Drum

Damaru Drum; The drum is made of two human skulls, with monkey skins stretched over and bound to the skulls with human hair. The whirling balls, which hit the taut surfaces when the drum is used, are made of the bones of a water bird's foot encased in cloth and wax.According to Buddhist holy texts, it is preferable that the skulls come from a boy of twelve and a girl of eight. One end of the drum would have been decorated with an eight petalled lotus and the other with a mandalla.Human skeletal material was commonly used in Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhist practice to demonstrate a lack of attachment to the physical world. The damaru drum has many functions: it acts as a memento mori, a reminder that life is fleeting and it's sound is believed to symbolise the resonance between the percussive bang and the silence that is Aum, the sound of creation. Its shape is also important, being composed of two inverted triangles, the upward pointing suggesting masculine qualities and the downward pointing suggesting feminine. At the point where they meet, all dualities merge, creating the oneness that gives rise to creation itself.