The Morphology and Distribution of Tube-Zithers in Southeast Asia

Roger Blench

MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, United Kingdom; rogerblench@yahoo.co.uk

The tube-zither is a highly distinctive musical instrument characteristic of Southeast Asia and the east coast of India. It is made from a bamboo internode, originally with strings made from the epidermis of the bamboo raised from the tube using bridges. The tube-zither has two major forms, either with two strings, laid flat and struck with sticks, often mimicking gong patterns, or else with multiple tuned strings, arranged around the tube and held vertically. Modern instruments often replace the vegetable fibre strings with metal. The distribution of these instruments correlates remarkably well with the distribution of two language phyla, Austroasiatic and Austronesian. The horizontal tube-zither is found in Northeast India and the coast of Odisha, as well as on the SE Asian mainland, corresponding to Austroasiatic, whereas the vertical instrument occurs throughout much of ISEA and spread to Madagascar with the earliest migrations across the Indian Ocean. Instruments made entirely of vegetable material are unlikely to preserve directly in the archaeological record, but from their synchronic distribution and morphological conservatism, we can use them as part of the reconstruction of material culture in its broadest sense.