The Thammettama is a Sri Lankan twin drum: two wooden drums bound side by side and struck from above with a pair of curved sticks. It is the sound of the temple and the procession, and one of the most recognisable voices in traditional Sri Lankan drumming. The Lakpura Thammettama is a full working instrument, supplied with its pair of sticks.
The two drums are voiced differently, one pitched high and the other low, and a player moves between them to build the rhythm. Only the top of each drum is covered with a hide head, held taut by leather straps that run down the turned wooden shell. Traditionally the shells are carved from Jak, Ehela or Kohomba wood, while the sticks, known as kadippu, are bent into a loop at the end and made from Kaduru wood.
Each part of the instrument has its own name. Alongside the body of the drum there are the mandama, the handabeya, the warapati, the kapum-hama and the weniwara-keralla, and finally the kadippu that bring it to life. Knowing these names is part of learning the drum in the Sri Lankan tradition, where the craft is passed from teacher to student.
The Thammettama is played in processions, at religious and cultural festivals and in Buddhist temple services that call for drumming. Particular rhythms have their own purposes, such as inviting monks to a pirith chanting ceremony or an almsgiving, or calling devotees to the temple for a special occasion. The drums are not struck with even pressure, and it is the shifting weight of each stroke that gives the Thammettama its distinctive sound.
This is a drum made to be played rather than only displayed, for a musician learning Sri Lankan rhythms or a collector of traditional instruments. As a handmade instrument of wood and hide, each one will vary a little in grain, colour and tone.
