Long drums in the culture Ways, Wapipathum district Mahasarakham province

Abstract

The results of the study revealed that the use of long drums in Wapipathum district, Maha sarakham province took place in the long past and was passed down to younger generation ever since. The use of or playing the long drums for competition at the district’s annual Amazing Long Drum Playing Festival  (On son klong yao chao Wapi khong dee puen ban) began for the first time in 1996.The current situations and problems of using such instruments for cultural competition that affected economic, social and cultural aspects of the district under study. Currently, there were 4 groups of the long drum makers. The first group was Mr. Thiang Pintapakang. The rest were the groups of Ban Talard, Ban Kok, and Ban Chokkwang respectively. At the beginning, long drums were made quite roughly due to backward village technology. Later they adopted some machinery for making long drums with a fine and standard quality meeting the needs of most long drum cultural shows. There were more than 15 groups, the long drum players that offered 2 types of cultural shows. First, the cultural shows were performed on various Buddhist traditions, such as, the parades of kanlon, kathin, phapa, hanaga, sport events, local competitions; and second, the district’s annual Amazing Long Drum Playing festival.