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Largest Bass Drum Made in Shanghai
China's largest bass drum , the Longhuagao Drum with a diameter of 3.2 meters , was made at the thousand-year-old Longhua Temple in Shanghai. People had the opportunity to beat it to mark the arrival of the year 2001, according to the latest Beijing Review.
Prior to the Longhuagao Drum, a bass drum in Shanxi Province with a 3.11-meter diameter was recorded as the largest.
The Longhuagao Drum consists of 108 pieces of wood from 108 specially selected poplars. The number is regarded as lucky according to Buddhism. It is 2.5 meters high and its head has a circumference of 10 meters. The diameter of its middle part is four meters with a perimeter of more than 12 meters. Its 0.88-meter-long drumsticks are called"double dragons playing with the pearl" because the heads are ball-shaped and the shafts have been sculpted with the images of dragons. When the drumsticks beat the drum, it sounds like thunder.
This drum is not only large in size , but also rich in culture. Professor Ma Chengyuan designed it in the ancient style. The handles contain Western Zhou Dynasty��1100 -771 BC�� dragon designs and other decoration includes Shang Dynasty ��1700 -256 BC�� ox god images. The drum rack follows the style of Tang Dynasty stone lions and its base was made with Buddhist cultural implications.
It took several years and millions of yuan to complete the drum. The two cattle skins for the drum cover were obtained in Henan and Shanxi provinces after a long search around the country. Craftsmen and experts from Shanxi , Henan and Zhejiang provinces completed the work together.
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