Dan Da (Musical instrument made of stone)

It is a kind of percussive instrument belonging to the class of xylophone, metallophone. Each instrument comprises of bars of stone, whose shape's are different and the bars are simply processed. Materials for producing "Dan Da" are available stones in mountains in the Southern of the central Vietnam and in the eastern of the South, such as tupriodacid, riolite, pocfia etc.

The remains discovered by the archaeology in Binh Dao (Dong Nai) show that "Dan Da" could be produced about 3000 years ago.

Till the early 1990s, about 200 bars of stone (for producing "Dan Da") were discovered in DakLak, Khanh Hoa, Dong Nai, Ninh Thuan, Song Be, Lam Dong, Phu Yen. Each group of bars comprised 3-15 bars. The first "Dan Da" which was discovered in Ndut Lieng Krak (DakLak) in 1945 has been kept at "The people" museum in Paris. Another "Dan Da" was dispatched to Los Angeles. The rests have been kept in Vietnam.

Sound produced by "Dan Da" is resounding and solemn, therefore, it is usually played in large festival in Tay Nguyen.