
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