Metalworkers have successfully cast the world’s biggest bronze drum at the private workshop of artisan Le Van Bay in the central province of Thanh Hoa’s Thieu Hoa district.

The drum weighs eight tones, measures two metres in height and has a surface diameter of 2.7m. It bears the decorative patterns of Ngoc Lu bronze drum, which belong to the Dong Son civilisation (700BC-AD100).

The casting process took leading artisan Le Van Bay and his team of assistants from Thieu Hoa district’s Che Dong village two months, from carving the mould to preparing its copper.

It will likely be completed by early November and exhibited at the locality before being displayed in front of the new National Assembly House in Hanoi.

The world’s current biggest bronze drum, cast in China, has a surface of 1.8m in diameter.

Artisan Le Van Bay also cast the biggest bronze drum in Southeast Asia in 2009. The drum is 1.51 metres tall and wieighs 739 kilograms.-VNA