Dan Da, a special lithophone of Vietnam's ethnic minority

A lithophone have exist 3000 years which was discovery in Đăck Lăck

Đàn đá is a lithophone played by Vietnam’s ethnic minority. The word “Đàn” mean musical intrument and “đá” is stone. It is made by stone, stone ,… nothing but stone.

Several stone of different sizes are placed in a row. The player uses a stick to knock these stones , each of which produces a different tone. Stone music sound like rhyth of the streams and bird songs.

Many groups of diferently pitched stones have been found in Vietnam, indicating that they were being used musically thousands of years ago. The first of these were famously uncovered by a Franch archealogist , Georges Codominas, in 1949.

Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands)

It results from the researches that Lithophone existed between 4,000 and 10,000 years ago.

In 1949, road workers discoveried 11 stones of diferrent sizes which were shaped fabricated throught an elementary technique at Đăk Lăk province.This is the first Đàn đá was found in Vietnam.
  

June 1950, Georger Condonias  , a French archealogist, brought these stones to Paris which is now kept in French museum.

July 1951, Georger Condonias published about lithophone which was discovered in Vietnam.

In 1956 the second Đàn Đá was discovered then a captain American brough this lithophone to America.

In 1979, many Vietnamese archaeologists started research Đàn Đá. Until 1990, they found more than 200 kinds of Đàn Đá in Đắck Lắck, Lâm Đồng, Khánh Hòa, etc.

Đàn đá have continued to be used by Vietnam’s ethnic minority , most of whom live in Tây Nguyên ( Central Highlands of Vietnam).