The Moon of Pejeng

The moon of pejeng
The worlpd’s biggest kettle drum.

Kettle-drums are the most characteristic artifact o fthe proto-historic Dong-Son culture,which have speeded in the whole south-east asia,peninsulas and archipelago.Those are big bronze piece(diameter:36-126cms,high : 40-92cms),drum profile and coasted with the lost-wax techic.Most of it have been made in North Vietnam during the second half of the last millenennium and some of it have been “exported” to other regions of south-east Al,including Indonesia.
At the beginning of the Christian era,caster in Java and Bali mastered already bronze technics and some kettle-drum found in tehArchipelago are surely Indonesia made.The biggest kettle-drum has been castle in Bali;it is called The Moon of Pejeng,is 186,5 cms high with a diameter between 110cms( matle) and 160cms(tympanon).This kettle-drum still is kept and worshipped in Penataran Sasih temple( village of pejeng).We are sure it has been casted in Bali,because mould fragments with very similar decorative patterns have been dixco erred about fifteen kms from pejeng,in the village of Manuaba.
Kettle-drums are always ornamented with geomaetrical patterns,whichare usually completed with figurative representation.All kettle-drums waer a big star in the middle of the tympanon.But,the moon of Pejeng owns peculiar formal and decorative characteristic too by representation on the mantle of an heart-shaped face,with big eyes and heavy earing…the mon of pejeng inaugurates a new kind of kettle-drums called moko,nad which have been commercialized in estern Indonesia until the beginning of the XX th century.
This unique kettle-drums own its name to the legend whih explain its origins.The Moon of Pejeng is said to be one of the wheel sof the Moon’s chariot( sasish means”moon” in Balinese) fallen on the earth at pejeng.A thief discovered that wheel and urinated on it: he dies consequent and the Moon of Pejeng losted its brightness.The oldest description of this kettle-drum has been published in 1705.It has been written by aGerman naturalist and clergyman called G.E Rumphius having worked of the Dutch East India Company.In 1906,W.O.J Nieuwenkamp,a ducthh traveler and painter,was exceptionally authorized to approach the kettle-drum,to manipulate and to draw it scientifically.
This exceptional piece is fully described and analysed in the books of the world’s best expert on kettle-drums,the archaeologist A.J. Bernet-Kempers.For instance in its Monument Bali/Introduction to Baliness Archaeology&Guide to the Monuments,Singapour:Periplus,1991